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Set up google voicemail?

Started by Lostdog, June 15, 2012, 08:38:51 PM

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Lostdog

I'd like to know how to set up google voicemail.

I've successfully ported my number to google and configured everything according to the "Google Voice™ Setup with an OBi Device" tutorial.  I can now make and receive phone calls from my home phone AND have my cell phone ring at the same time!  GREAT!

But... my google voicemail never picks up when I call my home line, no matter how many times it rings.  What have I done wrong?  I searched the tutorials, FAQs and forums and can't find anything...

I would also like to be able to access my voicemail from a remote line, like a cell phone or office phone.

Thanks!

pc44

Hi Lostdog,

You mentioned, "But... my google voicemail never picks up when I call my home line, no matter how many times it rings."  What happens when you dial your Google Voice number?  Does the call eventually go to your GV voicemail?

Don't forget that if you are calling your home line (a landline number), that number is not necessarily set up for GV voicemail.  Dialing your GV number should provide you with GV voicemail services.

Make any sense? Or, am I totally misunderstanding you here?
pc44

Rick

Quote from: Lostdog on June 15, 2012, 08:38:51 PM
I'd like to know how to set up google voicemail.

I've successfully ported my number to google and configured everything according to the "Google Voice™ Setup with an OBi Device" tutorial.  I can now make and receive phone calls from my home phone AND have my cell phone ring at the same time!  GREAT!

But... my google voicemail never picks up when I call my home line, no matter how many times it rings.  What have I done wrong?  I searched the tutorials, FAQs and forums and can't find anything...

I would also like to be able to access my voicemail from a remote line, like a cell phone or office phone.

Thanks!


Does your Google Voicemail pickup when you call your home number from your home number?  If yes, then your voicemail works.

Then your issue would be what phone you're using to call your home number, i.e. is it a phone that you forwarded your GV to?  So you'd be calling your cell with your cell, and stuck in cell limbo...  Maybe?

Lostdog

Rick is right.  My google voice number is my home number (voip, no landline) and I have it set up to forward calls to my cell phone... which I was using to try to test the voicemail!  I had my wife call the home number from work and google voicemail DID pick up after five rings.

I guess this means if I forward calls to my cell, I can't call home and leave messages for my family?

Stewart

Quote from: Lostdog on June 19, 2012, 02:37:25 PMI guess this means if I forward calls to my cell, I can't call home and leave messages for my family?
In GV Settings, Phones tab, in the entry for your cell phone, click Edit.  On the Edit page, click Show advanced settings.  Under "Direct access to voicemail ...", click No then click Save.

Lostdog

I already did that during setup.  Direct access, No.  Just checked, still no.

The weird thing is that when I unplug the Obi and call my home number, I DO get google voicemail.  It only fails with the Obi plugged in.  So how does that make sense?

Stewart

When the OBi is working normally and you call it from your cell phone, does the phone attached to the OBi continue to ring after 25 seconds?  If so, does your cell phone show that it is still connecting, or is it (falsely) counting connected time?  Also, if you answer the home phone after e.g. six rings, do you actually get connected and can talk?

Does your cell phone number appear in any GV Groups or Circles?  If so, treated how?


Lostdog

When the OBi is working normally and you call it from your cell phone, does the phone attached to the OBi continue to ring after 25 seconds?  Yes

If so, does your cell phone show that it is still connecting, or is it (falsely) counting connected time?
Still Connecting (ringing)

Also, if you answer the home phone after e.g. six rings, do you actually get connected and can talk?
Yes and Yes

Does your cell phone number appear in any GV Groups or Circles?  If so, treated how?

I'm unfamiliar with "GV Groups or Circles", but I... don't think so...  I haven't imported any Contacts, so that is empty.  When I click on the Groups & Circles tab of Google Voice there are four columns.  The "Forwards To" column says "N Johnson, Google Talk" all the way down.  The "Greeting" column says "New Custom Greeting" all the way down.  "Call Screening" is "Off" all the way down.



Stewart

Sorry, but I'm stumped.

As a possible workaround, try blocking caller ID from your mobile (dialing *67 before the number) and see whether voicemail picks up.

For further troubleshooting, try shutting down the OBi and having GV ring into Gmail.  If you still have the same issue, then the problem is unrelated to the OBi and perhaps you can get help from GV support or forum.

I can't help but be amused at this problem.  Many folks on this forum are very annoyed by GV voicemail answering after 25 seconds, no matter what.  They dearly want a way to have longer to answer the phone, or to use their own answering machine (without having it answer on the second ring).  For the one guy who has this "feature", it's a problem :(

Lostdog

#9
SOLVED!

