Hi
Just bought an Obi 202 box. Signed up for obitalk and got and email from obi what I thought was a set by set up instructions.
I have connected up ok and got a dial tone, updated the firmware, tried to register the devices, tried to setup google voice. All seemed to be going ok until it started telling me to buy a new SIM card?? and started talking about my cell phone and such. I am now very confused and after a second try with another useless set of instructions I think I my need to wipeout whatever I have done out and somehow start over.
My particulars are as follows:
I have 2 land line numbers (1 home & 1 business, currently ported through Comcast cable) that I need to port to the obi device. I have a Bluetooth dongle thing that plugs into the back of the obi, but not sure now what this is for. I normally have incoming business line forwarded to my cell. so would like to just have one or both lines ring on my cell as well as the regular phones. Calling out I usually just use the regular phone and not my cell.
I consider myself fairly technical but all the instructions for this seem to be directed at people who are very familiar with VOIP and the lingo- I am not-
Does anyone know of a easy, good, detailed set of set up instructions? Am I in too far over my head or am I missing something that makes setup easier?
Thankful for any insight you could provide,
Matt
Obitalk service, not to be confused with the Obitalk web portal, can only make calls between OBi devices. If you want to communicate with people who have 'normal phones' you need an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP). There are many to choose from including Google Voice (GV) . Your 202 can work with up to 4 accounts from 1 to 4 different ITSPs. Most can port-in existing landline numbers. But I believe GV will only port cellphone numbers which is why you may encounter instructions to port a landline number to a mobile and then to GV.
Not sure why you have a Bluetooth dongle. It does not normally come bundled with a 202. It lets your Obi connect to a BT enabled phone such that the analogue phone plugged in to the OBi can make or answer calls over your cellphone's carrier. I suggest you ignore that option while getting your feet wet.
Thanks for the reply
I got it to work with the GV provided number and now I think I understand the process of converting my land line numbers to a cell number and then porting to GV. The thing that I am still not sure about is if I can port 2 numbers to my GV account? I suppose if a have to I could open a GV account using my wife's account and set her GV account as another obi service provider.
It is slooowly starting to makes sense to me- I think. Is there any negative to converting a number to a cellular number? could I change this in the future if needed?
I am going to keep plunging forward. I hate my service with Comcast (and it isn't cheap). So really hoping I can get this device and GV to do everything I need. Do you know if any of the other obi SPs are easier to set up with a 2 number system such as mine?
The Bluetooth dongle I bought (apparently not fully understanding the function) I believe I am seeing that this is so you can make and receive calls using an app through GV. To start with I believe I can set up GV to ring on my mobile number and on one or both landlines. So since I don't really care too much about outgoing calls or about cell phone minutes I don't think I care about this for now.
Thanks again
Quote from: MattLS on June 10, 2015, 07:59:15 PM
Thanks for the reply
I got it to work with the GV provided number and now I think I understand the process of converting my land line numbers to a cell number and then porting to GV. The thing that I am still not sure about is if I can port 2 numbers to my GV account? I suppose if a have to I could open a GV account using my wife's account and set her GV account as another obi service provider.
Porting:
Google Voice only supports porting in numbers from mobile carriers, so that's why people first port the numbers from land line to mobile. A Google Voice account can hold two ported-in numbers, but inbound calls to either number will be handled the same way -- there's no way to route the calls to different OBi devices or other forwarding destinations based on which number is being called. If you don't care about this, then you can port in one number, and after it's fully completed, port in another one. The other approach is to create another, separate GV account, and port the second number into that account. That way, you can set up the two inbound numbers as two separate service provider slots on your 202, and have one ring phone(s) plugged into the Line 1 jack, and the other number ring phone(s) plugged into the Line 2 jack.
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It is slooowly starting to makes sense to me- I think. Is there any negative to converting a number to a cellular number? could I change this in the future if needed?
There is no significant downside to porting the land line first to a mobile carrier, aside from the time and effort it takes, and the small additional cost for porting. US FCC regulations require that carriers permit you to port out a number that they currently hold. However, there is no corresponding rule requiring carriers to accept a given number for porting into their service (there are technical limitations that would make this impractical). After you port a number to GV, or to any carrier, for that matter, they will let you port it back out if you wish.
