Single phone for callcentric and landline ?

[cacophony]

I'd like to use callcentric for my outgoing calls but still receive incoming calls through my landline. Currently I have my callcentric/obi110 setup completely separate from my landline setup (ie two different phones), but I'm wondering if it's possible to set it up in such a way to have a single physical phone meet both those needs:

* If I pick up my phone to dial it makes the call via callccentric
* If somebody calls my landline number it will ring the same phone and allow me to take the call via my landline

Though not sure what would happen if I receive a landline call while on the phone via callcentric.... perhaps it can go straight to voicemail (either administered through ob110 or using the physical answering machine that's part of my phone)?

[RonR]

By default, all incoming calls ring the phone(s) connected to the OBi's Phone Port.  Therefore, incoming calls from a landline connected to the OBi's Line Port will automatically ring its phone.  All you should need to do is connect your landline to the OBi's Line Port.

I assume you already have PrimaryLine on your OBi set to the SPx Port that is Callcentric (PrimaryLine only affects outbound calling, not inbound calls).  Should you wish to place a call via the lanline instead, you would simply preface the number with **8.

If you're on either the landline or Callcentric and you receive an incoming call on the other, you'll receive a Call-Waiting indication and can answer the other call using the hook-flash.

You'll probably end up wanting all your phones connected to the OBi and none connected directly to the landline.

[cacophony]

Wow, so easy... thanks Ron!

If I don't answer another incoming call while the phone is in use does it just keep ringing until the caller hangs up? Any way to allow them to leave a message?

[RonR]

Yes, the call is simply not answered (and the caller is not charged for the call).

There's no voicemail capability in the OBi, but you can set a CallForward (Unconditional/OnBusy/OnNoAnswer) and have the call sent elsewhere, which could be a voicemail service, for example.

[cacophony]

All working well but one minor issue:

When somebody calls and leaves a message there are a bunch of noises that occur after they hang up:
Fast busy signal, followed by dial tone

Unfortunately all of that gets recorded at the end of each message... Any idea why this is happening or how to prevent it?

[RonR]

Are you simply allowing Google Voice's voicemail to take the message or did you get fancier with call forwarding or

If it's Google Voice taking the message because you aren't answering the call, then the OBi doesn't come into play and it's a problem with their voicemail not recognizing that the caller hung up.

[cacophony]

I'm not using Google Voice at all. Currently I have the landline hooked into the line port of the Obi110 and my phone/answering machine hooked up to the phone port. When I call out it uses callcentric. The exact setup you suggested above.

In the issue I'm describing I'm not using the phone when somebody calls, and it's the answering machine built into my phone that takes the message. In other words, somebody calls my landline and it rings my phone for 4 rings and then the answering machine picks up. When my phone/machine was plugged directly into my landline it recorded messages fine, but now that it's routed through the Obi110 5 seconds of extra noises get recorded after the caller has hung up.

[RonR]

OK, now I've got the picture.  Then it sounds like the OBi might not be recognizing that the caller hung up and consequently, is not dropping the bridge between the LINE Port and the PHONE Port.  Many answering machines tend to be dumb and hang up only on silence detection.  If the LINE and PHONE Ports stay bridged and the answering machine doesn't hang up, you'll get the junk you're hearing from the phone company (you can simulate it by not hanging up the phone after the person who called you does).  The OBi has a number of methods for detecting that the caller has hung up, but I haven't had to alter the default settings.  You might want to read up on the LINE Port's settings in the OBi Administrator Guide and experiment a little.  You can always put things back the way they were with the default checkboxes.

[cacophony]

Thanks Ron, I'll take a look.

[cacophony]

I figured out some settings that eliminate the noises (fast busy signal, dialtone) following the end of a message on my answering machine:

CPCDelayTime = 5 ms
CPCDuration = 800 ms

Hopefully this will help somebody else out in the future.