Callcentric inbound call quality raspy
SteveInWA:
Furthermore, with regard to your original call quality issue, this might just be a GV telco partner's network issue, unrelated to OBi or CC, OR, it might be a Callcentric/OBi issue. You need to isolate the problem source.
You can test the GV-->Chat client call quality by unplugging your OBis and instead, receiving calls on a computer web browser, logged into Gmail, or via Hangouts, using a headset or speakers and microphone.
If calls to the Chat/Hangouts client without OBi involved always sound fine, then log out, and plug in one of your OBis, and make a series of inbound calls from some other phone directly to your CC number, bypassing Google Voice/Chat entirely. Is every call clear? If not, that can be your next troubleshooting step. This assumes your ISP connection is highly reliable. That's another discussion. :-)
Next, as explained in my last post, you need to get things working with GV inbound calls going via Callcentric instead of the Google Chat client built into the OBi. Then evaluate call quality. If it is fine with direct CC calls, but flaky with GV-->CC->OBi calls, then it might be a GV-->CC telco issue, which you can't fix. There are no CODEC adjustments for GV; all calls use G.711, which is the only CODEC supported by Google Voice.
erkme73:
Thanks for the details. I was completely unaware of the additional groups & circles settings. I had three groups that still had Google Talk as a forward - the rest were all off. I made sure ALL of them are now off.
I could not find a per-contact setting for forwarded phones. Is that under GV or contacts in Gmail?
As for CC, I have no voicemail setup, and no forwarding of any kind. I disabled SP1 (GV), and when I call the CC number directly, it rings through on the OBi, but not via GV. When I call the GV number, with SP1 still disabled, it rings my cell phone, and my PC's Hangout notification of incoming call pops up - but OBi box is dark.
So, having re-enabled SP1, the only thing that I've changed at this point, was removing the additional layer of forwards under the groups & circles. Otherwise, everything else is as you said.
So, here's something interesting. Despite my Talk being disabled in the Phone forward and Group & Circles - when I get a call to my GV number, my PC's Hangout's notification pops up telling me XYZ is calling. Maybe it's that "third" level that I can't find that's still overriding my preferences...
SteveInWA:
OK, regarding the mysterious forwarding destination hierarchy: You'd never find the one for a contact, especially since Google borked things up by eliminating their original, GV-dedicated contacts interface and merged with the new and not improved Google-wide contacts system. The documentation hasn't been corrected to explain this, either. If you click on "Google Contacts" on your GV inbox page, then click on an individual contact, and then click on the mysterious three-headed person icon, a drop-down will appear, showing the various groups you have defined. These same groups show up on the "Groups & Circles" setting tab of GV Settings. In theory, you could assign some person, like "my annoying brother-in-law" to a group called "annoying callers", and then deselect that group. I doubt you did that...it's so complicated.
The key is that NO group or circle, and thus, no contact, should have Chat selected as a destination. In GV Groups and Circles Settings, edit every group's "When people in this group call you" setting to disable Chat, and to ENable all the other destinations (your cell phone and your Callcentric DIDs). Save every change.
Now, regarding your troubleshooting, there is something wrong with your GV settings. IF you set it up as I described, then Google Voice should call the OBi-enabled CC numbers, just like it is calling your cell phone. Go back to GV settings. You must have your CC numbers added as forwarding destinations on the Phones tab of settings, with check marks next to them. Click the Edit button, then click Advanced Settings. Make sure your "Ring schedules" are set to always ring the phone. SAVE your settings. Log out of ALL Google sessions everywhere: Gmail and GV on all computers, and all mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, etc). This includes any third-party apps like Talkatone, GrooVe IP or Mo+. Power-cycle your OBi. Try again.
erkme73:
I feel bad that you have to keep repeating yourself. I think I'm just not explaining it right.
So, from the top:
All forwarding to Google Talk turned off (at every level)
All browsers closed, OBi box power cycled
Only one OBi box connected
SP1 = GV connected
SP2 = CC DID
CC = no voicemail or forwarding options
External line calls CC number = OBi box rings (nothing in GV call log)
External line calls GV number = OBi box rings, cell phone rings, and Hangouts call notification on PC rings
Something is tying incoming calls to the GV number to the Hangouts. I am running a Chrome extension (Hangouts) which provides desktop notification above all other windows - but that shouldn't matter. GV should not be forwarding to Hangouts at all if your logic on the Google Talk forwarding is followed.
In either case, I think this is a separate issue from the call quality. Like I said originally, the call reliability works 100%. If someone calls my single/only GV number, both my OBi boxes and cell phone ring as they should. There's never been an issue where only one or none rang. So I'm confident that the CC DID's are setup correctly.
And for what it's worth, the PC ringing when I get calls to my GV number started only when I switched to the new Hangout interface in the Gmail web page (in Chrome). In doing so, the Google Chat dial pad disappeared, so I reverted back to the old Chat interface - and installed the Hangouts extension instead. But ever since, my PC rings with incoming calls. I think that's great. I appreciate being able to take calls on my PC or my OBi box.
SteveInWA:
OK, thanks for the clarifications. One way or another, I think we are now "on the same page" with regard to setup.
If I go back to your original post, and I now read these two sentences:
When I have GV forward to Google Chat and ring either OBi box directly, the call quality is perfect for the entire call.
There seems to be some sort of compatibility between using the callcentric free inbound calling service with the OBi hardware.
Then that tells me there is a problem between Google Voice's telco partner and Callcentric, limited to some, but not all connected calls to some, but not all CC numbers. It's not a "compatibility" issue as you mentioned. I have been using this method for a couple of years, and it works fine. It's some sort of telco network issue when the outbound call is being placed by Google, like this: your GV number is called, then Google routes that call to an outbound trunk on its telco partner's network, which then calls your CC number. You can't do anything about it. It may eventually "fix itself" if/when Google and its telco partner discover the problem with the trunk(s). This has happened before...Google isn't paying the big bucks for high-quality VoIP.
Speaking of which, to your other speculation: Hangouts does not necessarily use the same XMPP path as the old Chat clients. That is why it will always ring, regardless of your OBi or other Chat session(s) state, as long as you are logged in to Google. This is a new function, and in theory, for the moment, it should not interfere with OBi... This is another good reason to use a SIP provider as a forwarding destination instead of the built-in GV client in the OBi.
Hangouts working independently is not surprising, because Google announced that they'd be moving off of XMPP. However, as of today, we can't predict what sort of nightmare it will be if/when OBi turns off XMPP entirely. As discussed elsewhere, however, this is only speculation as of today. There is NO official word on if/when this will happen, only a mention by the guy in charge of the products including GV, that this is in their roadmap. My personal hope is that if Google does disable XMPP, then Obihai will find a way to work with Google to keep supporting GV, but again, nobody's talking right now. If not, we have plenty of good, inexpensive SIP providers to use.
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