Be sure to read through all the information, including the FAQs, on this page, before attempting to port into GV:
https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667
You can test whether or not your number can be ported into GV here:
https://www.google.com/voice/porting
There are two possible "oops" messages: either your carrier isn't supported for porting (this is the normal error message displayed when the number is not with a mobile carrier), or that your location isn't supported for porting. Ignore the first error if you haven't yet ported to mobile. Don't bother porting to mobile if you get the second error; you cannot port the number to GV in that case.
I recommend porting to either AT&T GoPhone or T-Mobile prepaid, as things will go smoother than with a small MVNO (reseller) carrier.
Quote from: MattLS on June 10, 2015, 07:59:15 PM
The Bluetooth dongle I bought (apparently not fully understanding the function)
You can use the Bluetooth Dongle to link your OBi2xx to a cell phone then use the cell phone as an OBi trunk to make and receive calls.
Thank you for the replies
I got busy with paying the bills and stopped working on this for awhile.
hopefully next week I can return to working on this. I will report how it goes and what I learned later.
Hi, I'm new here. Where can I post my own question? Don't want to interfere with you're issues. However, I can receive calls on my OBI202 device but NOT outgoing calls. My service provider (Onesuite) says its my device. I have previously spoken to a tech guy from OBI and said its my provider. Someone PLEASE help me here! Thanks!!
Quote from: Rosie on July 03, 2015, 09:33:36 AM
Hi, I'm new here. Where can I post my own question? Don't want to interfere with you're issues. However, I can receive calls on my OBI202 device but NOT outgoing calls. My service provider (Onesuite) says its my device. I have previously spoken to a tech guy from OBI and said its my provider. Someone PLEASE help me here! Thanks!!
Probably the best section is 'Installation and setup'. If you look at the list of topics in any section, at the top right and bottom right of the box enclosing that list you will see a few buttons, one of which is 'new topic'.
When you post in the new topic be sure to describe exactly what you do and what happens when you attempt to make a call. Phrases like "doesn't work" are not not sufficiently informative.
Ok I have the first number in the process of porting to my google voice account. Then I will port my other number to my other google voice account and connect both GV accounts to my obi202. My next question is how do I connect up my 2-line phone to the obi202. Will I have to split the pairs an plug line 1 into phone 1 and line 2 into phone two. Or is each obi jack already capable of doing 2 lines? The when I set up each GV as a SP on the OBI I assume I will need to use "phone 1" and "phone 2" respectively? Or am I misunderstanding obi meaning of phone 1 and phone 2?
Hey Matt:
So, you're making good progress. Connecting the phone will be easy. Basic telephone wiring primer: US modular phone plugs and jacks come in different wiring configurations. The two most common are RJ-11, which has two gold pins in the center, and RJ-14, which has four gold pins. The center two pins are for telephone line one, and the outer two pins are for line two. So, you'll find "silver satin" phone cords that have either two conductors or four, as seen by looking at the gold pins inside the plugs.
Most two-line analog telephones have two jacks: one labelled "L1+L2", and another labelled "L2". This is to enable the user to either plug in a four-conductor cord into the L1+L2 jack to connect both lines over one cord, or to connect the two lines individually; line one into the L1+2 jack and line two into the L2 jack. This is to accommodate premises that either have a RJ-14 wall jack with both pairs live, or two RJ-11 wall jacks, one for each line. Note that the phone's L2 jack actually uses the center two gold pins, since technically, it's a single line jack.
The OBi 202 is wired exactly the same way. Its first phone jack is wired as RJ-14, and then the outer two conductors of that jack are wired internally over to the center two pins of the other phone jack.
So, long story short: either use a 4-conductor cord between the two devices' L1+L2 jacks, or use two, two-conductor cords between two individual lines -- same result electrically.
The OBiTALK dashboard has a little table with check-mark boxes, to select which VoIP service provider slots (SP1 -- SP4) will be activated on which of the two phone jacks. In your case, just select GV1/SP1-->L1 and GV2/SP2-->L2.
The Phone1 jack on a 202 is wired for a 2-line phone. Phone1 on the innermost pair and Phone2 on the pins either side of those. Phone2 jack is wired with only the innermost pair for Phone2.
Ok so I will use both pairs of the phone 1 connection with my two line phone.
