Using Google Voice Call Screening

[flipdee]

Hey everyone, another quick question.
Is it possible to use my obi110 to send calls coming into the PSTN line port to GV in order to utilise GV's call screening/voicemail?

i.e.

Incoming Call (CID) > PSTN Line - OBi110 > GV (Call Screening/White List/Black List) > OBiTalk Numbers (Huntgroup) And/Or OBi110 Phone Port (CID) > If there is no Answer connect to Google Voicemail.

This may be a bit of an ask, but if anyone knows if it can be done your help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

flipdee

Sorry, I meant to say, Is there anyway to retain Caller ID (CID) along the way with this configuration?

[MichiganTelephone]

I'm pretty sure this would NOT be possible and here is why:

You could indeed take the incoming calls from your PSTN line and send them to your Google Voice account, BUT, since the calls would appear to be coming from the same account associated with the Google Voice number, you would essentially be giving callers the ability to listen to your voicemail or to place outgoing calls from your Google Voice account!  Probably NOT what you intend.

Even if you could totally disable Google Voice's voicemail (which you cannot), because the call is being placed from your Google Voice account, it would show the Caller ID number of the Google Voice account.  But that's only hypothetically speaking because Google Voice doesn't allow you to turn off their voicemail.

The only way I could envision this working the way you want is if you also had a SIP account with a provider that will actually pass the caller ID you send (many won't).  You could then send the PSTN call to that SIP provider with the destination your Google Voice number, and it would send the call out to Google Voice, which would then presumably send it back to you.  Of course, that would not be free.

The only other alternative would be to actually port your current number to Google Voice, assuming that's even possible (which if it's a landline, it may not be, but even if it is possible it's a rather convoluted and somewhat costly process — the instructions are elsewhere in this forum — and once you do it then Google Voice basically has your number).  Or you could port your landline to a SIP provider and forward it from there to your Google Voice number, if you wanted more control.  But any solution involving a SIP provider will have you paying per-minute and/or monthly charges.

There might be another solution that I'm overlooking, but if so it's not coming to me right now.

[flipdee]

Hi MichiganTelephone,
Thanks a lot for your reply.
I thought this might be a tricky/impossible one.
Maybe this would be a over the top suggestion but if the OBi110's GV account was different to the GV account being used for call screening/voicemail, do you think this would open up the possibilities?
I know an asterisk box in between would do everything for you ruling out the need for GV.
Can GV accept calls from SIP clients without going via PSTN, e.g. on a xxxxxxxxx@gv.com ?

flipdee

I also had a thought, Can you spoof CID when sending calls to GV from the OBi110 so GV treats calls as if they are arriving on the PSTN side?

[jimates]

You cannot spoof caller id when using google voice. Even if you used 2 google voice accounts, the call sent from the Obi will always carry the caller id of the google voice account it is sent on.

[Stewart]

Possibly, VoxOx will meet your needs -- you can get a free iNum for the VoxOx account and send the calls to e.g. SP2(YourVoxOxiNum@sip.inum.net), with spoofing enabled for SP2.  There may be non-free solutions that would work better.  You should also consider the quality/latency/reliability degradation that may result from a complex call path.

Please tell us a little more about your requirements.  What country is the OBi in?  Will most of the calls that pass whitelist or screening be taken at the Phone port?  Where will other calls be answered?  Approximate monthly minutes?  Approximate sizes of whitelist and blacklist? (You can do some of that in the OBi itself.)

[flipdee]

Hi Stewart, jimates,
Thanks for your help with this one.
Stewart, I believe the location is the problem in this scenario. The obi110 will be in the UK.
I'm trying to achieve the nearly impossible I think, in order to give a semi-non-techie a way of screening out unwanted calls, the GV looks like the easiest all in one interface.
The issue really is the location, in having to bridge the UK pstn line to the GV USA number.
I suppose when GV finally reaches the UK it could be used in a much more reliable manner.

In response where screening will take place, for user friendly reasons it would be great for it all to take at GV, but I do understand why it us now preferable to happen at the obi.
It would be lovely if the obi could either check the GV white/black list in real time or keep a local copy that was kept in sync periodically.
Although, it's really the audio screening that is the killer feature as most unwanted callers will hide their cid..
So to use GV for everything but the white list may be a big ask.
Thanks again for your thoughts on this one.
My next best move may be to look for a how to on setting up freepbx or piaf as a substitute to GV, all features substituted locally on a thin client, although the cloud, one interface, hard to replicate.
flipdee

[Stewart]

Even if you get it to function correctly, IMO you won't be happy routing calls through GV.  They'll be going twice over 8 time zones -- quality will be degraded and latency will be awful.  Besides, while being selective about what calls ring your phone is a good idea, I don't see much value in screening schemes that involve a decision made by the callee; you still get disturbed on unwanted calls.

