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Help with Migration Plan for May 15 Change

Started by e900542, April 03, 2014, 07:05:14 AM

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e900542

Let me start off by saying I have read forum postings extensively, and hopefully my question reflects that, but I am still very confused.  I can't seem to find a migration plan to allow me to continue to use my OBi100, in combination with an ITSP, in the same way I do today:

I need to:
*have all incoming calls to my Google Voice number ring my house phone
*have all outgoing calls from my house phone show as the Google Voice number to the recipient
*NOT port my Google Voice number to a supporting ITSP so I can switch sevices if needed.

If I have missed a posting stating this, please just post a link.  I think this would be helpful for other (more non-technical) users wanting a simple set of steps to accomplish this.


KAura

#1
If POTS, then calls can be initiated via PhonePower's webPortal
with a click of a button ;) and as long as you signed up with your
GV# (to be spoofed) you can actually use ANY phone to call out
and your GV# will show -- from your home: Click2Call...

You can be at your friend's house or about and initiate a call via PP's
webPortal and your GV# will show => feature: Remote Click2Call.

Note: with POTS & Click2Call you are billed 2 outgoing (if you have
unlimited, this is free, but with unlimited you have 5000 min/mo)


If VOIP, then calls can be initiated directly from your house phone
as long as your VOIP provider allows you to spoof your GV#.


In either case, your will forward your GV# to your house phone#,
increase the rings (if you want), and make sure GV voicemail does
not answer the calls if no answer (unless you want it to do so).

You could POSSIBLY end up with messages at both GV & your VOIP
if your rings counts are close & voicemail is active for both locations.


Service providers Anveo, PhonePower, VestaLink (in alphabetical order),
but there are other providers available that provide outbound spoofing.

ALL of these can be found under your Obi's Device Management page
once you are signed in:

http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/pg/obhdev

Malachi123

I signed up with phonepower (one of the two preferred companies obi has listed).. and I kept my GV number for incoming and outgoing.
In fact, when you go into the control panel (if I may call it that), and click on one of the preferred companies, you can go through a 'wizard' to get it signed up. One of the questions will be if you want to 'spoof' your GV number.. and in your case (and mine) you'll say 'yes'. This means that outgoing calls will show your GV number.
As far as receiving calls.. with phonepower you'll get a new 'number'. (the spoofing will show the GV number when you call with this number). In GoogleVoice's settings you can tell them to forward to this new number. This way, whenever someone calls your GV number, it'll end up on your phone.

That's in short how it works. Are you still confused? If so, please let us know what part is confusing and we'll try to answer you the best we can!

drgeoff

Quote from: KAura on April 03, 2014, 07:46:31 AM
You did not state whether your house phone is POTS or VOIP...
Although not specifically stated, everything indicated that e900542 currently has his house phone plugged into his OB100 which is configured for his GV account.

e900542

#4
Excellent feedback from the community, and definitely not as confused now!

For clarification for others with the same question, my setup is just as drgeoff stated; my house phone is plugged into an OBi100 acting as a Google chat client, and my Google voice number redirected to it.  No POTS, and no VOIP service involved.  

It sounds as if I go with KAura and Malachi123's recommendation, basically what will change is that my OBi100 will act as a SIP client now, and my Google voice number will be redirected to the number PhonePower will assign me.  All my previous functionality will remain intact if setup through the wizard as described.

Can I get an amen?

DrJay

I'm doing everything you want to do with CallCentric. Can't say whether CC is better or worse than any other service but it's working 100% correctly for me.  They spoof my GV number as my outbound CID so no one knows the difference when I call out.

The calling rates are ridiculously cheap. I got a second (free) DID number that I use as a dedicated fax line to receive the one or two faxes I get a month. These are forwarded to my email address as a PDF attachment.

I find that the quality of the calls over OBi + CC to be better than OBi + Google Talk. The occasional picket fencing that I used to get is gone.