I see that on GV it is possible for me to keep my original number (for $20) if I was to port my second number to my GV account. (thereby porting both numbers that I want to 1 GV account) But not sure how/if this could be set up on my obi. (It appears that maybe I must set each number up as a second SP in order to control what line each number rings on as well as other settings for each line?) I need to be able to control what each line does as line one will be personal and the other business. I am on the right track here with using two GV accounts, one for each number? or would it be in fact easier to port both to one GV account?
Thanks for your help, I think I am getting there!
Re-read my post from June: https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=10050.msg66421#msg66421
If you port both numbers into one GV account, you cannot control the inbound calling behavior of those lines separately. The OBi is configured on a per-GV account basis, not on a phone number basis. If you have one GV account with two inbound phone numbers assigned, then calls to either number will ring the one GV account that is configured on your OBi.
If you port each number into a separate GV account, then you can configure them completely independent of each other, as I described.
So I have my number ported to GV. And GV set as SP1. SP1 status says connected. I have selected "phone 2" for incoming and outgoing. (I have tried with phone 1 also selected"
OBI number on device config is different- but I assume this never changes? Also I see a "soft phone" and number
When I dial my number ported to GV (from another line) I get a message saying that the "GV customer is not available leave a message". Then I get an email from GV telling me I missed a call.
When I dial out from phone 1 or phone 2 it seems to work fine
On my GV setting page I see "forward calls to:" and then an unchecked box next to "google chat" which has something to do with my gmail email address. Should I delete the google chat selection? Any other ideas? Do I need to forward from GV to the obi # I mentioned above?
You need to have a check mark in the box next to Google Chat, to receive inbound calls. Calling via an OBi technically uses the old Google Chat (XMPP) protocol, not Google Voice, which is an inbound call forwarding system.
It sounds like that's all that you've overlooked, but here are my complete instructions:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=8560.msg56460#msg56460 (http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=8560.msg56460#msg56460)
As for the phone 1 vs. phone 2 question, again: the 202 has 4 logical service provider configurations, and each of those SP1 through SP4 can be set to ring a phone plugged into either the phone 1 jack, or the phone 2 jack, or both. This is controlled on the OBiTALK portal, at the bottom of the settings page.
Google Chat box must be ticked or your Obi will not receive the calls to that GV number.
That worked! Cant wait to play with this to see what all I can do with it.
I had forgot to mention that I had tried checking this box before but maybe it takes a few minutes to switch over.
Anyway it works now. So now to switch over the second number and say goodbye to my old SP!
Thank you!
Now waiting for 2nd number to port over to second GV account.
I have my 1st GV account (SP1 on the obi) set to outgoing/incoming phone 2, but I notice rings out as this number on line 1 and line 2. I assume this will correct itself once the 2nd number is ported and working? I already have SP2 setup and connected, just waiting on the porting to GV.
Many thanks for everyones help getting this setup. Its been fun and I've learned a few things. So far service is great. Way better than the Comcast I was paying way too much for...
When I purchased my obi I also bought a blue tooth dongle thing which plugs into usb the back of the obi. Can someone please give me a description of what this does? I already have the phone forwarded to my cell. So I am guessing that with an app I could make and receive calls without forwarding to my cell? any other features to the blue tooth?
Also how about the LAN port on the obi? Should this be active?
Quote from: MattLS on August 29, 2015, 08:39:28 PM
Now waiting for 2nd number to port over to second GV account.
I have my 1st GV account (SP1 on the obi) set to outgoing/incoming phone 2, but I notice rings out as this number on line 1 and line 2. I assume this will correct itself once the 2nd number is ported and working? I already have SP2 setup and connected, just waiting on the porting to GV.
I don't understand what you mean, but no, the ring behavior is set on the OBiTALK portal, and will follow those settings. It is not going to magically fix itself when you set up the second number. If your phone(s) is/are not ringing as set on the portal, then you may have some sort of telephone cord/jack issue between the OBi and your phone(s). Log into the portal, look at the device's settings page, and ensure that you've selected the correct phones to ring.
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When I purchased my obi I also bought a blue tooth dongle thing which plugs into usb the back of the obi. Can someone please give me a description of what this does? I already have the phone forwarded to my cell. So I am guessing that with an app I could make and receive calls without forwarding to my cell? any other features to the blue tooth?
