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Obi202 Static when switching back back to original caller after call waiting

Started by managerharry, May 15, 2018, 06:55:23 PM

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managerharry

I'd like to know whether anyone with an Obi202 can currently use call waiting successfully?  If there's a chance a new Obi202 will fix this issue I will buy it but seeing as how I see a few other posts complaining about the same issue (and another posting on this thread reports this happening with a <1 year old 202) I suspect this issue persists across all Obi202 devices? 

If the 202 can't handle call waiting is there another model that is working correctly?

billsimon mentions the 1062 phone seems to be able to handle call waiting, however this review on Amazon suggests that the 1062 is also having issues: "I bought four of these phones for my business, and for the first year or so they were great. For the past several months, we've had nothing but problems with them -- no dial tones when calling someone, people on the other line not being able to hear us, incompatibility with Google Voice. Now, they're completely unusable with Google, which means I have to junk these and get four new phones. Complete waste of money."

billsimon

I don't think the 1062 and the 202 have anything in common with each other really, but I could be wrong. Also that review sounds like nonsense, especially the part "completely unusable with Google" [Voice] - which works just fine. Seems like the reviewer had some bad luck or network problems.

SteveInWA

I just now performed this test:  With a Google Voice number provisioned on my OBi 202, I called that number from an unrelated mobile phone number.  I answered the call on the OBi-attached phone, and verified that the call was working.  I then called the same GV number from a different unrelated mobile phone number.  The OBi-attached phone got the call-waiting beep.  I pushed the flash key on that phone.  It put call #1 on hold, and it answered call #2.  I could then click the flash key repeatedly, to alternate between the two calls.

So, if that is your definition of call waiting, then yes, it works.  No, there is absolutely no OBi hardware problem that would cause it to not work.  It should work with all OBi 2xx series devices.

Given your various issues with Google Voice, I'm going to (again) suggest that you port your Google Voice number out to a VoIP ITSP that is more of a plain vanilla telephone service, with the typical calling features they provide.

managerharry

Holy merger mania batman... I clicked on the Obihai is now part of Polycom banner read up on Polycom and shortly ended up at this page "Plantronics to acquire Polycom": https://platform.mi.spglobal.com/IRW/CustomPage/4611682/Index?keyGenPage=1073753325

All of which suggests to me that Obihai is probably headed to the trash heap of corporate merger consolidation; or at very least that there will probably not be much staff or energy left to fix bugs over the next few months while Plantronics takes over.

I hope I'm wrong, but in the meantime it looks like I better locate something to replace my once trusty Obi + Google Voice solution which has worked like a dream for years.  For me there are a few must have features: support for a standard phone / handset, ability to send SMS and MMS from a computer, ability to record multiple voicemail greetings for holidays, closures, etc, voicemail to email transcription and ability to listen to messages from a computer, and a good android mobile app.   *sigh* now that I look at the list it makes me remember why I've used obi for so long.  dang.

Can the 1062 be used as a standalone device with google voice?  I.E. no need to use the obi202, just connect it to my router, add it to obitalk portal, and configure google voice?  Anyway to add a second cheap handset to these phones?

My current setup is obi202 with a Panasonic KXTGF380M phone which comes with one DECT wireless handset and has built in bluetooth so I can use my Jabra Motion bluetooth headset.

SteveInWA

No.  Just no.  Stop jumping to conclusions.

There were three separate companies, each with separate core competencies in different equipment and services.  Obihai's expertise was in VoIP hardware and business/enterprise-class device provisioning and management.  Polycom's expertise was in legacy analog conference room phones and speaker phones, and later, IP phones.  Plantronics' expertise is in headsets (they developed the first headsets used by the military, NASA and the telephone operators).  When these mergers are completed, there will be one company that has comprehensive expertise, products and services for consumers, small business, large enterprise, and telephone carrier customers and system integrators.  To quote Martha Stewart, "this is a good thing."  Combined, they'll be the market leader, and will be a strong player in the Microsoft Skype for Business and Google platforms. The consumer market will benefit from more choices and better support.

Again:

  • All current OBiTALK-heritage products (200 series ATAs, 1000 and 2000 series IP phones) support either Google Voice or any other SIP VoIP provider that will provide SIP credentials to their customers.
  • You can use any combination of OBiTALK ATAs and IP phones, with any combination of service providers.
  • All current OBiTALK products support call waiting as I detailed it above.
  • Think of the OBiTALK IP phones as a telephone with the VoIP capability built in.  Since they are all digital (except for their analog microphone/speaker/handset), there is no ATA function needed -- the phone does that.

managerharry

Hmm, OK.  I hope it will prove to be a good thing.  When you put it that way it sounds like it could be.  It's hard for people not to assume the worst when the customer support forums seem to be manned only by 1 person (thanks by the way!) with whole sections being gobbled up by spambots and the company gets bought by another company that gets bought by another company and all along the customers are given no real updates beyond the vague boilerplate text in the "Polycom Announces Agreement for Strategic Acquisition of Obihai Technology" press release.  Keeping customers in the loop never seems to have been a strong point for Obi but in the absence of facts it is natural for people to speculate based on whatever information they can find.  A concrete statement from Obihai basically stating what you stated re: the merger is a good thing, obi devices are not going anywhere, and indeed should get better features and more support, would go a long way.  

