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Skype + Google Voice (GVOICE) + Obihai110?

Started by pinchpenny, May 02, 2014, 09:58:54 AM

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pinchpenny

Hello,

I am a miserly, chintzy pinchpenny. I am faced with an inevitable and wasteful expenditure: a home phone. My family all have cell phones, but my elderly father insists on having, additionally, home phone access. Reason does not persuade the unfortunate laggard minority. Also, my father (astonishingly) uses the home phone quite a lot. So, it seems unlimited outbound calls is best.

I've seen somewhere in the forums that a setup with, say, CircleNet for outbound and FreelyCall for inbound would be reasonably cheap. But, if someone is calling 24 hours or more in outbounds calls a month, that's a little over $7 a month. Also, I do not know how to go about this set up.

Main question:  Is there a way to spoof my gvoice # for outbound calls while using Skype's current $2.99 unlimited calling plan AND not have to have a computer on in order for the setup to work?

OR is there an even cheaper alternative?
[UPDATE]Skype + Google Voice number + Obi110 seems to work well in conjunction

Thanks in advance for the help!!

peterh

Alas, you've just missed the boat for getting free Internet telephone service via the ObiHai and other devices through Google Voice. That's what I've been doing, but their free service ends this month, so I've had to sign up with another provider.

I've been very happy with the Obi110 I bought several years ago. It's given me great phone service (through Google) for very little money. Now the GV free ride is ending, I signed up with PhonePower, which I've only just started with, but looks like it'll be a good choice for our household. We picked their $35/year plan, which has 300 minutes of outbound calling per month and a penny-per-minute rate after that. More than we need, but they have a $60/year unlimited plan, too.

Assuming you have broadband Internet and a router with an open wired Ethernet port, I'd probably go with an Obi110 and pick one of their "approved service providers." Both PhonePower and Anveo offer great plans, any of which beat the pants off of local phone company offerings and cost. Your dad will get cheaper phone service with more offerings, probably won't notice any difference between traditional landlines and the Obi110 line, and can take both the ObiHai interface and his phone number with him if he ever moves elsewhere.

One last thing. You can go to, say, PhonePower and order their service with their "free" adapter, but they PhonePower charges more when you get their adapter, and their adapter is tied to their service. The ObiHai works with several service providers, and, if your provider goes away like Google Voice has or their service quality declines, it's pretty trivial to switch providers.

pinchpenny

Well, I've had the obihai110 with gvoice for about a year now. Now, with the fateful doomsday approaching (May 15th), I have to figure out what is best.

So, are you saying I can't somehow use Skype for outbound & inbound calls using my Google Voice number?

pinchpenny

Well, I've answered my own question, it seems.

If you buy a FreeTalk Connect Me Skype adapter thingy, you will be able to make calls from your landline to other landline and mobiles using your Skype account (provided you pay for a subscription) and have your gvoice number show as the caller pretty nicely.

The problem you'll run into is RECEIVING calls using your adapter there and Skype. What you could do is shell out $60/year on top of the $35/year (subscription service) for a SkypeIn number. If you did that, you could forward calls to your gvoice number to this SkypeIn number for about a total $95/year (w/ unlimited nationwide calling).

But, if we recall, it would be cheaper simply using our Obihai devices with a SIP service provider (such as callcentric, anveo, vestalink, etc.) for about $59.99/yr unlimited calling. With the latter solution, you would get E911 service, among other things, as opposed to using the Skype method, which does not provide E911 service.

You might have been able to avoid paying Skype the additional $60/yr using ring2skype some time ago, but I did some research and it appears the current replacement for r2s (e.g., www.ring2me.com) does not offer U.S. numbers that forward to Skype. Without a U.S. number, Google Voice will not accept a phone number from outside the U.S. (including canadian numbers).

Am I correct on all of this? ???


giqcass

Sounds right, but 2 options for the cheapo.

Option 1 preferred = Caller ID and CNAM
If you Keep your Obi you can get a free incoming did (Callcentric preferred) and hook the Obi/Freetalk adapter in line.

Option 2 downside = no Caller ID
Forward a free DID to yourSkypeUserName@skype.jetnumbers.com
Long live our new ObiLords!

pinchpenny

#6
Quote from: giqcass on May 05, 2014, 07:42:04 PM
Sounds right, but 2 options for the cheapo.

