OBI110, UK PSTN Call Barring - Take 2

[ukuser]

My OBI 110 has been blocking telepests for months now with this setting.
Physical Interfaces->Line Port->InboundCallRoute: {(0|00[0-79]x.|01612448121|02070609904|08009777600|08446882753|02070605576):},{ph}

Sadly, because the call is never answered, my provider's auto answer cuts in and I'm left with a stutter dial tone and loads of voicemails with nothing but the background sounds of various call centres.

So, I need to properly answer the call.

I tried using aa as the target (instead of nothing) but, because the telepest never responds to the aa prompts, aa eventually times out and rings the phone anyway; it also causes bizarre problems with the PSTN line not clearing down if I don't pick up. (see http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=5836.msg37579#msg37579 )

Has anyone managed to find a solution to this niggle?

[drgeoff]

I think it is possible to make the InboundCallRoute send the call to anywhere, not just to 'ph' or 'aa'.  Clearly it cannot go back out on the PSTN but you have the two SP services and the Voice Gateways.  Does one of your SPs have an echo test number that you could forward to?  Or see http://faq.sipbroker.com/tiki-index.php?page=Phone+Numbers for other possibilities.  See https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=526.0 for how to get to sipbroker and other info on configuring voice gateways.

[ukuser]

I think it is possible to make the InboundCallRoute send the call to anywhere, not just to 'ph' or 'aa'.  Clearly it cannot go back out on the PSTN but you have the two SP services and the Voice Gateways.  Does one of your SPs have an echo test number that you could forward to?  Or see http://faq.sipbroker.com/tiki-index.php?page=Phone+Numbers for other possibilities.  See https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=526.0 for how to get to sipbroker and other info on configuring voice gateways.

Thanks for that idea. Someone has just pm'd me with this suggestion:

If you set:

Voice Services -> Auto Attendant -> NumberOnNoInput : (blank)

The caller will be disconnected after not responding to the Auto Attendant's prompt the third time.

Make sure you have 'UsePIN' checked and a strong PIN set to prevent callers from pressing '2' or '3' and making outbound calls at your expense.

I'm giving it a shot right now - if it doesn't work I'll try your approach.
Regards,
Bob

[ianobi]

Yes, the answer is to send the call somewhere that costs nothing. There's lots of options depending on how your sp1 and sp2 are set up.

For example, if you have a voip service provider set up on sp1 that allows free 0800 calls (such as sipgate), then this is a good one:

Physical Interfaces->Line Port->InboundCallRoute: {(0|00[0-79]x.|01612448121|02070609904|08009777600|08446882753|02070605576):sp1(0800500005)},{ph}

It's British Telecom news about itself – boring and goes on forever   

As the calling party is not speaking, the call will terminate after one minute at default if you have DetectFarEndLongSilence checked in the Line Port settings. Uncheck it if you want to keep the call going for as long as the calling party hangs on.

There are lots of fun places that you can send the calls on the web for free. Post back if you wish to know more.

[ianobi]

ukuser,

Going back to your original post regarding Auto Attendant not clearing down, you may wish to read this post:

http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=2796.msg18451#msg18451

It seems the problem may be CPC duration time. The British Telecom spec states that an "end of call" signal will be sent of between 90ms and 130ms. This is way shorter than the default OBi setting.

I don't have a British Telecom line to test with, but I would suggest a setting of around 125ms and see what happens. My setup involves linking up a mobile phone as my PSTN line and I seem to be stuck with this problem for now.

Edit: I have now found some optional settings on my Xlink device. They are labelled "OSI" - which stands for Open Switch Interval. Set those correctly and problem solved    It's easy to get confused - "end of call signal" / "CPC settings" / "Open Switch Interval" - we could do with a multi-language glossary