On a positive note:

I just tried removing and re-adding my phone power account to the obi-- I had originally signed up in the brief window a few years back when it looked like google voice support was going to be axed and obi had a managed setup option for phonepower through the obitalk portal -- since the managed connection is no longer valid I had to enable SIP credentials on PhonePower in order to be able to reconnect the obi.  my phonepower number spoofs the gv number so I use them interchangeably.  just did a test while connected to sp2 with new phone power config and I'm able to flash between calls without static.  I'll have to wait until the phone starts ringing more tomorrow to verify if this hold up since the last time I tried using the sp2 phonepower line a few weeks back I still got static when flashing between calls.

*fingers crossed*

managerharry

Dang, I was hopeful last night that things were working properly after I removed and readded PhonePower and switched over to that night and did some quick testing where I could successfully flash between calls.  However when I tried again this morning the static has returned when I try to flash between calls.  Again, this is running through SP2 which is setup with PhonePower.  I did notice one thing in repeated testing though--- if I dial out and call someone and then answer an incoming call it goes to dead air but I can then successfully flash back to the original call.  However if I answer and incoming call first, then try to flash to another incoming call and flash back to the original call I get static.  When I switched back to Google Voice on SP1 the static persists.

Any point to removing and re-adding Google Voice?

managerharry

After removing and readding Google Voice and PhonePower to my original Obi202 to no effect, I went ahead and figured I'd try purchasing and setting up a new Obi202 in case there was some hardware problem causing these issues.  Sadly, the exact same issue persists with the inability to use call waiting / flash functionality without static when returning to the original call.

Any updates on progress towards resolution of this issue? 

jjtricket

Experienced the static today, surprised this is still going on..................

managerharry

I contacted Obi support for my new Obi202 about this problem and received the following suggestion
"Regular analog phones simply use the hang-up once button to "flash" over.  Try that."

Facepalm.  I tried it for the sake thoroughness, and of course it does nothing to alleviate the static.  I've got to say, this is a serious fuckup for a device that has a giant "Google Voice" logo on the front of it.  And to get a flippant and frankly stupid suggestion like the above from the official tech support email is rather horrifying.  At this point I'm starting to lose hope of any serious effort on the part of Obi / Polycom to address this issue.

Can anyone offer any further suggestions?

Maybe some combination of using another service for outgoing calls that spoofs my GV number and setting GV to ring my other number as well.  Would that even solve it?

ahhhhhhhh :'(

McTxE

I'm having this problem, as well. I hope it's resolved soon; it's so aggravating!

MajorP

I occasionally get the static also.  The person on the other end can hear me but I can't hear them.  I don't ever use the call waiting feature, so that isn't it.

zapattack

Verify that Profile(x) SIP
X_Sticky18x
has both boxes un-checked.

If using an IP attached phone, it may need Sticky 183 set to YES.

Rick1441

I've been having a similar problem with my Obi200 using Google Voice. I was going to start a new thread but then saw this one.   If a call waiting comes in, the initial flash, to the second caller, works fine. But then the second flash, back to the first caller, just produces loud static.  But in my case, the static is on both ends. Making things stranger still, sometimes the flash back to the first caller does work OK, in which case the static occurs with the third flash, i.e. when I go back to second caller.  Standard analog phone.

Masterman

This has been happening for a few months on my device. If I use the Google Phone app, there is no issue of the static when using hold or 3-way calling, but through the Obi device it is happening almost every time. I don't see where this is being fixed/addressed.

DHolmes

Can someone tell me if the call waiting works on obi202?
I can't seem to work this site very well either?

Thanks

drgeoff

Quote from: DHolmes on August 17, 2018, 04:07:22 AM
I can't seem to work this site very well either?
Not your fault.  The forum is SNAFU.  Starting a new topic returns an error message to the poster causing him/her to try again resulting in multiple identical posts.  And adding attachments has been broken for months.

It is long past time that somebody in management got hold of the situation and sorted that out as well as buggy software updates and tech support that is worse than useless.

MissBling

I, too, am getting static on my 6mo. old Obi202 line when I flip back from a call-waiting call.  It's very frustrating to drop calls and hear loud static.  Is anyone in engineering able to diagnose what's going on?

Quote from: jjtricket on July 18, 2018, 04:47:24 PM
Experienced the static today, surprised this is still going on..................

dboling

It seems I too am having the same issue with my OBI202

If I'm on a call via GV and bump the flash button I get nothing but static and can't get back to the original caller because that line is also static. This is the 3rd time I have had this issue. I'm currently on firmware version 3.2.2 (Build: 5921EX) however the issue existed with previous version firmware.

Here is a snippet of the syslog when having issue. SRTP:BadMAC keeps logging until I go on hook.

Oct 23 12:49:59 obi202  [DSP]: ---- H/W DTMF ON (FXS: 0, level:3) : 4 @ 173434336 ms----
Oct 23 12:49:59 obi202  [RTP] DTMF TX (RFC) -- dgt: 4, on_off: 1, t: 110
Oct 23 12:49:59 obi202  [DSP]: ---- H/W DTMF OFF @ 173434386 ms ----
Oct 23 12:49:59 obi202  [RTP] DTMF TX (RFC) digit end. Dur 720.
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC 
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  [JB]: switching ssrc -- curr: 1a5e27e5, new: 81d1ff29
Oct 23 12:50:00 obi202  SRTP:BadMAC
-Diane

001kms

Same problem still happening after all these months. Now it occasionally happens in the middle of a call. No switching, no call waiting, just talking and suddenly... STATIC. Just learn to live with it?