News:

On Tuesday September 6th the forum will be down for maintenance from 9:30 PM to 11:59 PM PDT

Main Menu

Is there any block list?

Started by dealyanodeal, March 15, 2011, 08:42:19 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

dealyanodeal

I was wondering if OBI has capability to maintain a list of blocked numbers. I could find mention to anonymous call block but not a block list.

jimates

If you use google voice you can block callers in your google voice account.

I don't know of the feature in the Obi.

dealyanodeal

I am going to keep OOMA as my primary line and dont have premier so wanted to check if OBI provides anything to block some numbers

RonR

If the list of numbers you want to block is relatively small, you can accomplish it by using the proper syntax and putting them in the appropriate InboundCallRoute (Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port, for example, in the case of your Ooma).  You'll need to study and understand the sections of the Administrator Guide relating to DigitMap and CallRoute configuration.

MichiganTelephone

From the OBi Device Administration Guide, page 110:

QuoteInboundCallRoute Examples:

[.....]

2)   {14081223330|15103313456:ph,aa},{1800xx.|1888xx.|?:},{ph}
It says: Ring both PHONE Port and AA for calls coming from 1 408 122 3330 or 1 510 331 3456, block all 800, 888, and anonymous calls, and ring the PHONE Port for all other calls

So what I take from that is that you could make a block list that would block specific numbers and "anonymous" calls by simply inserting a rule of the form...

{firstblockednumber|secondblockednumber|thirdblockednumber|?:},

etc., into the existing InboundCallRoute for the Line port.  Omit the |? if you don't want to block anonymous calls, and separate each number or pattern with a bar character.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

dealyanodeal

I tried the above mentioned config change and it doesnt seem to be working. I used following in the inbound call route for line port.
{(x.720#######):aa},{x.720#######|1888xx.|?:},{ph}

(for privacy replaced digits of my actual phone no by #s).

I tried to put one of my cell phone as blocked and another cell phone is a  trusted one and gets picked up by AA. When it didnt work, I tried to play with first rule (e.g changed the no) and that did have the desired effect so that tells me the first rule is correctly configured to route the call to AA. Not sure why 2nd rule is not working correctly.

any suggestions?

dealyanodeal

Did another test.
1)
on my cellphone that goes directly to AA, chose the option not to send the caller id
dialed obi from the cell phone and it didnt send the call to AA as obi didnt get the caller id.

I did that to make sure caller id(and absence of it) was working correctly with obi.

then
2)
Switched the blocked no with the no that goes to AA. that means the phone no that was used in step 1 is now blocked.
called obi again. obi should have blocked the call because of anonymous call block but it didnt

RonR

This is a total guess (and probably not the answer), but try:

{(x.720#######|1888xx.|?):}

I've not used the ? operator, so this is shooting from the hip.

QBZappy

RonR,

1) I waS thinking about your call block strategy. Your strategy picks up the CID and drops them in a void. This approach makes a lot of sense. To make it interesting for telemarketers that make it on the block list, we could redirect them to a FCC phone number. That would certainly confuse them. If there was an IVR which we could record sound we could then direct them to recorded busy sounds, etc... Can you think of a way to deliberately send a call to a broken call path which could reproduce a busy or other tone?

2) How about the opposite of that. We might want to block out going numbers from being dialed. In an earlier thread I had discussed using the "!" character in front of a phone number. This character will block numbers from being dialed out. I had used it in this way: (Taken out of context)

{(x.218xxxxxxx|x.809xxxxxxx|!x.514xxxxxxx|!x.450xxxxxxx):sp1}

This particular strategy was to block any numbers with area code 514 & 450 from going over the SP1. I later allowed them to go over to SP2 as per the design of the user.
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

MichiganTelephone

#9
My first question is, why are you using x.720####### as a pattern?  I may be wrong but I don't think that will match anything.  You probably should be using 1720####### unless I'm missing something here.  Try changing that, and if it still doesn't work, then just as a test try changing the order of the rules to put your block list first:

In other word, sticking with your examples, first try:

{1720#######:aa},{1720#######|1888xx.|?:},{ph}

And if that doesn't work...

