Using Google Voice voicemail with VoIP providers

[Taoman]

Perhaps others have wrestled with this problem and have a solution they would like to share because it eludes me.

When using GV in conjunction with a VoIP provider but still using GV voicemail a couple problems crop up.

1) If you are spoofing your outgoing CID with your GV phone number and you try and call your GV number to retrieve your voicemail it won't work. In my experience, Google Voice will not pickup a call that appears to be coming from itself. The only "solution" (if you can call it that) is to preface your call with *67 to block your outgoing CID. Then GV will answer (eventually) and after pressing * and entering your PIN you then must enter in one of your forwarding numbers. I have 6. GV always rejects the first 3 I try and disconnects me. So I have to call back and go thru the process again and it then will usually let me in. What a hassle.

2) No stutter tone or MWI on Obi connected phone. With Chat unchecked I don't see how this is even possible but some others may have an idea on this?

The only real solution I see for this problem is to use your VoIP's voicemail which is not desireable for a variety of reasons. The main reason that I see is that you would have to set your carrier's voicemail to pickup in less than 25 seconds so that GV voicemail won't pickup instead. This is not really a viable solution for most people in my view.

Anyone out there have a solution to this conundrum? I think a whole lot of people are going to run into this issue when making the switch from GV to a new VoIP provider but using their new DID as a forwarded GV number and spoofing their outgoing CID.

[MikeHObi]

2) No stutter tone or MWI on Obi connected phone. With Chat unchecked I don't see how this is even possible but some others may have an idea on this?

You need to make sure you are configured to get voice mail notifications.
In obi expert for your ITSP Profile for your sip account make sure X_MWISubscribe is set to on.
In obi expert for your Voice Service for you sip acccount make sure MWIEnable and X_VMWIEnable is set to on.

See if that resolves the stutter tone and notification led.

[Taoman]

You may wish to read my post again. Yes, those options are checked. Yes, the notifications work for my carrier voicemail.

This post is about using GV voicemail with your VoIP provider. My VoIP provider is PhonePower. I see no possible way that PhonePower can detect that I have Google Voice voicemails waiting and signal my Obi. That is my point. Am I missing something here?

[BigJim_McD]

Taoman, 
I have the same issue checking my Google Voice # that is call forwarded to my Vestalink #.  The Google Voice  phone number's CLI is spoofed on the Vestalink site.

I did a test on a second account that I have on voip.ms where I spoofed the Vestalink DID #'s CLI and when I called the Google Voice #, the call went directly to the Google Voice Mail attendant which prompted for my pin (as expected).

It appears that we need an option to temporarily disable "Spoofed CLI" for calls to our Google Voice phone numbers.

[Taoman]

It appears that we need an option to temporarily disable "Spoofed CLI" for calls to our Google Voice phone numbers.

As I mentioned in my post, you can just block your CLI with *67 and Google Voice will eventually pick up.

[SteveInWA]

I replied in another thread that the MWI signal is sent by the telephone company to which your endpoint is connected.  So, if you're using a SIP VoIP ITSP, that ITSP has no way to know that there is a message waiting on your GV account, to toggle MWI.  It can only manage MWI for its own VM servers.  When you used Google Chat to connect to GV, the OBi was getting Google's MWI signal; now it isn't.  So, no way to do what you want.  Instead, use the Google Voice mobile app on an Android or iPhone, and/or configure GV to send you a text message when you have a new message waiting.

RE:  accessing VM, this is a bug with your SIP ITSP, not Google Voice.  You should be able to correctly spoof your GV caller ID on any ITSP that allows it, and then dial into your GV number, which will see the caller ID, and let you into your VM.  I've done this with Callcentric, Skype, the Android and iOS Vonage app, and several other services.  Some ITSPs aren't implementing caller ID spoofing correctly, (it needs to be spoofed all the way out their terminating PSTN LEC, not just via SIP), and so it isn't working for their customers.  It might also be something you've done wrong on your OBi.  As a test, why don't you unplug your OBi, then provision your SIP ITSP's credentials on a softphone (I use Counterpath X-Lite or Bria), and see if it works.  If it doesn't then it's your ITSP's fault.  If it does, it is something wrong with your OBi configuration.

