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OBI200 connection with OBITalk server

Started by yfmh, September 30, 2015, 10:52:30 AM

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yfmh

I travel worldwide a lot.  I usually take my ATA with me to keep connected.  In some countries I noticed that the SIP or VoIP service is blocked by ISPs.  Recently I installed OBI200 at home and it is working perfectly.  I registered all my active SIP accounts along with my Google Voice which excellent.

My question is what is the type of connection between the OBI200 adapter and the Obitalk server were my SIP accounts are register.  Is it a standard SIP protocol using UDP and standard SIP ports 5060-5080 or they are using a unique/different type of connections?

My concern is if the OBI200 uses standard SIP connection/protocol, the OBI200 will not register with the OBItalk server if the ISP at a specific country blocks SIP service?  I don't experience this with Skype perhaps because Skype, to my knowledge, is not SIP.  I just want to be prepared.

Any information in this regard will be helpful.

Many Thanks


drgeoff

Quote from: yfmh on September 30, 2015, 10:52:30 AM
My question is what is the type of connection between the OBI200 adapter and the Obitalk server were my SIP accounts are register. 
There are no SIP accounts registered at the Obitalk server.  A SIP account is registered with the relevant ITSP.  None of the traffic between your OBi202 and an ITSP goes via the Obitalk server.

yfmh

Thank you for the prompt response.  May I ask for some clarifications:
1) What does ITSP stand for?

2) Does the website I log into it actually configure the Obi202?  In other word when I register X SIP provider among the 4 providers I am allowed to register in the Obi202 does this mean they are actually registered with Obi202 itself or they are register somewhere in the cloud which I have access to it through the webpage interface.  I used OBitalk server term for the lack of better technical term) and the Obi202 is register with this cloud (server)?  The reason I am asking is when I registered my adapter to my Obitalk account I just dialed a code and I was linked to the Obitalk account on the website.

3) I am familiar with SIP Sorcery in which you register your all SIP accounts and then you register your ATA to the SIP Sorcery.  Does the same concept work with Obitalk?

4) My concern is if an ISP in any country blocks the SIP protocol will the Obi202 will not register with the Google Voice account and all 4 SIP accounts registered or the blockage of SIP protocol will not be affected as the Link between Obi202 and ITSP (whatever it stands for) is not affected because Google Voice does not use SIP protocol.  Please confirm.

SteveInWA

Quote from: yfmh on October 02, 2015, 01:57:58 PM
Thank you for the prompt response.  May I ask for some clarifications:
1) What does ITSP stand for?

2) Does the website I log into it actually configure the Obi202?  In other word when I register X SIP provider among the 4 providers I am allowed to register in the Obi202 does this mean they are actually registered with Obi202 itself or they are register somewhere in the cloud which I have access to it through the webpage interface.  I used OBitalk server term for the lack of better technical term) and the Obi202 is register with this cloud (server)?  The reason I am asking is when I registered my adapter to my Obitalk account I just dialed a code and I was linked to the Obitalk account on the website.

3) I am familiar with SIP Sorcery in which you register your all SIP accounts and then you register your ATA to the SIP Sorcery.  Does the same concept work with Obitalk?

4) My concern is if an ISP in any country blocks the SIP protocol will the Obi202 will not register with the Google Voice account and all 4 SIP accounts registered or the blockage of SIP protocol will not be affected as the Link between Obi202 and ITSP (whatever it stands for) is not affected because Google Voice does not use SIP protocol.  Please confirm.

OBi hardware devices are Analog Telephone Adapters (ATAs).  As such, they are self-contained network-attached devices that can be used to connect to a variety of Internet Telephone Service Providers, or ITSPs, which offer telephone service over the internet (Voice over IP, or VoIP).  OBi devices can be configured to use almost any SIP-based ITSP, or the XMPP-based Google Chat service with a Google Voice account.

For each of 4 available Service Provider (SP) configurations, you would set up (configure) service by entering your ITSP's account credentials (user name and password) to use their service.

There are two ways to do this:  Obihai provides a cloud-based configuration portal (OBiTALK), which uses pre-defined templates for various service providers (e.g. Google Voice, Anveo, Callcentric, Phonepower, etc.), to make setup easy.  It sends the configuration parameters to your OBi box, where they are stored.  After you do that, your device now works independently.  Sign-in to your ITSP and actually making calls is happening in your box, not in the OBiTALK cloud service. 

The other way to configure OBi boxes is via the device's own, locally-served configuration web page.  In this scenario, you enter the ITSP information yourself, manually.  The end result is the same:  your box is logging into your ITSP to make and receive calls.

When you travel, your device will work, or not work, dependent on the country you are in, and their laws or firewalls.  This has nothing to do with OBiTALK.  If the country (like China) blocks the use of the standard SIP ports, then SIP-based services won't work.  If that country also blocks the ports used by XMPP, then Google Chat/Voice won't work either.

Here's the list of countries where you cannot use Google Chat nor Google Hangouts:

http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1267644

Separate from all of this is Obihai's own, proprietary VoIP network, OBiTALK, which uses its own ports and can be used by OBi device customers to place calls between OBi devices.  Again, whether or not it would work or not work depends on the country blocking specific ports.