Option 1 preferred = Caller ID and CNAM
If you Keep your Obi you can get a free incoming did (Callcentric preferred) and hook the Obi/Freetalk adapter in line.

Option 2 downside = no Caller ID
Forward a free DID to yourSkypeUserName@skype.jetnumbers.com

Hold the phone! I can't connect both the Freetalk and Obihai110 devices to the landline phone jack, so how could I receive incoming calls with the Obi and make outbound calls with the Freetalk simultaneously?

Usetheforceobiwan

#7
A year of unlimited Skype to POTS calling (Skype calls it a subscription) is $30.00 and once you have the subscription, they charge you $30 a year for a Skype Number which is a local DID.  So total cost is $60 a year for unlimited calling with a local DID people can call you at and people can reach your DID by calling your Skype ID (i.e. they don't have to have a telephone).  

Note that you can sometimes buy Skype credit on sale so that $60 can actually be $42 after a 30% discount.   That means with Skype you can get a whole year of unlimited calling to U.S. and Canada with local DID for $3.50 / month which is extremely competitive.    If you end up going this route, make sure you buy the subscription first then get the DID as Skype only discounts the DID 50% after you have gotten the subscription.

As someone suggested, the FreeTalk Connect Me 1200 is a Skype only ATA that allows you to receive calls to your Skype DID and Skype name through your home telephone and you can also use the Connect Me to make outgoing POTS phone calls through your home phone.  The Connect Me has one FXO and one FXS connection so that you can daisy chain it between your phone and landline jack if you still have a landline.  The FreeTalk ATA has it's own webpage on your network that you use to setup initially, after setup the Connect Me is standalone and requires no computer to be connected to it or to be on all the time.

Skype also offers SIP connections for PBXs, ATAs like Obi and softphones to Skype service through Skype Manager.  This is different from the setup above and costs a minimum of $6.95 a month with no allowance for minutes.  I tried it for three months but did not continue due to the cost of the DID.

Skype allows you to spoof outgoing CID for numbers you control.  Skype does not offer porting services (in or out) of any kind that I am aware of.  SMS's cost like 11 cents per message and are not included in any subscriptions that I am aware of.

pinchpenny

#8
Quote from: Usetheforceobiwan on May 05, 2014, 08:34:23 PM
A year of unlimited Skype to POTS calling (Skype calls it a subscription) is $30.00 and once you have the subscription, they charge you $30 a year for a Skype Number which is a local DID.  So total cost is $60 a year for unlimited calling with a local DID people can call you at and people can reach your DID by calling your Skype ID (i.e. they don't have to have a telephone).  

Note that you can sometimes buy Skype credit on sale so that $60 can actually be $42 after a 30% discount.   That means with Skype you can get a whole year of unlimited calling to U.S. and Canada with local DID for $3.50 / month which is extremely competitive.    If you end up going this route, make sure you buy the subscription first then get the DID as Skype only discounts the DID 50% after you have gotten the subscription.

As someone suggested, the FreeTalk Connect Me 1200 is a Skype only ATA that allows you to receive calls to your Skype DID and Skype name through your home telephone and you can also use the Connect Me to make outgoing POTS phone calls through your home phone.  The Connect Me has one FXO and one FXS connection so that you can daisy chain it between your phone and landline jack if you still have a landline.  The FreeTalk ATA has it's own webpage on your network that you use to setup initially, after setup the Connect Me is standalone and requires no computer to be connected to it or to be on all the time.

Skype also offers SIP connections for PBXs, ATAs like Obi and softphones to Skype service through Skype Manager.  This is different from the setup above and costs a minimum of $6.95 a month with no allowance for minutes.  I tried it for three months but did not continue due to the cost of the DID.

Skype allows you to spoof outgoing CID for numbers you control.  Skype does not offer porting services (in or out) of any kind that I am aware of.  SMS's cost like 11 cents per message and are not included in any subscriptions that I am aware of.


It sounds like what giqcass is saying is that I can have my cake and eat it too:  use callcentric's free DID for incoming (spoofing with my gvoice number) and use Skype for outgoing "to POTS," as you say. But, I don't understand how I could do that with the Freetalk and Obihai110 that I have.

And, yes, Skype does let you spoof your Skype number. So, I would spoof the free incoming DID from callcentric (or whomever) and also spoof Skype's outgoing number.