[Taoman]

RE:  accessing VM, this is a bug with your SIP ITSP, not Google Voice.  You should be able to correctly spoof your GV caller ID on any ITSP that allows it, and then dial into your GV number, which will see the caller ID, and let you into your VM.  I've done this with Callcentric, Skype, the Android and iOS Vonage app, and several other services.  Some ITSPs aren't implementing caller ID spoofing correctly, (it needs to be spoofed all the way out their terminating PSTN LEC, not just via SIP), and so it isn't working for their customers.  It might also be something you've done wrong on your OBi.  As a test, why don't you unplug your OBi, then provision your SIP ITSP's credentials on a softphone (I use Counterpath X-Lite or Bria), and see if it works.  If it doesn't then it's your ITSP's fault.  If it does, it is something wrong with your OBi configuration.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. I tried with a softphone and got the same results. So if what you say is true then there are a whole lot of ITSPs that "aren't implementing caller ID spoofing correctly." I have personally tested this with the following ITSPs that are spoofing my outgoing number with my Google Voice number:
PhonePower, IPComms, and Vestalink. They all act the same. When I dial my GV number it just rings and rings and is never picked up. If I preface the number with *67 then it will eventually pick up but I have to go through the procedure I detailed in my original post.

There have been several other posts from other people experiencing the same problem. I can't remember the ITSPs they were using but they can't all be using the same ones I tested with. I think this could be a big problem when the masses migrate off of Google Voice to an ITSP but continue to use GV as their primary number. Since you support Google Voice users over at Google you may wish to look into this further. I guarantee this is not an isolated event.

[azrobert]

If you call your GV number with the same GV account, you will go directly to VM.
I believe when you spoof your GV number, Google detects the number is spoofed and thinks someone is trying to hack your account and then blocks the call.
In your GV settings you can setup a forwarding number to go directly to VM with or without a PIN. It's found under advanced settings.
If you can temporarily suspend spoofing (not block CID) or use another DID, it can be setup to go directly to VM.

[Taoman]

If you can temporarily suspend spoofing (not block CID) or use another DID, it can be setup to go directly to VM.

Thanks for your input. Just for clarification this is in no way a problem for me. I have a smartphone with me at all times and get notified via text and email when anyone calls or leaves a voicemail in my GV account and then listen to the message on my smartphone.

I am just trying to anticipate potential problems come May 15th (or whenever) when thousands of OBIs will stop functioning. Specifically, I am thinking of WAF (wife acceptance factor). Consider this scenario: husband configures Obi with new ITSP and spoofs outgoing CID with GV DID and is gone all day at work. Wife is home and does not have cell phone or computer handy. Not only will she not get a stutter tone or MWI she may very well be completely unable to access GV voicemail at all (if Obi connected phone is her only option). Me thinks this kind of a situation will not pass WAF.

[SteveInWA]

If you call your GV number with the same GV account, you will go directly to VM. This is configurable on your Google Voice settings page, to either go directly to VM, or to ring first and need you to barge in by pressing *
I believe when you spoof your GV number, Google detects the number is spoofed and thinks someone is trying to hack your account and then blocks the call.  Not as long as the phone number (caller ID) is being properly spoofed through the PSTN, in the same standard format as a legitimate PSTN phone number.  I have done it with many different ITSPs, and it works fine.
In your GV settings you can setup a forwarding number to go directly to VM with or without a PIN. It's found under advanced settings.  Right
If you can temporarily suspend spoofing (not block CID) or use another DID, it can be setup to go directly to VM.  Yes, good idea for troubleshooting:  set up any other working phone number as a verified forwarding phone.  Call in from that number to see if it behaves as it should

[SteveInWA]

If you can temporarily suspend spoofing (not block CID) or use another DID, it can be setup to go directly to VM.

Thanks for your input. Just for clarification this is in no way a problem for me. I have a smartphone with me at all times and get notified via text and email when anyone calls or leaves a voicemail in my GV account and then listen to the message on my smartphone.

I am just trying to anticipate potential problems come May 15th (or whenever) when thousands of OBIs will stop functioning. Specifically, I am thinking of WAF (wife acceptance factor). Consider this scenario: husband configures Obi with new ITSP and spoofs outgoing CID with GV DID and is gone all day at work. Wife is home and does not have cell phone or computer handy. Not only will she not get a stutter tone or MWI she may very well be completely unable to access GV voicemail at all (if Obi connected phone is her only option). Me thinks this kind of a situation will not pass WAF.

I'm confident that correctly-implemented spoofing works correctly with Google Voice.  The problem is most likely that your ITSP is doing it wrong, or is only spoofing/substituting the number on SIP-to-SIP calls.

