Callcentric inbound call quality raspy

[erkme73]

I cannot find the original thread that provided a tutorial on how to set up two obi boxes with a single GV account.  But, this is my setup:

SP1 on both boxes = GV accout (outbound calls)
SP2 on both boxes = each has their own unique Callcentric inbound number

GV is set to forward calls to both callcentric numbers, thereby ringing both obi boxes.

From a call connection and reliability standpoint, it works great.  However, about half the inbound calls - picked up on either obi - start off with perfect quality, but after about a min or two, the quality changes to distorted and very raspy.  It's only the caller's audio that's affected - they hear me just fine.  The only way to "fix" the poor call quality is to hang up, and I call them back (thereby avoiding callcentric entirely).

When I have GV forward to Google Chat and ring either OBi box directly, the call quality is perfect for the entire call.

There seems to be some sort of compatibility between using the callcentric free inbound calling service with the OBi hardware.

Has anyone else experience this type of initially good inbound call quality, followed by an abrupt degradation? 

[SteveInWA]

Google Voice (actually, it's the Google Chat/Talk/Hangouts browser plugin) can only keep track of one client connection at a time.  Whichever client is the last to handshake or otherwise connect to Google's server "wins".  Having two clients (OBi boxes in your case) on the same network, competing to connect to the same GV account, may cause issues.  Note that only one OBi 1xx device can connect to the same GV account at a time, whereas more than one OBi 2xx device can connect to GV at the same time.

Since you already have INbound calls to your GV number being forwarded to two different CV numbers on SP2, one per OBi, then the first thing to do is to log into your GV account from a web browser, and on the Phones tab of Settings, remove the check mark next to the "Google Chat" forwarding destination.  That will stop your OBi(s) from redundantly receiving forwarded phone calls on SP1.  Log off of GV on the computer, then power-cycle both your OBi boxes.

If that doesn't improve things, and you want to use SP1 for GV OUTbound calling, then either create a separate GV account and phone number for the second OBi, or turn off one of them when using the other.

Note that this limitation also applies to being logged on to any other Google Chat/Talk/Hangouts client on a computer or mobile device.

[erkme73]

Thanks Steve.  I'm well aware of the issue with multiple OBi boxes on the same GV account not being able to ring with incoming calls - that only the one with the latest handshake will ring.

As part of the configuration with CC, the GV account must have  the Google Chat forward turned off - otherwise, as you stated, there will be contention between the two boxes.  However, with it turned off, neither box will ring with an inbound call to the GV number.  The CC forward (unique number for each box) is what makes each box ring.  The outbound (SP1) is still GV on both boxes, as GV doesn't seem to object to multiple boxes initiating a call on the same GV account.

The problem with having a separate number/GV account for the other box is that callers will need that new number to reach me on that box - something I'm trying to avoid.

The setup as I have it works just fine in terms of both boxes ring with every call to my single GV number.  And most of the calls are 100% in quality.  It's those that start off fine that suddenly go south on the inbound audio that's frustrating.  Fortunately, I can still understand the caller, and they have no idea that they sound horrible - so if it's an important call, I just muddle through.

Was hoping this was a known issue and had a simple fix (i.e. tweaking codecs somehow).

[erkme73]

By the way, I meant to add... With the new Hangout version of the old "chat" plugin in Chrome, you do not need to have Google Chat checked in forwarded phones.  It must operate on a parallel connection to the Obi.  If I get a call to my GV number, both my OBi boxes and my computers logged in on Gmail will ring.

So the days of having either chat on the PC OR the OBi appear to be gone.

[SteveInWA]

Short answer:  you're doing it wrong.  Do what I (and other members) said in previous posts on how to use CC inbound DIDs with GV and OBi.

TL:DR answer:

There are several errors in your conclusions, based on an incomplete understanding of what's going on.  True, you can log into Google Chat with as many clients as you like, and make OUTbound calls with any of them.  However, as long as you leave call forwarding to your Chat destination enabled in multiple client sessions (as I will explain below), you will have all sorts of unpredictable problems RECEIVING calls on your multiple destinations.

This sentence is one example:  "However, with it turned off, neither box will ring with an inbound call to the GV number."

First, your interpretation of the behavior when the Chat box is checked or not is a common (and not obvious at all) mistake.  This has nothing to do with Hangouts.

Among all the many confusing and undocumented aspects of GV, one issue is that multiple settings control which "forwarding destinations" will ring when a call to your GV number is made.  You can remove the check mark as you did, but that setting is overridden by two other settings, in hierarchical order:  Look on the "Groups & Circles" tab of settings, and edit each group or circle. You'll see a list of forwarding destinations.  Even though you de-selected Chat on the Phones tab, it's still selected on the settings for any defined group or circle.  So, you have to also change it there.  Then, settings you may define for any individual contact will further override settings for groups, which override the setting on the Phones tab.  Confused yet?

