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What service to use after May 15th 2014 with my Obi110? [noob alert!]

Started by logicliker, April 15, 2014, 02:18:42 PM

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logicliker

I am currently using my Obi110, with my Google Voice account, and Google Voice phone number, and all Google Voice features (Voicemail text transcription, SMS email notifications, missed call email notification, etc.)

I'm looking for a service that will work with my Obi110 (i love this product), that offers stable phone service while allowing me to keep my Google Voice phone number, and Google Voice features all in tact. I'm also looking for the best value as well (the service that offers this package for the best price).

Thank you for any help that you may be able to provide. Your answers will help me, along with a lot of new visitors to this forum.

Thanks!

AlanB

There really is no Best Service.  This forum is full of recommendations.

CallCentric, Vestalink, Anveo, Phone Power, Local Phone, voip.ms, the list goes on and on.  For pure simplicity Vestalink may be the best choice.  CallCentric offers free incoming DIDs using a New York number, which work well although caller ID with name may be hit or miss.

I really suggest you read through some of the recent posts of the very same type or we'll be starting this topic over and over every day.  Then if you have questions once you've narrowed it down a little more ask away.


MikeHObi

The only real catch is that Google's provider has been experiencing call completion issues with some DID's from pretty much all providers.  it's hit or miss if you get a number that will work reliably.
Obi202 user & Obi100 using Anveo and Callcentric.

logicliker

Would porting the google voice number to Anveo instead of forwarding the Google Voice number to Anveo solve that issue?

AlanB

Yes. Porting to Anveo or another provider will solve that problem.

Michael_Reeder

See the thread on Future9.  I just switched over to them -- their residential deal provides a lot for the money.  Some manual changes needed to config but pretty easy.

-- Michael

SteveInWA

Quote from: MikeHObi on April 15, 2014, 05:17:12 PM
The only real catch is that Google's provider has been experiencing call completion issues with some DID's from pretty much all providers.  it's hit or miss if you get a number that will work reliably.

Mike:  we've been identifying and fixing these issues pretty rapidly in the past month.  If individual GV users continue to experience a large percentage of calls not completing (e.g. busy signal or SIT followed by error message), then open a post over on the GV forum, and we'll try to resolve it.

MikeHObi

Quote from: SteveInWA on April 16, 2014, 08:49:37 PM
Quote from: MikeHObi on April 15, 2014, 05:17:12 PM
The only real catch is that Google's provider has been experiencing call completion issues with some DID's from pretty much all providers.  it's hit or miss if you get a number that will work reliably.

Mike:  we've been identifying and fixing these issues pretty rapidly in the past month.  If individual GV users continue to experience a large percentage of calls not completing (e.g. busy signal or SIT followed by error message), then open a post over on the GV forum, and we'll try to resolve it.

Already ported out.  The issues I were having though were not busy signals or any SIT or error messages.  Simply what happens is that google gets the call to whatever point starts their voice mail timer.  Then for whatever reason they take an extended amount of time abstract time to complete a call to the voip provider.

Sometimes the call makes it to the voip provider so it shows up as received by them but by the time they have forwarded on to the OBI google voice mail has already grabbed the call.  Obi never rings the phone.
Sometimes the call doesn't make it to the voip provider before google voice mail grabs the call.
Sometimes the call makes it to the voip provider so it shows up as received by them, they forward it to the Obi, and the obi is able to ring the phone once before google voice mail grabs the voice.

In all cases the caller hears the phone ring and ring and ring but it never rings but maybe once at the obi if at all.  Logs in the Obi and at the VOIP provider (Anveo and Callcentric) confirm that once they have the call they are transferring it quickly.

I posted this in the GV support form back when it first started and got no feedback and others posting similar problems never resulted in Google even acknowledging that there was a problem.  It's the lack of any real person to talk to so that such issues can be resolved that makes GV a non-starter for me for home use.

I still use it for my personal number which rings my cell, my home, and my office.  It's worked great and reliably for years.
Obi202 user & Obi100 using Anveo and Callcentric.

