Would be possible to connect an OBi110 with my Ooma Core at the same time? Here's the situation:
I have the Ooma Core (with Scout), so I have two lines, no landline. Ooma works great.
But now I'd like to add a THIRD phone line using the same Internet connection, that would be connected to a completely separate phone, i.e. not ring through the sames physical phones as the other two Ooma lines. And I'd like to use the OBi110 (along with Google Voice) to do that. Possible?
Remember the Ooma is installed "first", before my wireless router, which I believe is the same place OBi110 would go. So, if it is possible for both devices to co-exist, but operate completely independently, how would I do it?
Thanks!
- Brent
Hi, The Obi goes behind the router. If you have an available lan port on the router, you can install the Obi there. Every ATA (Obi) needs a unique IP address. The router will assign it, or you can make it static inside the Obi.
Don't forget you can have upto 2 Google voice accounts (or 2 SIP accounts)+ 1 PSNT line + 9 Obi lines (your unit with 8 other Obi gateways). You will need to connect to another Obi user to be able to use the Obi lines, or carry a second Obi when you travel.
In your case it sounds like you can enjoy the 2 Google voice accounts.
I am completely new to Obi and would really appreciate help on this topic:
- I currently have Ooma at home (hub only), setup with my router and cable modem. No landline.
- I just received the Obi110 in the mail. I will set it up with Google Voice. No problems here.
- I would like to set the Obi110 up as a backup to Ooma, or as an instant second line if possible. That is, I want to continue using Ooma as I do now, 7 or 10 digit dialing for inbound or outbound. But in case Ooma goes down, I would like to be able to call through the Obi and my current phone + router + modem, and receive calls at my Google Voice number. Would be nice to have the Obi supply an instant second line too for outbound when the Ooma line is busy.
- I also would like to disconnect my now dead landline at the home interface box, and connect the Obi to a phone jack in my house, to get a dial tone at all jacks in the house.
How would I go about doing this? Please help with detailed instructions if possible (e.g. which ports at Ooma to connect to Obi, how to configure, ...).
Thanks a million! Paul
Connect the phone port of the Ooma to Line port of the OBi110.
Connect the phone port of the OBi110 to the wall jack at home.
Connect regular analog phone to other wall jack at home.
You need to make sure that you have disconnected your landline service provider at the NIC box (outside of the home), and make sure the wiring in the house is one of the same throughout (all wall jacks are connected as one).
Configure google voice on your SP1, but DO NOT check it as primary line. So your primary line is still the default Line port (now connected to Ooma).
Everytime you make a call out -- 7 digit or 10 digit or 11 digit -- press # at the end.
If the Ooma is busy, then press **1 followed by the phone number -- this will go to your GV line.
Incoming calls to GV line will ring the home phone normally.
Thanks so much OBi-Guru. I assume I can also connect the phone port of the OBi110 to a splitter, connect a cordless phone to one splitter output (near the Obi), and run a phone cord from the other splitter output to a wall jack (which is much farther away). Is this correct?
Also, forgive me but what is SP1?
Is there a way to get rid of the # sign at the end when making a call?
Finally, when Ooma is busy, and I pickup one of the cordless handsets, as I press **1 will the other party who is talking on Ooma, hear these beeps?
Paul
I don't have an Ooma, but with regard to your last point, if you need any help or advice on that try here:
How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home (http://mi-telecom.org/distribute.html)
With regard to your other questions, if you connect the output (phone port) of the Ooma to the Line port of the OBi110, then you should be able to use a phone connected to the OBi110's Phone port and dial # to get dial tone from the Ooma, or dial **8 + the number you want to route it to the Ooma. But I also think that if you went into the OBi110's portal (Phone port section) you could select your primary line to be the PSTN Line (and therefore the Ooma in this case), in which case calls dialed normally would go out via the Ooma but calls dialed using the **1 prefix would go out via Service Provider 1.
There is also the possibility to select a Trunk Group which may bring you closer to what you want, but you'd have to know how to configure it. I was told once that in the Trunk Groups and Gateways section, if you create a Trunk Group with sp1,sp2 it would allow the device to automatically use the sp2 account if sp1 is in use. So maybe you could use something like li,sp1 to try the PSTN port first, then fall over to sp1 (Google Voice) if it's not available. So, you could give that a try.
I'll take a crack at this but if OBi-Guru says something different, take his advice, not mine!
Quote from: alins on February 10, 2011, 02:12:13 PM
Thanks so much OBi-Guru. I assume I can also connect the phone port of the OBi110 to a splitter, connect a cordless phone to one splitter output (near the Obi), and run a phone cord from the other splitter output to a wall jack (which is much farther away). Is this correct?
Yes. Or you could put a splitter at the phone jack and connect your phone there. There is nothing magical about a splitter, it is effectively just two phone jacks connected to the same line.
Quote from: alins on February 10, 2011, 02:12:13 PMAlso, forgive me but what is SP1?
Service Provider 1, which in your case will be Google Voice (you could also put a second Google Voice account on SP2 if you wanted to).
Quote from: alins on February 10, 2011, 02:12:13 PMIs there a way to get rid of the # sign at the end when making a call?
Yes, but that gets into messing with digit maps. Baby steps — after you get everything else working then you can come back to that.
Quote from: alins on February 10, 2011, 02:12:13 PMFinally, when Ooma is busy, and I pickup one of the cordless handsets, as I press **1 will the other party who is talking on Ooma, hear these beeps?
Yes. Please keep in mind you only have ONE phone port coming out of your OBi device. Once the OBi100's become available, there might be a way you could buy one of them and "slave" it off the OBi110, so you'd have a second phone port and access to both the Ooma (which would remain plugged into the OBi110) and to the Google Voice account(s) on sp1 and sp2. I don't know offhand how you'd do that (only because I've never tried) but I'll bet it could be done, possibly by using the OBiTALK network as a bridge between the two devices. But unless you do something like that, or just run the Ooma and OBi110 as separate devices, you're still only going to have only one phone line for all your phones.
(
EDIT: Regarding "slaving" one OBi device off another, I think this is sort of what the Home to Office Phone System Extension Wizard (http://www.obihai.com/pbxExtension.html) does.)
If you had two-line phones, I'd say just connect one line to the Ooma and the other to the OBi110, then you could use both your Ooma and your Google Voice account simultaneously.
No need for a second Google Voice account on SP2. You can use the same one on SP1 and SP2 to make two calls. ;)