As Robert already mentioned, the OBi Bluetooth dongle is used to attach either a cell phone (or a BT headset on the OBi IP phones). If you attach a cell phone via BT, then you can use it as another service provider, to make or answer cell phone calls from the OBi.
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Also how about the LAN port on the obi? Should this be active?
The LAN port on the OBi is controlled by the OBi's built-in router. It's used if you wish to connect other network devices downstream from the OBi (e.g. a computer or "internet of things" product). The OBi uses Quality of Service (QoS) technology to give itself priority over the downstream devices. However, the router performance of the OBi is limited, and I wouldn't recommend using its LAN port for your primary computing needs.
I made a mistake- it works fine since adding a SP2. Apparently if you don't have 2 SP's connected it just assigns the 1 SP to both phone 1 and phone 2 because before when I dialed out on either line it came up as the same number. At any rate it seems to be good now.
Roger on the blue tooth. But don't I need a app on my smart phone to use the blue tooth? Seems like there must be an interface. When I check the play store for apps I see an "Obion Android" app- is this needed to use?
Quote from: MattLS on August 29, 2015, 09:48:39 PM
Roger on the blue tooth. But don't I need a app on my smart phone to use the blue tooth? Seems like there must be an interface. When I check the play store for apps I see an "Obion Android" app- is this needed to use?
No, the Obion app does not use Bluetooth in any way. The app gives your Android smartphone the ability to connect (over WiFi or cellular data) to other Obi devices on the Obitalk network. Obitalk service not the portal.
As you have already been told, initially by me then by azrobert and again by SteveInWA, OBiBT enables a short range BT connection between your Obi and a BT equipped cell phone. The cellular path into and out of your cellphone becomes another Service Provider. You can make and receive calls using phone handset(s) on the OBi that go out or come in on your cell service. OBiBT does NOT enable the cell phone to make or receive calls using the ITSPs configured on the OBi.
To the cell phone the BT'd OBi appears to be a BT headset or BT car speaker-mike. No app involved.
If you're still confused, here is some more info:
All Android smartphones have BT support
It's found under Settings on the Android
If it's turned off, just tap ON
Now you need to Pair the OBi202 with the Android
On the OBi202 phone, dial *28
This will make the OBi202 discoverable
On the Android under Settings tap Bluetooth then tap Search For Devices
You should see the OBi
Tap the OBi to pair the 2 devices
Now the OBi should be listed under Paired Devices and say Connected
This procedure might vary slightly for different versions of Android
To make a BT call on the OBi202, dial **8 followed by the phone number
Edit
If you don't see any devices after you Search For Devices, you took too long between dialing *28 and searching
Dial *28 again
I was able to pair and use the ObiBT on one cell phone only.
So I got a second ObiBT and a USB hub.
Then plugged in ObiBT-1 and paired to cell-1
Then unplugged ObiBT-1 and paired ObiBT-2 to cell-2
Still only works with 1 Bluetooth connection at a time. I have tried rebooting Obi202 after each pairing.
I have BT1 configured to ring in on phone2 and BT2 configured to ring in on phone1
Looking at the phone port config I see:
SP2 rings in on Phone 1 & BT
SP1 rings in on Phone 2 (shouldn't this say BT as well?)
Any ideas what I am doing wrong? was I mislead that I can use 2 BT connections? Do you know of any detailed instructions on using ObiBT and especially two ObiBT's?
Thanks again..
somewhere on the forum it said I could use 2 ObiBT's. I looked for the thread to help me do this setup but cant find the thread now though. What is the purpose of BT2 if not to set up a second pairing? The use **81 or **82 to choose which paired line to call out with.
I found the thread:
Topic: OBi202 supports two ObiBT dongles?
or search "USB hub"
Humph, you proved me wrong then! I deleted my clearly incorrect post.
I haven't tried to use two OBiBT dongles at once. IMO, the BT headphone protocol's audio quality is so crappy that I would rather use VoIP.
The official documentation on setting up and using OBiBT starts on page 133 of the Admin guide:
http://www.obihai.com/docs/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf
Thanks its all in the manual...
The problem was that you need to use *28 to make BT discoverable AND set it as BT1, but you must use *29 to make BT discoverable and set as BT2
I am seeing that the range doesn't seem to be very good for the BT. But since I have it I want to set it up and see if its useful to me
Thanks for letting us know! Good luck.