SteveInWA

Quote from: MikeHObi on April 17, 2014, 11:16:14 AM
Quote from: SteveInWA on April 16, 2014, 08:49:37 PM
Quote from: MikeHObi on April 15, 2014, 05:17:12 PM
The only real catch is that Google's provider has been experiencing call completion issues with some DID's from pretty much all providers.  it's hit or miss if you get a number that will work reliably.

Mike:  we've been identifying and fixing these issues pretty rapidly in the past month.  If individual GV users continue to experience a large percentage of calls not completing (e.g. busy signal or SIT followed by error message), then open a post over on the GV forum, and we'll try to resolve it.

Already ported out.  The issues I were having though were not busy signals or any SIT or error messages.  Simply what happens is that google gets the call to whatever point starts their voice mail timer.  Then for whatever reason they take an extended amount of time abstract time to complete a call to the voip provider.

Sometimes the call makes it to the voip provider so it shows up as received by them but by the time they have forwarded on to the OBI google voice mail has already grabbed the call.  Obi never rings the phone.
Sometimes the call doesn't make it to the voip provider before google voice mail grabs the call.
Sometimes the call makes it to the voip provider so it shows up as received by them, they forward it to the Obi, and the obi is able to ring the phone once before google voice mail grabs the voice.

In all cases the caller hears the phone ring and ring and ring but it never rings but maybe once at the obi if at all.  Logs in the Obi and at the VOIP provider (Anveo and Callcentric) confirm that once they have the call they are transferring it quickly.

I posted this in the GV support form back when it first started and got no feedback and others posting similar problems never resulted in Google even acknowledging that there was a problem.  It's the lack of any real person to talk to so that such issues can be resolved that makes GV a non-starter for me for home use.

I still use it for my personal number which rings my cell, my home, and my office.  It's worked great and reliably for years.


I'm sorry it didn't work out for you.  Everybody has their own tolerance level for problems.  A lot of people here are trading one unreliable service for another.  I'm not debating whether or not GV is a reliable home phone service - in fact, it shouldn't ever be considered a substitute home phone company; that was a result of misleading advertising by Obihai.

I wouldn't make the generalization that your past experience is still the universal case for GV.  It's certainly true that there is no direct customer support for GV.  Many people foolishly sign up for it for business use, which is a terrible idea.  However, Google has recently stepped up its engineering support for GV, and I have been able to get call routing issues solved in anywhere from a few hours to a few days for the most part.  I only know of one case at the moment, where we have a problem that's gone on for months, and frankly, it's a certain major phone company that's at fault.

Again, if anyone has repeatable, documented cases of calls not being received on a GV number, or an inability to place calls from a GV number to certain rate centers (telephone exchanges or blocks of numbers), then post the details over on the GV forum, and hopefully, we'll see it and report it for you.

logicliker

I decided to go with Future-Nine. I'm trying to configure my Obi110 to work with FutureNine but I am really confused.

Currently when I login to Obitalk, I get a screen (I think it's the dashboard)

That lists SP1 Google Voice, SP2 E911 Anveo

Do I wipe this stuff out and start fresh? If so, how do I do that? And where do I go to enter the proxyserver info ...?

Basically, I have these instructions, but none of these lineup with what I see when I log into my Obi.

Login to your Obi, and go to Service Providers > ITSP Profile A > SIP, and set:
ProxyServer: incoming.future-nine.com
RegistrarServer: incoming.future-nine.com
UserAgentDomain: sip.future-nine.com

Then go to Service Providers > ITSP Profile > General, and set:
Name: your name (or any name)
Digit Map:
(*xx.|911|1xxxxxxxxxx|<1>[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|[2-9]xxxxxx|011xx.|xx.|(Mipd)|[^*#]@@.)

Then go to Voice Services > SP Service, and set:
X_KeepAliveEnable: yes
X_KeepAliveExpires: 60
AuthUserName: see username in the SIP INFO screen
AuthPassword: see secret field in the SIP INFO screen

Taoman

Quote from: logicliker on April 20, 2014, 10:32:59 AM
I decided to go with Future-Nine. I'm trying to configure my Obi110 to work with FutureNine but I am really confused.
Currently when I login to Obitalk, I get a screen (I think it's the dashboard)
That lists SP1 Google Voice, SP2 E911 Anveo
Do I wipe this stuff out and start fresh? If so, how do I do that? And where do I go to enter the proxyserver info ...?

