I was hoping that the most vocal anti-portal person on this forum might respond and actually give some solid reasons for his dislike of the OBiTALK portal, but no such luck. Instead, it appears he feels it's a better use of his time to go around badmouthing Obihai in other forums on the web.
So here is a list of the reasons one might want to use the OBiTALK portal:
You have the ability to configure or reconfigure your device from a remote location, such as when you are away from home.
You have access to the Service Provider configurations built into the portal, which makes setting up your device to use certain VoIP services (including Google Voice) easy and quick.
You can apply firmware updates easily, even if you don't have access to a phone plugged into the device (if you do have access to the phone, it's probably easier to just dial * * * 6 and do the update that way).
If you are setting up an Obihai device for a friend or family member at a distant location and realize you need to make a configuration change, you can just do it without having to try to talk them through it over the phone and/or set up screen sharing software.
If you have multiple Obihai devices you can set up common speed dial numbers so they work from all your devices.
If you have an issue that requires the assistance of Obihai support, and you provide them with your 9-digit OBiTALK number, they may be better able to determine what is causing your issue, and in rare cases they may even be able to push beta software to your device that fixes the issue. I understand that a few people have a problem with this but I think the vast majority of people who report an issue would just like to see it fixed, and don't care if it takes a firmware upgrade to do it. After all, if you were having a problem with your cable modem, you'd probably be happy if your cable company pushed out new firmware that fixed the problem, well it's the same principle here. But since "no good deed goes unpunished", the fact that this is possible had led one forum member to make all sorts of wild and unproven accusations about a supposed "backdoor" in another forum (notably NOT in this one, where he tries to play a much different role).
Now here are a few reasons you might want to disable your OBi device's access to the portal:
You actually believe the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) being spread by our resident know-it-all, and are therefore willing to give up the other benefits of the portal strictly on his say-so. Welcome to the cult, the flavored soft drinks are in the back. Please put on this full-length robe and these lovely tennis shoes before you lie down...
You find using the portal inconvenient and are much happier configuring your device directly (yes, I know that in the portal it's a bit of a pain to have to uncheck the boxes first and then submit the page
before you can actually enter the changed value, and yes I know it's a bit annoying to actually enter the Expert Configuration mode in the first place, given that you have to click
three different buttons before it will let you in. I also realize those are all probably safety precautions to keep people from inadvertently doing bad things that will screw up their Obihai device, but they do seem like a bit of overkill).
You want to maintain separate speed dials on each of your devices, or, you don't like the default speed dials that Obihai assigns (and that there is no way to change from within the portal).
You are a "power user" that wants to get as close to the "bare metal" of your device as possible. On your Linux server you do everything from the command prompt, and you don't need any stinkin' GUI's that just get in your way!
You're part of the "tinfoil hat" crowd that sees a hacker (the bad kind) hiding behind every bush, just waiting to attack your OBi device, despite the fact that there are no documented cases of this ever happening. Maybe I shouldn't characterize all security conscious folks as tinfoil hat wearers, but seriously, the OBi devices have been on the market for over a year, and as far as I know there are ZERO documented cases of anyone breaking into an OBi device. That doesn't stop the FUD spreaders, though (by the way, you might ask if such folks have ever actually owned an Obihai device. On one forum, one of the biggest fear-mongers has never even owned an Obihai device, and is just repeating hearsay that he's heard from — guess who! It all traces back to the same person, who tries to play the role of "resident expert" here, even as he's bashing Obihai in another forum).
And the other valid reasons listed in previous posts in this thread...
The bottom line is it's entirely a matter of personal preference, but I still recommend that new users stick with the portal at least until they have their device configured the way they want it. The reason you haven't seen a thousand posts in this forum along the lines of "how can I configure my OBi device to use Google Voice" is because using the portal for configuration makes it so easy. Granted, there will always be a few people that have issues but that's true of ANY networked device — you can't control what people are using for routers or for their broadband connections. But once you have your device configured and it's working the way you want, then if it makes you happier to disable access to Obihai's servers, that's your choice to make. It's your device, after all.