SteveInWA

Quote from: KAura on April 03, 2014, 07:46:31 AM
You question reflects that you are still very confused.   ;)

No, he isn't very confused.  All those things are perfectly do-able, by simply provisioning any SIP VoIP provider on his OBi instead of GV, and then forwarding calls to that new ITSP, and having his new ITSP spoof his GV caller ID for outbound calls.  This has been discussed to death on this forum.

e900542

#7
Did not mean to add to the noise; although I found bits and pieces on the forum, it wasn't simple enough for me to put the whole plan together, but understand perfectly now!  Hopefull this will be helpful for others in the same boat.

I am all set now, and a final thanks to all for helping.

MikeHObi

The only thing that may be missing, is that during this process you will net a new phone number.  It is this number you will have google forward to.  Unfortunately google has developed a problem in that some numbers they forward to they have trouble connecting with.  What makes a number be one that google has trouble with has yet to be identified.  Google has yet to acknowledge the problem.  So it is possible that you might get configured and still have trouble with google fowarding.

Since I had this problem with two different voip companies and two different phone numbers I decided to dump google and ported my number to one of the voip companies. 
Obi202 user & Obi100 using Anveo and Callcentric.

KAura

#9
e900542 You've got an amen from me... glad we could help!

Quote from: SteveInWA on April 03, 2014, 10:10:47 PM
Quote from: KAura on April 03, 2014, 07:46:31 AM
You question reflects that you are still very confused.   ;)

No, he isn't very confused.  All those things are perfectly do-able, by simply provisioning any SIP VoIP provider on his OBi instead of GV, and then forwarding calls to that new ITSP, and having his new ITSP spoof his GV caller ID for outbound calls.  This has been discussed to death on this forum.

You're right, he's no longer confused but this is what he said...

"Let me start off by saying I have read forum postings extensively, and hopefully my question reflects that, but I am still very confused."

Sure those things are doable, and sure they've been discussed to death on this forum, but if he says he's still confused, then he's still confused...  just thought we'd help out a bit even though it has been discussed to death on this forum.

KAura

#10
Quote from: drgeoff on April 03, 2014, 10:03:20 AM
Although not specifically stated, everything indicated that e900542 currently has his house phone plugged into his OB100 which is configured for his GV account.


Just because he has GV as an ITSP and is using an OBi100
doesn't mean he doesn't also have a POTS phone.

"in the same way I do today" wasn't the question, because
nobody that I have seen with all the features of GV is free.

KAura

He said, "I need to...", and stated what he wanted done.


I was the first one on scene with an answer and answered the question.

Hey, if I said something wrong, then I'd have something to apologize
about, but if somebody owns this forum and doesn't want me answering,
then you better tell me openly via a reply to this thread...

because, until then I will continue to help people as best I can -- 'nuf said.

KAura

Quote from: MikeHObi on April 04, 2014, 11:12:40 AM
...Unfortunately google has developed a problem in that some numbers they forward to they have trouble connecting with.  What makes a number be one that google has trouble with has yet to be identified.  Google has yet to acknowledge the problem.  So it is possible that you might get configured and still have trouble with google fowarding...

Thanks, Mike.  I didn't know that.

giqcass

#13
Quote from: MikeHObi on April 04, 2014, 11:12:40 AM
The only thing that may be missing, is that during this process you will net a new phone number.  It is this number you will have google forward to.  Unfortunately google has developed a problem in that some numbers they forward to they have trouble connecting with.  What makes a number be one that google has trouble with has yet to be identified.  Google has yet to acknowledge the problem.  So it is possible that you might get configured and still have trouble with google fowarding.

Since I had this problem with two different voip companies and two different phone numbers I decided to dump google and ported my number to one of the voip companies.  

I have yet to hear of this problem outside of Callcentric and IPKall and it only messed up the CID so far as I know.  I have yet to hear anyone complain about this on Anveo, Phonepower, or Vestalink.  The three most used paid options for Obi users.  It seems the paid DIDs on Callcentric are also immune to the problem.

