I saw threads that discussed the lack of getting a caller's name from the Obi back in the first half of this year. Has any progress been made? Is there any way to display a caller's name from either a lookup, a GV contact, or even a local list on the Obi yet?
Tom
Not at this time. I use the WhitePages API with Sipsorcery (free account) and GV for inbound calls, it works well.
Example: It will show name of person or company and number. If there is no listing in WhitePages.com database for caller it will show city and state and number from where the call originated.
It is a free service from WhitePages.com or you can build a local list in the Sipsorcery script/dial plan/use case.
Quote from: lhm. on November 02, 2011, 06:43:29 AM
Not at this time. I use the WhitePages API with Sipsorcery (free account) and GV for inbound calls, it works well.
Example: It will show name of person or company and number. If there is no listing in WhitePages.com database for caller it will show city and state and number from where the call originated.
It is a free service from WhitePages.com or you can build a local list in the Sipsorcery script/dial plan/use case.
Hi lhm you have this exact reply reply copy pasted in a few topics, is there a howto for what you did? because the only reference I can find to this setup is in your replies.
+1
I am interested also.
+1
Some setup instructions would be great or even a step-by-step procedure. Like how to use the whitepages.com api?
Thank you...
Sipsorcery account is needed (no longer free). Go to Sipsorcery.com forum for details.
I smell bacon, wait no, ham, wait no, is that SPAM?
+ 1
Forgot to ask, would it be possible to get caller ID with the Obi Android app and the White Pages Caller ID? Either on a android phone without service, but connected to the Internet through wifi, OR in a virtual machine running android?
Also, I found this: http://michigantelephone.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/beta-perl-script-for-caller-id-popups-when-using-obihai-devices/
^would this work in Windows or Ubuntu?
It's a Perl script so it should work on any platform as long as you have Perl installed, but if you've never used a Perl script before you may need to find out how to install the required LWP::UserAgent module if it's not already installed.
HOWEVER as written it will not show a name unless you have an Asterisk server with "Caller ID Superfecta" running. It could probably be modified to do its own lookups but that would require more programming skills than I possess.
Other threads you may find interesting are here:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=185
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=2112
This is such a frequently asked question that I am going to just throw this out there. If you have a spare computer (it doesn't have to be the latest and greatest) you can install PBX in a Flash (http://www.pbxinaflash.com/) (PiaF) which is a full PBX program and is totally free. One of the modules that comes with it is called Caller ID Superfecta and that can be configured to try to look up a Caller ID name using any of several free reverse lookup sources on the Internet. If it fails to get a name it can also use the Telcodata.us database to look up an approximate location for the caller's number (which may or may not be the actual geographic location of the caller, but at least it's something). In addition, you can put the numbers of people who call you frequently in the "Asterisk Phonebook" and then it will always display their name.
So let's say you have PiaF installed on a computer and you have your Obihai device configured like this:
Google Voice account on SP1
PiaF extension on SP2
What you can do is use one of the Voice Gateways in the Obihai to divert incoming calls from Google Voice to the PiaF server and at that point you can use Caller ID Superfecta, the Asterisk blacklist and phonebook, and any other special features of PiaF to handle the incoming call and then send it right back to your Obihai device on SP2. I explain how to do that here:
How to divert incoming Google Voice calls from an Obihai VoIP device to an Asterisk server for additional processing (such as Caller ID lookup) (https://michigantelephone.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/how-to-divert-incoming-google-voice-calls-from-an-obihai-voip-device-to-an-asterisk-server-for-additional-processing-such-as-caller-id-lookup/)
I do realize that many PiaF and Asterisk users would prefer to use their Obihai device as a full bidirectional gateway between Google Voice and Asterisk and of course that's also possible (I wrote a couple of articles on that last year, and others have also tackled the subject) but some people may be fine with sending their outgoing calls directly to Google Voice, and it's only the incoming calls that leave something to be desired, so this covers that situation and is a lot easier to set up if you have a PiaF server running. Plus, because the server is on your local network, there is a lot less latency added than when you ship the call off to some distant service (such as Sipsorcery) and back. Google Voice has enough latency of its own; we really don't need to add any. But yes, you do have to learn how to configure the PBX, so there is that.
Just a note to MT's post. For those who own a Tonidoplug(2), the Asterisk package is available for it.