Incoming ringtone problem - Ring tone is clipped

[consolz]

Hi, I have an Obi100 configured with GoogleVoice and Anveo. From day 1, incoming calls had this brief and clipped ringtone. At first I thought perhaps it was GV, but now that I have Anveo, it also happens on that number. So I am thinking now that either there is something wrong or misconfigured with the Obi device. I looked at ObiExpert and could not find anything there to help resolve.

I heard this type of ringtone once before, on my landline phone. I called the carrier and they fixed it, but they never stated what the actual issue was, only that it was "something on the pole".

Thanks in advance for any help!

[drgeoff]

Sorry, I haven't any ideas as to what is the cause in your current situation.

On a copper, line it is possible to have something abnormal* across the two wires of the pair which is not normally low enough resistance to give the local office the impression that the phone is off-hook.  However the application of ringing voltage can change the state of that abnormality so that its resistance falls enough that the local office thinks the phone is off-hook (ie the call has been answered) and stops ringing it. Hence the clipped ring.

* vegetation, verdigris, dead animal etc

This cause is certainly not applicable to VoIP.

[SteveInWA]

Hi, I have an Obi100 configured with GoogleVoice and Anveo. From day 1, incoming calls had this brief and clipped ringtone. At first I thought perhaps it was GV, but now that I have Anveo, it also happens on that number. So I am thinking now that either there is something wrong or misconfigured with the Obi device. I looked at ObiExpert and could not find anything there to help resolve.

I heard this type of ringtone once before, on my landline phone. I called the carrier and they fixed it, but they never stated what the actual issue was, only that it was "something on the pole".

Thanks in advance for any help!

The obvious question is:  have you unplugged the telephone that is making that unusual ring, and tried using a different telephone?  Just because the possibly failing telephone might ring properly when plugged into a regular POTS telephone line, doesn't mean that it will work on the OBi.

IF you can prove that it isn't the telephone, AND you haven't messed with the factory settings on the OBi, then perhaps the OBi or its power supply is defective.

[consolz]

Hi thanks for looking at this guys. Yes, I did try with a different phone. The original phone that I had connected was an old rotary phone that I keep around in case of emergencies, as it doesn't require a separate power adapter.

If it was some kind of issue in the Obi, is there a field I can look at in the ObiExpert that might tell me? The example of ring voltage is a good one and I think Obitalk reports the current value, but I have no idea what the proper value should be.

I think I'll also try pursuing this again on a support ticket that I still have open. Support said they don't support changing ring tones and therefore couldn't help, but thinking back, I think I described the problem to them incorrectly.

[SteveInWA]

Your reply is unclear.  Which phone is failing, the rotary dial phone, or a modern phone, or both?  I wouldn't expect the rotary phone to reliably ring when plugged into the OBi 100.

You do know that the rotary phone is absolutely useless for "emergency" use on your OBi, because (unless you've added a rotary<-->DTMF converter) the OBi doesn't recognize pulse dialing...right?

[consolz]

Hi sorry if I wasn't clear. Any phone, if plugged into the Obi, has clipped incoming rings. I only mentioned rotary because that was one of the phones I tested with. I am a bit curious though as to why a rotary phone wouldn't reliably ring on the Obi. It's a BellSouth model that has the option to switch between tone or pulse dialing. And you're right, it's no good as an emergency phone anymore as I've done away with my landline.

I'm attaching the audio files that I sent to Obi suppport. As of yet, I've not heard back. There are two WAV files in the zip archive. They are slightly different ringtones, as configured on the phone, to show that the clipping is still present. Phone is an ATT DECT model but as I mentioned, the phones have tested fine on landlines. Anyways, the call comes in and you can hear the full ring. Normally, you'd hear that same ring over and over. Instead, after the first ring, the succeeding rings are brief and clipped.

Thanks.

[SteveInWA]

When you said "old rotary dial phone", I assumed it was an old Western Electric 500 model or older, which had an electromagnetic clapper and bell ringer.  The OBi devices may have trouble powering those ringers.  I now hear that you have a newer phone with an electronic ringer, so my comment doesn't apply.

Thanks for posting the sound files.  I suppose it's a corollary to the old saying, "a picture speaks a thousand words"; in this case, the sound files show that the rings aren't "clipped", meaning that there is no abnormal loss of ringing power causing a muffled or defective-sounding ring.  What you're hearing is a different ring pattern, commonly used to help the customer tell the difference between an incoming call to one of their phone numbers vs. a second, different number.  The phone companies called this feature "Distinctive ring", back in the day when you could have one physical phone line that would receive calls from two different numbers.

On the OBi, this is controlled by Ring profiles.  Each ring profile, A or B, has a set of definitions for the various frequencies and duration used by the different types of ring sounds.  You've probably either changed the pattern yourself, or you're using ring profile B instead of A.

The ring profile is specified in the Voice Service section, separately for each SPx, as "X_RingProfile".

The settings for each ring profile are under Ring Settings.

Go to the OBiTALK portal page for your device, get into Expert configuration mode, and then edit the settings as you wish.  Note that you need to un-check both check-boxes to the right of a setting before it will allow you to change the setting.

[consolz]

Thank you very much! I only knew you could change the ring tone, kind of like when you change the music on your cell phone, but had never heard of distinctive ring or this particular type of pattern. Anyways, it seems like Ring Profile B is the default for SIP B and once I changed it to profile A, it was exactly how I wanted it. I don't care or need the distinctive ring because I use B for all incoming and A only for outbound.