One thing I do consider worth adding to this conversation is "MAKE SURE YOU DOUBLE CHECK YOUR GOOGLE VOICE PHONE NUMBER WHEN YOU SET UP PHONE POWER!"  If you enter the wrong number when setting up the outgoing CID spoofing it may be a real pain in the rear to fix.


I think the real issue on this forum that most often causes people to not find the information they need is the absolutely terrible search function on the website.  This is what I use to search the site.  It is also possible to enter your search term in Google then add site:obitalk.com after the search.
Long live our new ObiLords!

MurrayB

WOW!

Thanks for the custom search info. I heartily agree on the lame search function on the forum. It is very frustrating.

MikeHObi

Quote from: giqcass on April 05, 2014, 11:10:14 PM
I have yet to hear of this problem outside of Callcentric and IPKall and it only messed up the CID so far as I know.  I have yet to hear anyone complain about this on Anveo, Phonepower, or Vestalink.  

I've reported this issue repeatedly here and in the google voice forums since November,  always indicating issues with both Callcentric and Anveo.  Google's provider is having call completion issues with some DID's.  Thus far they have not acknowledged that they have a problem.  The particular problem is that call to the Google voice number will take a long time before they connect to the Callcentric or Anveo service such that by the time Callcentric or Anveo are able to connect to your sip device, the google voice mail timeout has occured and the call goes to voice mail.  Sometimes your sip device may ring once.

There was also a problem with CID.  That also occurred for me with both Anveo and Callcentric.  IPKall started having a CID problem but theirs was different.
Obi202 user & Obi100 using Anveo and Callcentric.

c3c3

That call completion problem is not limited to GV.  I had an issue using Localphone with a specific outbound caller ID and a specific destination number.  It took 40 seconds for the phone to start ringing.  When I changed the outbound caller ID, the same call took only 5 seconds.  Localphone tech support reproduced the problem and took a carrier out of the route.

This is another reason to not use GV.  When you encounter a problem, there is no way to report/debug/fix the problem.

e900542

Just a final update.  Everything is now working as needed!  Final solution for posterity:

Signed up for phonepower (or other ISTP, I chose PP) via the obitalk website under "approved service providers", then did the walkthrough to create an account on their portal, paid the man $34.99 for a year (for the "lite" plan of 300 minutes outbound, unlimited calls inbound), and they automagically migrated my Google Voice SP1 setup to an OBiPhonePower SP1 setup. Incoming caller ID and 911 service is the icing on the cake. 

So simple even I could do it.  It was nice to understand all of the ins and outs before hand so I didn't accidentally dork up my current way of making and receiving calls, or pay $35 for something I didn't really need. Great answers from a great tech community.

KeithBierman

The one thing that remains a bit confusing is the SP1/SP2 election. Aside from any GV DID bugs, I'd like to keep telling everyone my GV number and have it forward to a new PhonePower number. Well and good, but should the new PhonePower be SP2? If so, what happens when Google pulls the plug? Do I need to reprovision as SP1??

In case it matters: Obi100

Taoman

Quote from: KeithBierman on April 23, 2014, 01:26:21 PM
The one thing that remains a bit confusing is the SP1/SP2 election. Aside from any GV DID bugs, I'd like to keep telling everyone my GV number and have it forward to a new PhonePower number. Well and good, but should the new PhonePower be SP2? If so, what happens when Google pulls the plug? Do I need to reprovision as SP1??

In case it matters: Obi100

Doesn't matter if it's on SP1 or SP2. I have PhonePower configured on SP2. Just make sure the box is checked for "Primary Line for Outgoing Calls"
When you are completely done with using Google Voice just delete SP1 from the Obitalk web portal and uncheck the box in front of Google Chat in Google Voice settings and the box is checked in front of your PhonePower phone number.