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Using OBi110 to bridge Ooma and landline to connect the two

Started by ajayhere24, February 16, 2011, 09:07:02 PM

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ajayhere24

Is it possible to bridge my Ooma and my landline using OBi110 - both the landline and ooma are outside the US? I want to take advantage of the excellent AA system and bridging capabilities built in OBi110.

My situation is that i am using Ooma outside the US where Google does not yet allow calls through their chat window. I want to be able to call the ooma number from the US and then have OBi110 aa pick up the call, and once i enter in the local number in that country, OBi110 then picks up the landline there and calls the local number there and connects us.

Please advise. Thank you very much in advance for your help on this.

thanks,
Ajay

jimates

this is exactly what the Obi110 is designed to do. Connect the Ooma to the line jack on the Obi.

But in order to call the Obi overseas you will either need another Obi here or use Obion on a PC or Smartphone.
You can use the PC app or smartphone app from the US instead of a second Obi. But if you want to be able to use a US landline, or a regular telephone, on the US end then you will need an Obi in the US also.

And with any configuration you will have 2 way calling between both countries.

An alternative is to have someone else in the US that has an Obi add your number as a trusted caller id, then ou could call into their Obi from any phone and connect to the Obi overseas.

ajayhere24

Thank you for the quick attention to my question here. Let me see if i understand this correctly:

1) Connect the Ooma line to the OBi's line connector.
2) Connect the cordless phone to the Phone connector on OBi.

Questions:
What do i connect the landline to?

OR

are you saying that i don't even need to have Ooma in this equation and have 2 OBi boxes instead? Is this what you were kind of proposing:

Key:
OBi box1 is in another country
OBi box2 is in located here in the US

1) Connect the landline in the other country to OBi box1
2) have the OBi box1 and OBi box2 be a part of the circle of Trust
3) call my OBi box2 here from my landline and have it connect to OBi box1
4) once OBi box1 picks up the phone, dial the local number in that country to be connected to

thank you again in advance for your help with this. Please let me know if i have managed to make it more complicate than it needs to be. I am absolutely brand new to this and so will need step by step instructions please.

Ajay



jimates

Sorry, the configuration was directed to your second statement, but I still had the Ooma in my mind from the first statement.

You are right, you don't need the Ooma and you can set it up just as you described.

ajayhere24

Thank you again for your quick response. I have a question that might have been covered somewhere else, if so please do direct me to that posting else hopefully you can help me with this question:

Question 1
How do i call OBi box1 once i am connected to OBi box2? What are the steps to this?

Question 2
Also if there are specific numbers i call in the other country from here US, how can i set those up in the speed dial area so that once i can connect to box2 here and press the speed dial number it automatically takes care of the rest, which is connecting to box1 and then dialing a number there?

This is how i would do it manually but am wondering if this can be setup as a speed dial setting instead:

1) Call box2 here in the US from landline
2) Ask aa to connect me to box1 - don't know how one would do this manually though
3) Ask the aa of Box1 to connect me to a cell phone on its side.

thank you,
Ajay




jimates

Every Obi box and app has a Obion 9 digit number. From the Obi device/app you just dial the 9 digit number for the other Obi device/app you want to connect to.

You don't have to go through the AA to do what you want to do. You can use the AA along with speed dial but a recent firware update has given us the ability to dial direct through another Obi without haveing to go through the AA.

See this post
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=138.0

ajayhere24

Thank you very much for your help here! Really appreciate it! Now as soon as the boxes come back in stock, i am going to be able to test this out personally.

Ajay

ajayhere24

So i received my second box finally. Thank you Obi for keeping the supply alive and adding the extra sticker on top - helps simplify things a little more.

Two Questions:

Scenario: OBi box2 is here in the US. OBi box1 is in an international country.


1) can i have one box1 always connect to box2 automatically to make just outgoing calls? At the same time any calls made to box1 should give me the aa so that i can dial out.

2) I am not able to directly dial out using "<speed dial number>*1<phone number>". It gives me a busy signal. Here is an example of how i am trying to dial out 2*12121234567. My setup is that i have both the OBi boxes on the same network and also belong to the same account. I am trying to dial the above number from box2 which is connected to the same network as box1. Box1 has the GV and the Ooma setup on it.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Ajay




jimates

dialing anything other than another obi endpoint's 9 digit number will result in the busy signal. I think with both obi's in the same account they are already in the circle of trust so dialing from one to the other should get the auto attendant.

In order to call into Obi 1 and get the AA your number will have to be in the circle of trust.



As far as direct dialing direct through Obi 2 from Obi 1, maybe possible but likely will require some digit map changes.

ajayhere24

Thank you for the quick reply.

1) So there is no way to have one OBi box always connect to another automatically or use another one as a voice Gateway - correct?

2) As far as my second question goes, i am under the impression that you can directly dial out without going through the AA. I came to this conclusion based on this post: http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=138.0

Am i looking at this all wrong?

thanks,
Ajay

OBi-Guru

The direct dialing is currently supported only from Softphone to OBi110 gateway.
Your scenario involving OBi110 direct dialing to another OBi110 gateway (spdial*phonenumber) will be supported in the next firmware release.  It can work now but requires complicated digit map manipulation - better just wait a bit.

jimates

That thread was concerning the Obion app for PC or smartphone. You can do direct dial from the apps because you set one Obi as the default gateway for the app.

There is probably a way to configure it so that when you pick up the phone and dial a specific number, or a range of numbers, that the call will be directed to another obi. And then you would configure the other obi (using caller id or circle of trust) to automatically dial out on the line connected to it.

but that is likely going to require some extensive editing of the call routes and digit maps which will require help from someone other than myself.

Calling  RonR, Michigan Telephone or Obi support.

ajayhere24

Thank you both for the quick reply. I think i understand what you guys are saying here. I am going to wait on the obi to obi direct calling feature to be released.

As far as setting a voice gateway for a physical OBi box - i guess i will add this request to the Feature request area. I think this might be useful for some people.

Thank you again for all your help.

Ajay