Obitalk dependancy

[Hortoristic]

So with recent outage, I had to adjust my thinking - I thought I did not have any dependcy on OBI website or service had to actually be up and running for my GV number to work on Obi device - any more than my Linksys router needs www.linksys.com to be up to work.

I guess I was wrong.  This leads me to another concern - at what point will OBI asking for $5 a month to support their service?  It's one thing to be lured to GV with a free service, realizing that downt the road if they charge and it's too much - I could simply port my GV number to another provider.  With OBI - if I don't like their prices or service - I have to also walk away from the hardware.

[Felix]

So with recent outage, I had to adjust my thinking - I thought I did not have any dependcy on OBI website or service had to actually be up and running for my GV number to work on Obi device - any more than my Linksys router needs www.linksys.com to be up to work.

I guess I was wrong. 

You were correct! OBI website provides additional capability to set up your device (so, in that sense it's much more than linksys.com) - but some people don't use it at all... and wouldn't notice if it went missing. So, you won't have to walk away from hardware any more than you would walk away from your router when linksys.com became cisco.com

[Hortoristic]

Are you saying even if  obi web site was down my device should work? Why did it fail earlier today and Web site was down, just coincidence?

[Felix]

Are you saying even if  obi web site was down my device should work? Why did it fail earlier today and Web site was down, just coincidence?

e-e-eh, yes! There are plenty posts on this forum that OBi (device) - Google Voice integration failed. My OBi100 where both lines were registered to SIP never failed. And, by the way, GV problems started way before portal went down.
What happened to OBiTalk website - and is it related to firmware update they pushed - I don't know. I wish OBi guys gave us update on it; but technically, it is unrelated to Google Voice problems

[A_Friend]

Until I registered for this site to be able to participate in the forum, I had never used the Obitalk site for anything.  The OBi100/110 is a complete self-sufficient ATA that doesn't need the website for anything, as long as you're not using Obitalk and are comfortable configuring your own device.  I migrated to it from another (Grandstream) ATA with my SIP account and set it up manually.

As it contains a full-featured web server you can log into on your own network, you've got easy access to all 6 trillion settings (well, probably less, but it seems like a lot).  The IVR menus also give you access to some of the settings.  The 160-page manual is pretty good, but a little jargon-heavy in spots and not great if you're not already familiar with some of the concepts. 

Adding GV to my setup and kibbitzing around with the dial plan/key maps gave me free outgoing calls on GV and one phone to receive both GV and SIP calls.  With yesterday's outage, I just used the Google Voice website to initiate the calls to my SIP account, the same way I did before I bought the OBi100 4 months ago.

I lost nothing in this scenario, except some frustrating time spent trying to get my OBi to reconnect to GV before I checked this forum to find this was a systemic problem.

Kudos to OBihai for quick response.  I contrast that with my experience with my Verizon landline last year.  It was out for days every time we had a heavy rain.  Some service box in a manhole was getting flooded.  The last time, it was out for FIVE WEEKS because a) there was a strike, and b) they had my phone on the list for repair in the wrong manhole.  I'm all VOiP now, and much happier, and richer for it, too.