Next:  aside from the previously-quoted sentence, your entire paragraph quoted below makes me think you either didn't understand my last post, or you don't understand how to configure your GV and OBi accounts.

As part of the configuration with CC, the GV account must have  the Google Chat forward turned off - otherwise, as you stated, there will be contention between the two boxes.  However, with it turned off, neither box will ring with an inbound call to the GV number.  The CC forward (unique number for each box) is what makes each box ring.  The outbound (SP1) is still GV on both boxes, as GV doesn't seem to object to multiple boxes initiating a call on the same GV account.

I tried to explain that, on GV settings, you need to have the GV Chat destination DISabled, and the CC DID destinations ENabled.  GV will then forward calls to the CC DIDs defined on your OBi(s), and thus ring the phone attached to the OBi.

Here is how it SHOULD be done (as documented in more detail, several times in other threads):

Disable Chat as a forwarding destination on ALL three of the places I described above.

If not already added on GV Phones Settings, add and verify your Callcentric DID(s) as forwarding destinations.

On your Callcentric account, do NOT forward your CC DID anywhere other than the default (to a SIP client, logged in with your CC SIP credentials).  Either disable CC's own voicemail system, or set its ring delay to 35 seconds or longer.

Assuming you have SP2 on your OBi(s) properly configured to answer calls made to the Callcentric DID(s), test this by calling directly to your CC numbers from some other phone.  It should ring on your OBi(s).  Then, call your GV number from some other phone.  GV should forward the call to the CC number, which rings on the OBi on SP2.  SP1 should NOT be getting the call at all.  In fact, you should (temporarily) disable SP1 to test this.

The benefit of this, as you may know, is that you will receive caller ID name with the calls, a function that GV doesn't support natively.

Sorry this is so long and complex.  If you do not understand what I am saying, please let me know.

[SteveInWA]

Furthermore, with regard to your original call quality issue, this might just be a GV telco partner's network issue, unrelated to OBi or CC, OR, it might be a Callcentric/OBi issue.  You need to isolate the problem source.

You can test the GV-->Chat client call quality by unplugging your OBis and instead, receiving calls on a computer web browser, logged into Gmail, or via Hangouts, using a headset or speakers and microphone.

If calls to the Chat/Hangouts client without OBi involved always sound fine, then log out, and plug in one of your OBis, and make a series of inbound calls from some other phone directly to your CC number, bypassing Google Voice/Chat entirely.  Is every call clear?  If not, that can be your next troubleshooting step.  This assumes your ISP connection is highly reliable.  That's another discussion.  :-)

Next, as explained in my last post, you need to get things working with GV inbound calls going via Callcentric instead of the Google Chat client built into the OBi.  Then evaluate call quality.  If it is fine with direct CC calls, but flaky with GV-->CC->OBi calls, then it might be a GV-->CC telco issue, which you can't fix.  There are no CODEC adjustments for GV; all calls use G.711, which is the only CODEC supported by Google Voice.

[erkme73]

Thanks for the details.  I was completely unaware of the additional groups & circles settings.  I had three groups that still had Google Talk as a forward - the rest were all off.  I made sure ALL of them are now off.

I could not find a per-contact setting for forwarded phones.  Is that under GV or contacts in Gmail?  

As for CC, I have no voicemail setup, and no forwarding of any kind.  I disabled SP1 (GV), and when I call the CC number directly, it rings through on the OBi, but not via GV.  When I call the GV number, with SP1 still disabled, it rings my cell phone, and my PC's Hangout notification of incoming call pops up - but OBi box is dark.

So, having re-enabled SP1, the only thing that I've changed at this point, was removing the additional layer of forwards under the groups & circles.  Otherwise, everything else is as you said.  


So, here's something interesting.  Despite my Talk being disabled in the Phone forward and Group & Circles - when I get a call to my GV number, my PC's Hangout's notification pops up telling me XYZ is calling.   Maybe it's that "third" level that I can't find that's still overriding my preferences...

[SteveInWA]

OK, regarding the mysterious forwarding destination hierarchy:  You'd never find the one for a contact, especially since Google borked things up by eliminating their original, GV-dedicated contacts interface and merged with the new and not improved Google-wide contacts system.  The documentation hasn't been corrected to explain this, either.  If you click on "Google Contacts" on your GV inbox page, then click on an individual contact, and then click on the mysterious three-headed person icon, a drop-down will appear, showing the various groups you have defined.  These same groups show up on the "Groups & Circles" setting tab of GV Settings.  In theory, you could assign some person, like "my annoying brother-in-law" to a group called "annoying callers", and then deselect that group.  I doubt you did that...it's so complicated. 