I had the same cell phone that I'm forwarding calls to from GV listed in ObiTALK as a "Trusted Caller".  So when I called home, it went through the Obi Attendant and rang and rang without Google Voicemail ever picking up.  I DELETED my cell phone from the Trusted Caller list, then turned off and turned on my Obi 100.  Boom, voicemail worked again.  I tried the process again to see if it was repeatable, and it was.  So that's the answer.  

Stewart, Hero Member, I did try your *67 trick and it WORKED.  It was kind of funny, as I was waiting for Google Voicemail to pick up, a mysterious "Unknown" caller was trying to call me at the same time!  (Who could that have been?)  I noticed that I wasn't going through the Obi Attendant, which is what made me stumble onto the solution.  So thanks!

And, as for the other tests, when I tried calling my home line with the Obi turned off, I could reach voicemail and both make and receive calls from my computer.

Thanks for all your help!  And that goes for pc44 and Rick as well!  Cheers!

P.S.  For anyone who stumbles onto this thread trying to figure out this stuff,  I found this Google voicemail phone menu Quick Reference Guide helpful.


_David_

Quote from: Lostdog on June 20, 2012, 02:51:06 PM
SOLVED!

I had the same cell phone that I'm forwarding calls to from GV listed in ObiTALK as a "Trusted Caller".  So when I called home, it went through the Obi Attendant and rang and rang without Google Voicemail ever picking up.  I DELETED my cell phone from the Trusted Caller list, then turned off and turned on my Obi 100.  Boom, voicemail worked again.  I tried the process again to see if it was repeatable, and it was.  So that's the answer.  

Stewart, Hero Member, I did try your *67 trick and it WORKED.  It was kind of funny, as I was waiting for Google Voicemail to pick up, a mysterious "Unknown" caller was trying to call me at the same time!  (Who could that have been?)  I noticed that I wasn't going through the Obi Attendant, which is what made me stumble onto the solution.  So thanks!

And, as for the other tests, when I tried calling my home line with the Obi turned off, I could reach voicemail and both make and receive calls from my computer.

Thanks for all your help!  And that goes for pc44 and Rick as well!  Cheers!

P.S.  For anyone who stumbles onto this thread trying to figure out this stuff,  I found this Google voicemail phone menu Quick Reference Guide helpful.



Thanks for the guide!

Yet another way... Rather than cut-n-paste my reply to a similar thread... here's the post.

rgds,
David

jimates

It would be great if the Obi had a setting to auto answer all calls and still deliver them to the phone port. This would take google voicemail out of the loop.

There are many people that only use google voice for home service, with no other forwarding phones. They would love to have a way to bypass google's voicemail and have the phone ring long enough for them to get to it, and also to continue the use of their answering machine.

I guess with an extra open line on the Obi one could set up another service that has free incoming calls and forward the calls to it, which would ring the phone port.

stewart, what is the cheapest service to use for that? And is there a way to pass the original caller id with the second call, perhaps using a sip address for the Obitalk Service to forward to, instead of a regular DID.

Stewart

Quote from: jimates on June 28, 2012, 02:43:34 PM
It would be great if the Obi had a setting to auto answer all calls and still deliver them to the phone port.
I'm confused.  I read posts indicating that you invented a scheme that eliminates GV voicemail altogether, so doing that and simply routing SP1 to ph should be all that's needed.

Setting up another DID that GV rings to, with the OBi registered to that service, does not by itself solve the problem.  That's because the service would not normally signal "answer" on the DID, until the OBi phone was picked up.  So, the GV voicemail timer would continue to run, and the caller would still be transferred to voicemail after 25 seconds.

You could use VoxOx which gives FAS (false answer supervision).  It's free but IMO not the most reliable, and also has some technical issues such as not passing DTMF.

Anveo (and probably some others) can be set up to answer the line and then ring the OBi.  A Personal Unlimited US DID is $1.99/mo.; there are also other DID options.

Of course, any scheme that gives a fake answer would preclude having GV fork the call to other destinations.  If desired, forking could be done in VoxOx (free) or Anveo ($0.01/min. to US destinations).

jimates

I didn't invent a scheme, I just happened upon a configuration that does it.
I can not guarantee that I can replicate my bypass of google voice every time. Just wishing something more simple were available. I haven't tested my findings again because it requires transferring to new gmail accounts. I did try it with my sons google voice account without any luck. I use my own domain for mail at google, not sure if that has any bearing or not.

I understand that google would not be able to fork calls, this would be for those that do not use google voice for anything other than to ring their Obi at home.

NetTalk answers all call that come in to it, and then forks or forwards the calls as per the settings. I had one and could not use it as a forwarding phone on google voice because of that.