Usetheforceobiwan

#9
Phone >> Obi110 FXS (phone jack) >> Obi110 FXO (line jack) >> FreeTalk FXS (phone jack) >> FreeTalk FXO (line jack) >> Landline Jack

Then you will have to set up routing in Obi110 to make this scheme work.  You will still have the two SP's free as the routing in this scheme is all through the phone ports. You could probably switch the positioning of the Freetalk and Obi110 in sequence but I'm too tired to think about how that would screw up dialing.  With that in mind, you will need to modify the phone ports dialing plan in order to provide the codes to dial out from the Obi or the Freetalk, depending on how you want your calls to go out.

pinchpenny

Quote from: Usetheforceobiwan on May 05, 2014, 08:51:36 PM

Then you will have to set up routing in Obi110 to make this scheme work.  You will still have the two SP's free as the routing in this scheme is all through the phone ports.

To be honest, I wouldn't know how that could work if when I did that, I actually do happen upon making that work.

Though, what would the routing scheme in the Obi110 look like?

Usetheforceobiwan

#11
Quote from: pinchpenny on May 05, 2014, 08:55:42 PM
Quote from: Usetheforceobiwan on May 05, 2014, 08:51:36 PM

Then you will have to set up routing in Obi110 to make this scheme work.  You will still have the two SP's free as the routing in this scheme is all through the phone ports.

To be honest, I wouldn't know how that could work if when I did that, I actually do happen upon making that work.

Though, what would the routing scheme in the Obi110 look like?

There are lots of people on here that could better explain this and provide you with the proper inbound routing and dial plans.   You might want to search the ObiTalk forum for Ooma, Vonage or Nettalk threads as the ATA's for these services work very similarly to the Freetalk adapter.  I'm sure someone has set up a system with an Obi110 with one of those ATA's at some point.

pinchpenny

Quote from: Usetheforceobiwan on May 05, 2014, 08:58:06 PM
Quote from: pinchpenny on May 05, 2014, 08:55:42 PM
Quote from: Usetheforceobiwan on May 05, 2014, 08:51:36 PM

Then you will have to set up routing in Obi110 to make this scheme work.  You will still have the two SP's free as the routing in this scheme is all through the phone ports.

To be honest, I wouldn't know how that could work if when I did that, I actually do happen upon making that work.

Though, what would the routing scheme in the Obi110 look like?

There are lots of people on here that could better explain this and provide you with the proper inbound routing and dial plans. 

I see, it's late where I am, and so I'm tired too. All over trying to get my annual phone bill cheaper!

giqcass

#13
The Obi has Callcentric registered on it.  In Callcentric turn on CNAM(Caller ID Name).  The line port is set as the primary outgoing route.  The Skype adapter is attached to the Obi110 FXO port.  All outgoing calls will go through Skype.  Skype Spoofs your number for Callcentric.  All incoming calls bypass the Skype adapter and ring the phone attached to the Obi.  There really isn't much more accept you may decide to configure 7 digit dialing.


This can be accomplished by connecting the two devices in reverse if you don't have an Obi110. 
Long live our new ObiLords!

pinchpenny

#14
Wow! A diagram! If I could get this kind of service elsewhere!!!

Thanks, giqcass! :-*

I'll have to try this to see how seamless it is. I'll report back :D ;)

pinchpenny

#15
Well, it seems to work, but, like you said, I have to dial the 1 before the area code and then the remaining 6 digits.

In order to fix that, is this the right thread to look in?

It was really nice of you to help, thanks again giqcass. Also, thanks for the additional support, Usetheforceobiwan!--I tried to use the force, I tried.

[UPDATE]Well, the voicemail is all screwy, probably because I have Skype spoofing my gvoice number. And so, when I dial my gvoice number on my phone to get to voicemail, google sees my gvoice number! So, it either drops the call or I get a call from my gvoice number while I'm trying to ring my gv voicemail. And, for whatever reason, the voicemail icon on my phone keeps blinking, even when I manually clear it in the settings.

giqcass

The issue with checking your Voicemail when spoofing your Google Voice number is a known issue.  I don't think it happens with every provider but it appears to happen with many. 
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=7890.msg51309#msg51309

It looks like you are on the right track for your other problem.  Update us if you need further help.
Long live our new ObiLords!