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voip.ms offline

Started by pranay, August 08, 2019, 10:45:17 PM

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pranay

Hi, I have gone through many forum links on this portal but still haven't been able to solve my problem. I installed my new OBi200 device yesterday and registered my voip.ms account with it and everything was working fine till today morning. When I got back home in the evening the status of my voip.ms on the Obitalk dashboard is showing offline. When I ring on my voip number I can see the phone icon on the Obi device flashing but the phone connected to it does not ring. I don't even get a dial tone anymore. I have enabled port forwarding and DMZ on my internet router but nothing has changed. Any help would be appreciated.

drgeoff

A powered up OBi should give dial tone to an off-hook phone irrespective of the Service Provider configuration or a network connection.  Even with nothing plugged in to the ethernet socket.  Until you get dial tone fiddling with port forwards, DMZ etc is pointless.

Has the phone always been plugged directly into the OBI's PHONE socket?  Do you now, or have you ever had the OBi connected to house phone wiring?

pranay

Hi drgoff, thanks a lot for the reply. Yes I have the house phone directly connected to the Obi. The phone I'm using is my apartment buzzcall phone. I have added a splitter on the phone jack on the wall. From the splitter, one line goes to the phone and other goes to the Obi200. It worked perfectly fine on the first day. I've even tried connecting the phone directly into the Obi but I don't get any dial tone anymore.
     I tried a factory reset. Now the phone LED is off. The phone port status on the local dashboard of Obi has no values at all. I read somewhere on the forum that these are symptoms of burned out phone port on the Obi device. But if that is the case then I wonder how the phone survived. Could you please guide me how to go about it? I'm completely clueless.

drgeoff

#3
Quote from: pranay on August 10, 2019, 06:04:21 PM
Hi drgoff, thanks a lot for the reply. Yes I have the house phone directly connected to the Obi. The phone I'm using is my apartment buzzcall phone. I have added a splitter on the phone jack on the wall. From the splitter, one line goes to the phone and other goes to the Obi200. It worked perfectly fine on the first day. I've even tried connecting the phone directly into the Obi but I don't get any dial tone anymore.
    I tried a factory reset. Now the phone LED is off. The phone port status on the local dashboard of Obi has no values at all. I read somewhere on the forum that these are symptoms of burned out phone port on the Obi device. But if that is the case then I wonder how the phone survived. Could you please guide me how to go about it? I'm completely clueless.
You have learnt the hard way not to connect the PHONE port of an OBi to anything other than a directly plugged in phone or fax machine unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Phones and the equipment they connect to are not a symmetrical system. Phones require about 50 volts coming in to them on the pair of wires. And when being rung the other equipment is applying about 80 volts AC to those wires. The OBi has circuitry to produce both of those. So does your apartment's buzzcall system. You have joined the two together in the splitter and killed the PHONE port of the OBi.

There is no cure except a new OBi. You are not entitled to a warranty replacement. The Quick Start Guide says:

"Important: Only an analog telephone or fax machine should be connected to the OBi PHONE port. Do not connect a cable from the PHONE port to a telephone jack powered by the phone company. Doing so may cause damage to the OBi electronics."

Get a separate second phone for use with an OBi.  Or if the existing buzzcall phone is absolutely ordinary (eg no special button for unlocking remote door) a 2-line phone might work - one line for the OBi and one for buzzcall.  I cannot guarantee that as some apartment systems use modified versions of the normal POTS protocols.

And in future remember that for all phone equipment - not just OBis - a splitter is ONLY for connecting more than one instrument to a SINGLE phone line and NEVER for use to combine lines.

pranay

Quote from: drgeoff on August 11, 2019, 01:34:55 AM
Quote from: pranay on August 10, 2019, 06:04:21 PM
Hi drgoff, thanks a lot for the reply. Yes I have the house phone directly connected to the Obi. The phone I'm using is my apartment buzzcall phone. I have added a splitter on the phone jack on the wall. From the splitter, one line goes to the phone and other goes to the Obi200. It worked perfectly fine on the first day. I've even tried connecting the phone directly into the Obi but I don't get any dial tone anymore.
    I tried a factory reset. Now the phone LED is off. The phone port status on the local dashboard of Obi has no values at all. I read somewhere on the forum that these are symptoms of burned out phone port on the Obi device. But if that is the case then I wonder how the phone survived. Could you please guide me how to go about it? I'm completely clueless.
You have learnt the hard way not to connect the PHONE port of an OBi to anything other than a directly plugged in phone or fax machine unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Phones and the equipment they connect to are not a symmetrical system. Phones require about 50 volts coming in to them on the pair of wires. And when being rung the other equipment is applying about 80 volts AC to those wires. The OBi has circuitry to produce both of those. So does your apartment's buzzcall system. You have joined the two together in the splitter and killed the PHONE port of the OBi.

There is no cure except a new OBi. You are not entitled to a warranty replacement. The Quick Start Guide says:

"Important: Only an analog telephone or fax machine should be connected to the OBi PHONE port. Do not connect a cable from the PHONE port to a telephone jack powered by the phone company. Doing so may cause damage to the OBi electronics."

Get a separate second phone for use with an OBi.  Or if the existing buzzcall phone is absolutely ordinary (eg no special button for unlocking remote door) a 2-line phone might work - one line for the OBi and one for buzzcall.  I cannot guarantee that as some apartment systems use modified versions of the normal POTS protocols.

And in future remember that for all phone equipment - not just OBis - a splitter is ONLY for connecting more than one instrument to a SINGLE phone line and NEVER for use to combine lines.
Thanks a lot for explaining me what went wrong with my setup. But the only purpose I bought the Obi200 was to be able to receive my apartment buzz call on my cellphone. I must mention that when I receive buzzcall I have to press 6 on the keypad to open the door therefore I think when I'd receive the same call on my cellphone, my cellphone would send the same DTMF (or touchtone) back to the system. Would having a two line phone solve the purpose? I think with two line phone which has incoming lines from Obi and my buzz sytem, I would only be able to answer calls from both the system and won't be able to forward my buzzcall on my cellphone. Correct me if my understanding about this is wrong. If so, could you please give me a solution to forward my buzzcall to my cellphone using Obi?

pranay

Ok I think OBiLINE device could solve my problem. But it connects to the USB port of the OBi200 which means I won't be able to use my USBWiFi and unfortunately my router is on the other end of the room.

drgeoff

Provided the buzzcall sufficiently well mimics a telco line, an OBi212 (plus OBiWiFi or OBiWiFi5G) will do what you want.

After configuring your chosen ITSP on SP1, modify the LINE port InboundCallRoute to

ph,sp1(1234567890)

but using your cellphone number in place of 1234567890

Incoming calls from the buzzcall will ring both the phone on the OBi's PHONE port and your cellphone. Either can answer and send a DTMF keypress.

pranay

Quote from: drgeoff on August 11, 2019, 12:24:40 PM
Provided the buzzcall sufficiently well mimics a telco line, an OBi212 (plus OBiWiFi or OBiWiFi5G) will do what you want.

After configuring your chosen ITSP on SP1, modify the LINE port InboundCallRoute to

ph,sp1(1234567890)

but using your cellphone number in place of 1234567890

Incoming calls from the buzzcall will ring both the phone on the OBi's PHONE port and your cellphone. Either can answer and send a DTMF keypress.

Awesome. Thanks a lot drgeoff, I truly appreciate it.