An example of a compromise solution, which adds no delay to calls between humans:

Set the OBi to fork incoming Line port calls to both a free Callcentric account and the Phone port, with the Phone port ringing delayed by three seconds.  Callcentric's Call Treatments are set to send "good" calls to a busy singal (the Phone port will ring and CC will not be in the path) and "bad" calls to voicemail (the Phone port will not ring).  During night hours, callers in the CC phonebook are good and all others are bad.  During the day, anonymous and blacklisted callers are bad and all others are good.

[flipdee]

Thanks Stewart,
I hadn't thought of a approach which delays the phone port ringing while another service does some call screening in the background
I believe that for certain groups of users, to give a solution which keeps the end user in "control" the screening option, while they are still "disturbed" by an unwanted call, the worst they are subjected to is a recording of the unwanted caller's name and then giving them the option to answer or hang up.
Another reason I am keen on the screening method is, under certain circumstances a legitimate caller may get dropped by a "non-screening" method, i.e they are with holding their cid without malicious intent.

I'm going to drop a post onto the PBXinaFlash Forum to see if anyone has setup an asterisk server to mimic gv screening features.

I'll give the callcentric option a go, this could be a "lite" screening option for slightly more confident end users.

Thanks again,
flipdee

[CarlAron]

This works for me... I have my Verizon phone line set to forward ALL calls to my Google Voice number.

My Google Voice setup is set NOT to ring ANY Phone... neither the home phone number nor "Google Chat" (my Obi).

Then I have all the people I want to hear from in my Contacts, placed in Groups (Friends, Family, etc.), and those Groups are set to ring Google Chat.. NOT my phone.

My phone at home is hooked up to an Obi110 .. with GoogleVoice on SP1, and Verizon on the Line Port.

So all incoming calls go first to GV and only ring the phone, via Obi if they belong to a Contact Group that is set to ring Google Chat. All others go straight to voicemail.

All outgoing calls on the phone use the POTS line (Verizon) because I set SP1 to NOT be the primary outgoing line. So my friends see my real number when I call them, and 911 will know where to come if I call.

It all works well enough for screening, but I have a few issues with the VoiceMail indicator, which I discuss in another thread.

My wife is concerned about missing calls from people we haven't added, so I may need to work something out with rules to to screen the "Anonymous", and "Private Number", and "Unknown" calls that come through, while allowing other numbers that we don't have in Contacts to ring the phone...

[MySpoonsTooBig]

Sorry, I meant to say, Is there anyway to retain Caller ID (CID) along the way with this configuration?

I'm in the same pickle. I've currently got the PSTN line forwarding to GV via CallCentric on SP2 by setting LINE->InboundCallRoute->SP(MYGVPHONENUMBER). This works great, except that all calls show up on GV and on the Caller ID as my outgoing CallCentric number.

I read that using sip calling would pass the Caller ID. GV no longer supports SIP calling, so I was planning on using "sp2(1777MYCCID@in.callcentric.com)" or, failing that, "sp2(MYINUM@sip.inum.net)". Then on CallCentric I set up all incoming to forward to my GV phone number.

Direct SIP is not working for me. When I try in.callcentric.com I get an error "End Call (483 Too Many Hops)". This seems to indicate that CallCentric is not honoring my forwarding request, though it does when I call the number from an outside line. So as a plan-B I tried calling my iNum that goes through CallCentric. The first time I tried it I got "End Call (503 Unavailable)" and then "End Call (500 Service Unavailable)" thereafter. Just as a sanity check, I used the echo test number for iNum (883510000000091@sip.inum.net) and it worked splendidly. I also manually called my iNum number using an outside line and it correctly forwarded to GV.

Any suggestions from the helpful folks here? Thanks!

[MySpoonsTooBig]

Replying to my own post...

I forwarded to GV for a while, and the PSTN->Callcentric->GV->Obi route just added way too much latency. The call quality was fine, but it was like using a walkie talkie. I finally gave up and just wait 4 rings before sending it through Callcentric to GV. At that point, GV goes straight to voicemail... I have my Callcentric number set that way on GV.

I'd love to hear a way to filter my PSTN line through GV if anyone has a method that works

[Stewart]

Please describe what kind of filtering you'd like to do.

One possibility is to have a small whitelist in the OBi itself, routing e.g. a dozen frequent contacts directly to the Phone port (and GV or other provider's filtering/voicemail after a delay).

If your landline has call forwarding, perhaps leave it permanently forwarded to a VoIP provider.  Or, you might want to port the number to a reputable provider, getting lifeline service with another number for reliable 911 access and as a backup.

I don't know why your in.callentric.com forwarding wasn't working, but you might try setting X_DnsSrvAutoPrefix, or sending to 1777xxxxxxx@in.callcentric.com:5070

What city are you in?  If you're in the West, Callcentric is not the best choice, latency wise, because they proxy all traffic through their New York servers.