OBI 100 -> OBI 200, now caller ID displays "Out of Area"
SteveInWA:
Dhobi: the behavior you are seeing is generated by the Panasonic phone. There's no way to change it.
Robert, I believe my tests agree with yours, if I understand your posts correctly. I was fooled by your first post using the bogus number 555-1212; I thought you meant it literally displayed THAT number! :-*
I Configured a 110 with GV via the portal. The 110 was connected to a Panasonic DECT 6.0 cordless phone.
Called the GV number from a cell phone, unknown to the Panasonic phone's internal phone book. Phone displayed the caller ID number in large characters, which it does when there is no CNAM to display (so, Working As Designed).
Configured a Callcentric DID on SP2. Called that number from the cell phone. Panny displayed "Cell Phone WA" CNAM (as sent by Callcentric) and the numeric CID (so, again, WAD).
Deleted the 110 off my portal, and added a OBi 200 fresh. Configured GV on SP1 and CC on SP2, and plugged in the Panny phone. Made the same two calls.
Called the GV number from the cell phone, again, unknown to the Panny's internal phone book. The Panny's LCD shows a CNAM of "Out of Area", and the correct numeric CID. But, see my screenshot below. Note that the OBi is not receiving "Out of Area" CNAM from GV; it is receiving nothing.
Called the CC number, and it displayed CNAM and CID as expected.
In any case, my particular Panny phone didn't have a problem displaying the numeric CID, even when the CNAM was either blank or "Out of Area".
As a final test, I replaced the Panny phone with a Uniden phone. When calling the GV number, the Uniden phone displays "Unknown Name".
These are canned response phrases generated by the telephone's caller ID circuitry; they're not being sent by GV or by the OBi.
Other brands of CID units or phones with CID/CNAM may display some other arbitrary canned phrase,or display nothing...it's not consistent. There's no standard for this.
Remember, the ATA (the 110 or 200) receives whatever CNAM string is sent (or, in the case of GV, not sent) digitally from the service provider. It then locally generates the CNAM and CID, and then sends it out over the analog telephone line (Phone port) between ring 1 and 2 using Bell 202 FSK modulation, based on how it interprets and translates that digital data from the service provider. Apparently, the 110 is sending some different indication of no CNAM to the phone, vs the 200, but this is entirely due to the OBi's firmware. Perhaps the 110 was programmed to send a blank space or some other undisplayable character for GV CNAM, to suppress the canned messages, and the 200 conforms to the standard instead.
dhobi:
Steve - thank you very much for your thorough tests. So we agree on the behavior. I have no problem with the CID digits making it to the Panasonic phone, they make it OK. The problem is how OBI200 changed from what OBI100 used to do when the CNAM is not available (which is the case all the time with GV). I wish OBI had an option to say "Copy CID digits to CNAM when CNAM is not available". This way phones would always display something for the name rather than the useless Out of Area or Unknown Caller. They usually display CNAM in a big font and the CID digits below it in a small font. Looking at that Out of Area all the time is not useful at all, you have to train your eyes and brain to ignore it and look at the small digits below it.
azrobert:
Steve said:
Quote
Apparently, the 110 is sending some different indication of no CNAM to the phone, vs the 200, but this is entirely due to the OBi's firmware. Perhaps the 110 was programmed to send a blank space or some other undisplayable character for GV CNAM, to suppress the canned messages, and the 200 conforms to the standard instead.
I think you are exactly correct. This has nothing to do with GV. I tested with the Phonerlite softphone and an old corded phone. I can set the cname to blank in Phonerlite and I think the corded phone displays exactly what is sent as cname. When the corded phone is connected to the OBi200 the phone displays "No Name" indicating a blank cname. When connected to the OBi110 it displays 14 dashes. Apparently the Panasonic will display "Out of area" when the cname is blank. Maybe the corded phone displays dashes when the cname is not displayable and the Panasonic displays CallerId.
Tomorrow I will try to duplicate the OBi110 behavior on the OBi200 by sending a cname containing 14 dashes.
SteveInWA:
The 110 is probably substituting either ASCII blanks or some ASCII character that isn't visible. It's a moot point, since it can't be altered by the OBi user. IMO, the 200 is actually behaving technically correctly, though not as you wish. Whether the CID client (telephone, standalone CID unit, or some software client) displays a canned message, dashes, "Out of Area", "Area 51", or plays the Elvis tune "Return to Sender; Address unknown" is entirely up to that client, when it receives no CNAM. Obhai would have to make a firmware change to alter this minor inconvenience.
Incidentally, the now-defunct-in-the-USA SIP ITSP Sipgate used to do what you wish, and send the numeric CID as the CNAM for EVERY call, since they didn't pay for CNAM service. I found it annoying, but to each his/her own. I'm glad GV doesn't do that.
If it's really bothering you, then submit a feature request post. Hell, ask them to send CNAM "Call from GV". :P
dhobi:
Quote from: SteveInWA on October 28, 2014, 11:25:59 pm
If it's really bothering you, then submit a feature request post. Hell, ask them to send CNAM "Call from GV". :P
That would not really help. I don't care what the text is, if it's some static string, it's useless. The only reasonable thing to do would be to copy the CID digits to CNAM for GV, perhaps add an option for it in the UI. Then I can at least see a number that I may recognize or an area code that I don't know and would want to ignore, without squinting my eyes to dechiper the digits below the useless "Out of Area" big text.
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