What are you doing for E911? It looks like you are paying Anveo .80/month for E911? Are you continuing that service or are you paying Future9 for that? Obviously, if you are continuing with Anveo you wouldn't want to delete SP2.

In the Obi dashboard, click on the "gear" icon to get you to the Device Configuration page. From here you can see the Trashcan icon where you can delete an existing service provider (Google Voice). Once you delete an existing service provider you can then start the configuration for Future9.

logicliker

Thank you!

I am paying anveo for 911... thanks for the heads up on that lol

I will overwrite the google voice on SP1, and keep e911 on SP2..  ;D

logicliker

I cleared out/deleted Google Voice/SP1, and then I click SP1, it takes me to a page with a list of different service providers. Future-Nine isn't listed, so I select "Generic Service Providers", it then takes me to this screen:



Based on the instructions I have posted (couple posts ago in this thread), and based on this screen, I am confused. Since the instructions don't line up with what I'm seeing.

What am I missing?


logicliker

So it looks like I needed to switch to "obi expert configuration" in order to access these options. Now the new problem is, when I try to edit the fields under ITSP Profile A SIP, it won't let me.

Taoman

Quote from: logicliker on April 20, 2014, 11:28:23 AM
So it looks like I needed to switch to "obi expert configuration" in order to access these options. Now the new problem is, when I try to edit the fields under ITSP Profile A SIP, it won't let me.

You need to uncheck the boxes to the right of the field you wish to edit.

k8_fan

I'm looking for a plan, and hopefully someone will look at my needs and say "Here's exactly what you need"

Like the OP, I am using a Google Voice number.

I make a small number of calls to various people, but spend hours every night on the phone to my wife who is in another city.

So what's the best approach if 90%+ of my calling is to the same number? Should I set up another ObiHai device at the other end and call Obi to Obi?

I'm always on the computer anyway - can I still make calls to her number if I use Google Voice on the web to make the call?

SteveInWA

Quote from: k8_fan on April 24, 2014, 10:59:32 PM
I'm looking for a plan, and hopefully someone will look at my needs and say "Here's exactly what you need"

Like the OP, I am using a Google Voice number.

I make a small number of calls to various people, but spend hours every night on the phone to my wife who is in another city.

So what's the best approach if 90%+ of my calling is to the same number? Should I set up another ObiHai device at the other end and call Obi to Obi?

I'm always on the computer anyway - can I still make calls to her number if I use Google Voice on the web to make the call?
If you both have computers with webcams, why not just spend your hours having free video chats with each other via Google Hangouts?  Also, you can still make and receive free phone calls from your computer using Hangouts.

k8_fan

Quote from: SteveInWA on April 25, 2014, 10:35:12 AM
If you both have computers with webcams, why not just spend your hours having free video chats with each other via Google Hangouts?  Also, you can still make and receive free phone calls from your computer using Hangouts.
Because I like using a phone and don't want to be tethered to the computer. My cordless phone allows me to wander about the house while still talking, cook a meal, etc.

My wife won't use a webcam either. A cordless phone is far more flexible than a computer headset, and I don't have to deal with issues of computer sound device configuration on her end.

Frankly, I've used IP telephone products via computer, and just prefer to use a purpose-built device, aka a telephone.

It looks like I'm going to pick up a GVMate.

Also, I'll resist the push towards "Hangouts" as long as possible. I hate Google's desire to combine products that work well into one huge mess. Google Voice works well, I like it and I don't want to reward that sort of behavior.

ProfTech

Your idea of getting another Obi for your wife is actually a fine idea. Then all of your calls back and forth [either direction] are completely free. If you choose Callcentric as the free service you can even get free Voice Mail [Obitalk not needed]. On the plus side, if you decide later that your wife would like to be able to call someone else besides you for a good price, she is already set up to do it.  She just switches from the free account to the pay-as-you-go account. Your calls to each other are still free.