Pros and Cons of using OBiTALK Provisioning and OBiTALK portal for configuration
MichiganTelephone:
I wonder if it would be possible to have a thread that explains to new users the pros and cons of enabling or disabling OBiTALK Provisioning. As we all know there are certain people who have been advising users (including new users) to disable OBiTALK Provisioning (under System Management | Auto Provisioning on their device). And as some of you know I feel this is a huge mistake, especially for new users, because you lose the benefit of being able to use the OBiTALK portal to configure your device. I could understand how this was valid advice before Obihai introduced the "OBi Expert Configuration" mode in the portal, but now that it is available and you can change almost every setting on an OBi device from there, I see no benefit whatsoever in disabling OBiTALK Provisioning. Unfortunately, in the past when I have brought this up, the thread tends to degenerate pretty quickly, because honestly there are one or two participants in this forum that I don't care much for and I'm sure the feeling is mutual. But if we could possibly put that aside, for the benefit of new users, I was wondering if anyone would care to make the care for or against OBiTALK provisioning?
My hope would be that if we can get intelligent and non-inflammatory comments from both sides, this thread could be made into a sticky so that a new user could read it and get some idea of what the pro and cons are, and make an informed decision on whether to leave OBiTALK provisioning enabled or to disable it. Surely those who advocate disabling it must have their reasons, so I'd invite them to articulate those reasons here, and those who favor leaving the provisioning enabled could also respond. In that way, if a new user chooses to disable the OBiTALK provisioning or to leave it enabled, they'll be making an informed decision, and not just doing it because someone on the forum told them to do this or that.
This is just a experiment to see if this can be debated in a reasonably civil manner. To that end, I won't say anything more until others have had a chance to make their case. You don't have to write a long treatise; even a couple of explanatory sentences that articulate your reasoning one way or the other would be helpful.
Ostracus:
Well one comes to mind. The reliability (up time) of the portal.
jimates:
Quote from: Ostracus on April 02, 2012, 01:22:32 pm
Well one comes to mind. The reliability (up time) of the portal.
I have had 3 Obi's in service for 15 months. I make many changes and experiment a lot. I always use the portal, and I have never encountered a problem with it. 100% access is always going to go to the device but it isn't like the portal has ever been down for days at a time.
I am sure that once anyone becomes comfortable and familiar with the Obi they will venture away from the portal at some point, if for no other reason just for curiosity. But I do not agree with directing a newbie away from the portal just because you don't like it.
QBZappy:
1) Call history limited to the last 10 calls on the portal
2) Speed dial on the unit web page limited to number only (no name field)
3) I find the "red exclamation marks", "Check boxes" and "*" on the portal to be confusing
4) Can not change OBi from 10 to 100 Duplex setting via the portal (to be fair, you can not change it on the unit web page either)
5) Portal has lagged behind the OBi when a new firmware is released
6) Not certain you can modify voice prompts from the portal
Some differences between the two methods that I can think of. I think that the portal is mostly useful for managing a far away OBi. Personally I prefer to configure the unit directly. However I can see how new users would benefit from the preconfigured settings for Google voice and some of the sponsoring SIP providers.
QBZappy:
RonR,
The silence is deafening. :D
Sound of silence
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