Holy cow! What a frustrating install of a OBI202

[ronstory]

OK, I have no idea how folks do this without background in computers.

First I setup the Google Voice, and then order the obi202 from Amazon.  The obi202 arrived on time and this weekend I did the install. 

Friday:
Following the tutorial on the obitalk site, I got the account setup with no issue.  However, trying to add the obi202 device, it would not connect to the server when I tried to do the **5 xxxx to let the backend know that a new device was being added.  When I tried to connec with the phone I would get a 5 sec pause, the this really weird digital 'static' blip noise and the a dial tone.  However, the call would not go though. 

So I power cycled, no luck.  I then reset the device to factory defaults and then power cycle a couple of time, and got the add device with **5 to work.  However, when tried to add the google voice SIP 1 connection, the device constanty said 'not configured' on the obitalk portal.   So I waited. And waited. 10 mins... no joy.  So I went to dinner. I came back and still not conifgured so I deleted the device and started over.  The **5 worked after three tries, and still no connection when I setup the GV, got the not connected.  So I read *all* faqs... and then notice a faq that said you needed to make one call with GV before it could connect.  I did that on the GV website, still no connection. 

[ronstory]

OK... this forum SW seems to do some weird scrolling/refresh when the message gets long.  I'll break into separte posts.

Saturday:

I get up, get coffee and then crank up obitalk to try and continue the debug.  When I login to Obitalk, I now says the GV is connected!  Green Icon!  Woo-hoo!  Then I try and use it, no dial tone. Drat.

So I cycle the power, it reconnects to obitalk and then I get intermittant dial tone.  Sometime it works, sometime it doesn't.  But i notice that there is a FW update available.  OK, so I click the Obitalk FW update triangle.  It says it's doing the update.  Cool!  3-4 mins go by and it says 'FW update failed, try later".  So I try a couple of more times, no joy.

Then I read the link/manual and the alternate way is to use the attendant.  So I ***6, it says there is an update available, so I tell it to do the update, it tells me to hang up to start the update. So I hang up and wait.  Nothing. No red light. 

OK, so now I'm thing that maybe my DD-WRT router is blocking some needed ports.  Dig through the faqs and get a list of outgoing ports and one incoming port.  So I add that to the port forwarding ranges in DD-WRT.   No luck, still can't do the FW update. 

So download the FW from the Forum, then try update using the WAN connector and obitalk.  No workie. So give up, head out to work party.

[ronstory]

Sunday:

OK, let's try the FW update via the devices internal webpage.  Oh, wait the faq says it need to enable web admin for WAN so I do the ***0 and 30# trick and get it enabled.  I then go to the sys admin page, browse to the fw udpate fine and click 'update'.  No red light, no FW update. 

So I get annoyed, yank the device off the network and then plug it into a laptop via the LAN (I was using the WAN) connection and let the laptop get a DHCP address from the obi200, and then I go into the webpage with 192.168.10.1 interface.  From there, I click the FW update and it the power light goes red flashing.  Woo-hoo!!  This upgraded me from 3.0.0 Biuld 3184M to 3460. 

I reinstall the device in the network (using the WAN connection) and connect up the phone and now it works fine.  (whew). 

Since the issue I seemed to be fighting was the crappy default FW build 3184, I went into the DD-WRT and disabled that pile of port forwarded needed per the faq, reboot the router and everything still works. 

So you don't need to make any changes to DD-WRT for opening ports if you are using v24.sp2 build 16785.  Other releases may work as well, but I just have a sample size of 1. ;^)

[ronstory]

OK, so my recommendation of configuring the obi202 after 3 days of debug:

UPDATE the FIRMWARE FIRST!!

Don't try and use the fancy obitalk portal, the WAN port across your home network, etc... just take the device out the box, download the lastest FW, and then use the web page update via the LAN connector (not the WAN) at 192.168.10.1 and get the latest FW on it. 

Had I done this, I would have saved me a lot of time and frustration.  YMMV, good luck and maybe wear safety glasses. ;^)

Thanks,
Ron

[MikeHObi]

I assume when you say WAN port you mean the port marked Internet vs the one marked LAN.  At least my OBI202 has no WAN port indicated.

Sorry that you had issues.  Mine was just plug in, and it worked.  I also use DD-WRT.  I don't recall any particular issues with Google voice, though I've been using it since it first became available in beta from google so I may have done something automatically that is less than obvious for someone new.

I followed the quick start guide that came with the Obi, making sure I could dial and connect to the obi number in the document.  (found here: http://www.obihai.com/docs/OBi202QSG.pdf)
If that works, it proves that your obi can talk to the network.  If it can't do that, google voice has no chance of working.

It may be at that time that I also updated the firmware.  There are notes that you should update firmware in the document titled "OBi Device Set-Up for Google Voice™ Using the OBiTALK Portal".
Following the steps from page 6 of this document http://www.obihai.com/docs/GoogleVoiceOBiTALK.pdf then lead me through the config of the obi for the google voice number.

If things don't match these documents during setup, I would be tempted to think that perhaps the obi you have is not configured to the defaults.  Perhaps it was a reman unit, or a returned unit (amazon fulfillment has done that before for other products) that someone already mis-configured.  The obi webpage has some options under expert config to reset obi expert config, and revert to obitalk.  One or both might help in the case of a mis-configured Obi.

[ronstory]

Yes, I should have used the term "internet" port and not the WAN.  Got to used to DD-WRT nomenclature. ;^)

Also, with the original3184M FW that came installed, it would give me the 'green' icon on the Obitalk portal and say the GV is connected, but the **9 222 222 222 would not connect.  However, with the latest 3460... no issues at all.

Again, my take is check the FW version and update if need before attempting anything and do the reset procedure.   Use the LAN connection to 192.168.10.1 and update to the latest FW via the built in  web page and then the hard reset.  Had I done that I would have completed install in less than an hour, rather that losing 6 hours of my life over 3 days. 

Also, I have both Vonage and Comcast VOIP at home, and I've notice that using either of GV lines that it has a noticable delay to making the connection and a bit of lag on audio.  If I use the Vonage line, it will connect to the the work's audio bridge and I won't even get a ring tone.  However with the GV connection I will get 1 or sometimes 2 rings tone before it connects. 

With the DD-WRT, I just enabled QoS for the IP address of the Obi202, so let's see if it helps with lag on audio.

Thanks,
Ron

[zapattack]

GV is not a 'real' telephone company and does not handle calls in the traditional manner.
The ring you hear merely means that enough digits have been received to process the call. It has NOT
actually connected like a regular land line. That is why you may hear several rings on a BUSY line before
receiving busy tone.   You also may not hear some standard recorded announcements, such as
this NY area number 631-265-0000.