{1720#######|1888xx.|?:},{1720#######:aa},{ph}

One other point, I think that you and RonR may be making the same error, in that you're confusing InboundCallRoute syntax with DigitMap syntax.  They are similar in many respects, but not exactly the same.  Oh, and the question mark matches "no Caller ID."
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

dealyanodeal

I was using x.720####### as this was the way my rule 1 of inboundcallroute was setup by obitalk.As mentioned earlier I had 720####### set as a trusted phone no. on the obitalk and that probably setup the first rule to forward any call from x.720####### to AA. I have setup 720###### as trusted by behind the scene obi used it as x.720####### in the rule 1 of the inboundcallroute for line1. I belive x.720####### means 720####### preceeded by any digit and even if caller id is 1720####### it should still catch it.

Want to mention again ####### represent the actual digits from the cell phone no.

As you pointed out I didnt use the '(' and that might be causing the problem. I will try with '(' and also with 'x.' and post the results

thanks for all the help


MichiganTelephone

Also, instead of outright blocking a number, I think it is possible to send them someplace else.  For example, I believe that a rule like {?:sp1(12484345508)} would take a call with no caller ID (the question mark) and send it out sp1 to 12484345508 (if that number is still what it was two or three years ago, a telemarketer will not appreciate you sending them there!).  Note, however, that the second leg of the call is on your nickle.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

MichiganTelephone

#12
Quote from: dealyanodeal on March 16, 2011, 10:08:19 PMAs you pointed out I didnt use the '(' and that might be causing the problem. I will try with '(' and also with 'x.' and post the results

I found an example in the documentation using the leading x. and parenthesis (right under the previous one I quoted - guess I should have read a bit further):

{(x.4081113333|x.4152224444):aa},{ph}

So maybe it is just that you need parenthesis in your second rule:

{(x.720#######):aa},{(x.720#######|1888xx.|?):},{ph}

The actual section from the documentation says:

Quote3)   {(x.4081113333|x.4152224444):aa},{ph}
It says: Ring the AA for calls coming from any number that ends with 408 111 3333 or 415 222 4444, and ring the PHONE
Port for all other calls. Be sure to include the enclosing parentheses in this example since "x." is a digit map specific syntax.

So yes, adding the parenthesis may indeed be the fix.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

dealyanodeal

#13
ok..here are the results.Could only try with 1 cell no with caller id on and off.

This worked
{(x.720#######):aa},{(x.720#######):},{ph}
Above setting made the destination phone not to ring at all eventhough the caller was getting call rings. Caller eventually got forwared to voice mail. There was neither a missed call on the phone nor the call showed up in the call history of obi. Pretty cool.

This didnt
{(x.#######):aa},{?:},{ph}
no caller id showed up on the destination phone but the was no block.

Not sure why anonymous call block is not working.

I will next try to block multiple no's and also block call forward and post results

MichiganTelephone

#14
Quote from: dealyanodeal on March 16, 2011, 10:35:46 PMThis worked
{(x.720#######):aa},{(x.720#######):},{ph}
.....
This didnt
{(x.#######):aa},{?:},{ph}
no caller id showed up on the destination phone but the was no block.

Not sure why anonymous call block is not working.

Try adding |? in the blocking rule:

{(x.720#######):aa},{(x.720#######|?):},{ph}

The question mark might need to be enclosed in parenthesis, or we might have found a bug!
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

dealyanodeal

call block forward worked
this setting forwarded the call to 2484345508 that played some music

{(x.720#######):aa},{(x.720#######):sp1(12484345508)},{ph}

@MichiganTelephone - what is this phone 12484345508? Googled and found weired stories about 35$ charge :-). Can you shed some light


Will try the other parenthesis suggestion now

RonR

dealyanodeal,

It appears the recommendation I gave you was spot on:

{(x.720#######|1888xx.|?):}

I just tested it and it works fine.  Without the (), it doesn't.

dealyanodeal

@RonR - did the anonymous call black worked too?

I havent tried that yet

dealyanodeal

this didnt work for anonymous call black with a call from my cell with caller id suppressed

{(x.720#######):aa},{(x.720#######|?):},{ph}

RonR

In this case:

{(x.720#######|1888xx.|?):}

all three rules will go to thin air.  The () lumps all three together.  Any of them matching and the call is history.

I tried a few other cases also, and everything worked as expected.