Important to know:  there are no settings on your OBi that should be involved in spoofing.  Properly done, it's provisioned by the carrier, and not by sending a spoofing value via a parameter on your SIP device.

In fact:  ALL PSTN telephone carriers are provisioning an arbitrary phone number on your outgoing circuit when they provision your account.  They can enter any number they wish, and the act of provisioning it is separate from configuring PSTN switch routing for the inbound number, which is usually the same, but doesn't have to be.  Properly implemented, the ITSP needs to be sending your calling number out over the PSTN with your number in the correct format.

This isn't some massive problem that is going to impact thousands of users on May 15th.  I don't know how to diagnose your issue further at this point.  All I know is that it's your carrier's fault.  I haven't personally tried those carriers, but I have spoofed my caller ID successfully on many others.  I use Callcentric, and last week, I set up Localphone to try out their outbound service, and both spoof my number properly.  When I used to use Sipgate, their spoofing almost never worked right.  It caused symptoms similar to yours -- calls that rang forever, or went into a black hole of silence, or got an error recording.

If you do believe there is something on GV that is contributing to this, then please post a screenshot of this page:

https://www.google.com/voice/#phones

Obscure all personal information, except leave the last 4 digits of all phone numbers exposed.

[BigJim_McD]

Now on Vestalink, I'm able to:  "Temporarily Disable number spoofing by pre-pending 03" before my Google Voice phone number to access my Google Voice Mail.

This was announced as a Vestalink Beta Program feature but it worked for me today as a regular user.

Vestalink Beta Program Released With New Features
http://www.vestalink.com/blog/?p=58

Simultaneous call forwarding to up to 6 phone numbers
Longer call detail record downloads up to 90 days.
block caller id by prepending 02 + number
Temporarily Disable number spoofing by prepending 03 + number

[azrobert]

Said by me:
If you call your GV number with the same GV account, you will go directly to VM.

This is configurable on your Google Voice settings page, to either go directly to VM, or to ring first and need you to barge in by pressing *

Where is this setting?
I only see this option for forwarding numbers, not on the GV number.

[SteveInWA]

Said by me:
If you call your GV number with the same GV account, you will go directly to VM.

This is configurable on your Google Voice settings page, to either go directly to VM, or to ring first and need you to barge in by pressing *

Where is this setting?
I only see this option for forwarding numbers, not on the GV number.

Yah, it isn't obvious.  It's configured on a number-by-number basis.  For example, you may have a home phone number and a mobile number configured as forwarding phones.  You may want to directly enter your VM menu when you call your GV number from your mobile phone, but you want your home phone to ring, so your family can answer when you call.

First, go here:  https://www.google.com/voice#phones

Next, click the Edit button under your forwarding phone number.  Next, click "Show advanced settings".  Now, you'll see a section for "Voicemail access".  Here, you can toggle the setting to either behavior. 

Security warning:  never select the option to go to VM without requiring a PIN.  With that enabled, anybody who spoofs your caller ID can get into your VM (remember the scandals in the UK over the tabloids accessing the Royal's VMs?).

[azrobert]

I don't think we are talking about the same thing.
You are talking about forwarding numbers calling your GV number.
I'm talking about using your GV number to call itself.
When I use my GV number to call my GV number I go directly to VM.

I checked the Voice Access option on the GoogleChat forwarding number and it is set to "NO", so this doesn't affect the above.

[SteveInWA]

Ah.  I've already abandoned direct OBi connection to Chat, so I forgot about that.  It's a special case:  when calling from Chat, it thinks you're calling from a genuine Chat session (not an OBi), so it assumes you are logged in via your Google credentials, and you want to hear your VM immediately.  The website configuration setting to change this is invalid, since OBi use was never anticipated nor authorized.  The same goes for a spoofed caller ID -- you're fooling GV into an unsupported scenario.  Just be glad it goes to VM; otherwise, it would get a busy signal, since it would appear as a loop (a phone number calling itself).

BTW, I tried to get Google to change this some time ago, but they decided that they weren't going to fix something that wasn't broken from their standpoint.

[Taoman]

I'm confident that correctly-implemented spoofing works correctly with Google Voice. 

Just set up a new CallWithUs VoIP account and spoofed my outgoing with my GV number. Same thing happened. When spoofing with my GV number Google Voice absolutely will not pick up. I tried this with a basic softphone (MicroSip) and also on my Obi 110 with the same results.

I then spoofed a different number (can't believe CWU let's you get away with that. Reminds me of SipGate days) and Google Voice answered and everything worked normally. I'm just sayin'.............