The key is that NO group or circle, and thus, no contact, should have Chat selected as a destination.  In GV Groups and Circles Settings, edit every group's "When people in this group call you" setting to disable Chat, and to ENable all the other destinations (your cell phone and your Callcentric DIDs).  Save every change.

Now, regarding your troubleshooting, there is something wrong with your GV settings.  IF you set it up as I described, then Google Voice should call the OBi-enabled CC numbers, just like it is calling your cell phone.  Go back to GV settings.  You must have your CC numbers added as forwarding destinations on the Phones tab of settings, with check marks next to them.  Click the Edit button, then click Advanced Settings. Make sure your "Ring schedules" are set to always ring the phone.  SAVE your settings.  Log out of ALL Google sessions everywhere:  Gmail and GV on all computers, and all mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, etc).  This includes any third-party apps like Talkatone, GrooVe IP or Mo+.  Power-cycle your OBi.  Try again.

[erkme73]

I feel bad that you have to keep repeating yourself.  I think I'm just not explaining it right.

So, from the top:

All forwarding to Google Talk turned off (at every level)
All browsers closed, OBi box power cycled
Only one OBi box connected
SP1 = GV connected
SP2 = CC DID

CC = no voicemail or forwarding options

External line calls CC number = OBi box rings (nothing in GV call log)
External line calls GV number = OBi box rings, cell phone rings, and Hangouts call notification on PC rings

Something is tying incoming calls to the GV number to the Hangouts.  I am running a Chrome extension (Hangouts) which provides desktop notification above all other windows - but that shouldn't matter.  GV should not be forwarding to Hangouts at all if your logic on the Google Talk forwarding is followed.

In either case, I think this is a separate issue from the call quality.  Like I said originally, the call reliability works 100%.  If someone calls my single/only GV number, both my OBi boxes and cell phone ring as they should.  There's never been an issue where only one or none rang.  So I'm confident that the CC DID's are setup correctly.

And for what it's worth, the PC ringing when I get calls to my GV number started only when I switched to the new Hangout interface in the Gmail web page (in Chrome).  In doing so, the Google Chat dial pad disappeared, so I reverted back to the old Chat interface - and installed the Hangouts extension instead.   But ever since, my PC rings with incoming calls.  I think that's great.  I appreciate being able to take calls on my PC or my OBi box.

[SteveInWA]

OK, thanks for the clarifications.  One way or another, I think we are now "on the same page" with regard to setup.

If I go back to your original post, and I now read these two sentences:

When I have GV forward to Google Chat and ring either OBi box directly, the call quality is perfect for the entire call.

There seems to be some sort of compatibility between using the callcentric free inbound calling service with the OBi hardware.

Then that tells me there is a problem between Google Voice's telco partner and Callcentric, limited to some, but not all connected calls to some, but not all CC numbers.  It's not a "compatibility" issue as you mentioned.  I have been using this method for a couple of years, and it works fine.  It's some sort of telco network issue when the outbound call is being placed by Google, like this:  your GV number is called, then Google routes that call to an outbound trunk on its telco partner's network, which then calls your CC number.  You can't do anything about it.  It may eventually "fix itself" if/when Google and its telco partner discover the problem with the trunk(s).  This has happened before...Google isn't paying the big bucks for high-quality VoIP.

Speaking of which, to your other speculation:  Hangouts does not necessarily use the same XMPP path as the old Chat clients.  That is why it will always ring, regardless of your OBi or other Chat session(s) state, as long as you are logged in to Google.  This is a new function, and in theory, for the moment, it should not interfere with OBi...  This is another good reason to use a SIP provider as a forwarding destination instead of the built-in GV client in the OBi.

Hangouts working independently is not surprising, because Google announced that they'd be moving off of XMPP.  However, as of today, we can't predict what sort of nightmare it will be if/when OBi turns off XMPP entirely.  As discussed elsewhere, however, this is only speculation as of today.  There is NO official word on if/when this will happen, only a mention by the guy in charge of the products including GV, that this is in their roadmap.  My personal hope is that if Google does disable XMPP, then Obihai will find a way to work with Google to keep supporting GV, but again, nobody's talking right now.  If not, we have plenty of good, inexpensive SIP providers to use.

[Phonequestion]

Erkme73, I have the exact raspy sound issue with my Google voice -> free callcentric inbound.

I believe I've isolated to only inbound calls from cell phones.

The caller hears me just fine the entire time.

Have you found a solution to the raspy voice quality?