Help me in duplicating current service with an Obi202

[Lavarock7]

I am weaning a company off the local business service they have and duplicating it with an Obi202 and Voip.ms

They currently have 2 physical phone lines, line 1 and line 2. If line one is busy telco calls roll to line 2. They use two 2-line phones each having both phone wires and a splitter.

AT Voip.ns I temporarily assigned a new DID to the account for testing. I created 1 subaccount for the Obi202. The subaccount has voicemail set up on it.

On the Obi I set the X_inbound_call_route in for format {>('1xxxxx_obi'):ph1,ph2} to stop strange calls. (1xxxxx_obi replaced with actual Voip.Ms account info).

I set SP1 CallForwardOnBusyEnable to checked
I set SP1 CallForwardOnBusyNumber to ph2

I set both PH1 and PH2 to use SP1 for outbound and voicemail to be indicated on both phones.

Then I plugged a phone into each Obi port and disabled call waiting with the appropriate star code.

Since both phones are 2-line phones, I'll connect a 4-wire cable from phone1 on the obi to a splitter with a 4-wire cable to each phone. The phones use the same pinouts as the obi I think, line 1 and 2 on 1st port and line 2 on the second. Since both phones need both lines, I will wire as I said with the 4 wire splitter.

Theoretically, first call will ring line 1 on both phones. Then if line 1 is busy, the second call will ring line 2 on both phones and the free phone can answer. The obi will do this with the forwardonbusy. Third call if 1 and 2 are busy should go to voicemail.

Since this is an office, I want to make sure I have thought this through before the actual testing at the site because testing will have to be done after hours.

What I may also test is this: Since they have multiple POTS numbers currently, at Voip,ms I created the local telephone number for testing. Rather than have their current 1st phone number roll to the 2nd number on busy, I propose forwarding their 1st number to my test number, since the Voip.Ms number can handle concurrent calls. I'll make multiple simultaneous calls to ensure all works. If it does, I'll leave their phones hooked up to the phone company and request a port of the primary number to  Voip.ms. When that takes all I need to do is hook the phones to the obi and have them close down the telco account.

Does anyone see a major flaw in this? I think I covered all bases. They currently have no voicemail, and are paying a "boatload" (a technical term) for service that I hope to get down to a few dollars a month. When their service went out last time, the telco took 2 days to get them service again. In my setup they can direct the calls to  a cellphone immediately if necessary (say if the internet goes down).

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[CLTGreg]

They currently have 2 physical phone lines, line 1 and line 2. If line one is busy telco calls roll to line 2. They use two 2-line phones each having both phone wires and a splitter.

[...]

Since both phones are 2-line phones, I'll connect a 4-wire cable from phone1 on the obi to a splitter with a 4-wire cable to each phone. The phones use the same pinouts as the obi I think, line 1 and 2 on 1st port and line 2 on the second. Since both phones need both lines, I will wire as I said with the 4 wire splitter.

What is coming out of the wall and what is the model of the phone? I can see splitting to get to both phones but that should be it on any modern phone. Most phones have Line 1 + Line 2 on one jack or Line 1 on one jack and Line 2 on the second jack. This means you should use a multi jack to do sort of what you're taking about.

I find a five port version handy especially for testing. It's a good way to branch off USB modems etc.  "RJ11 6P4C Male Plug to 5 Ports" into Google. You could use the tail to plug in to port one on the OBi and connect the phones in to the thing. The phones should just plug in and those cables branch to the two phone's Line 1+2 port. I cannot imagine this not being a feature on the phones. Once you've got this then that's all. You don't need to wire or config the second port. If you are in the unfortunate need to split the wire between two lines on the phone, I recommend that you put the line split at the phone so you won't have to have all those wires running around. Search on B00QQU0DAA and you'll see a three jack splitter. Take your wire from 5 port and plug it in to the 1+2 connector. Then plug each line into the ports on the phone. I think this is more elegant than dropping 4 wires around which you shouldn't have to do anyway.

BONUS

Once you're able to, or for testing, unplug the phone-co connection at the demarck. Next, plug the OBi from it's Line 1 Port to the wall jack nearest and unless you've got several hundred feet of distance between phones (which is unlikely the way you have proposed to do it) and like magic you have dial tone from the OBi lighting up all the wall jacks you have. This gives you 2 lines in the wall (unless it's 50 years old) without running any wiring at all. I am currently running for multi-line phones like this.

You won't have to disconnect the phone-co once they back out dialtone but you may need to if you want to test ahead of a switch over. There is a box that has a customer access side that you can unscrew and unplug the connector there. It's perfectly OK to do this.

[Lavarock7]

Both phones had 2 line adapters on them, which I disconnected.

I used a 4-wire 3 port adapter on the Obi PHONE1 and ran 4 wire cable to line1/line2 jack on each phone. Thus the two phones are parallel

Everything worked as I expected with a slight problem that I am investigating.

The Obi does the rollover but what I see is a call comes in on line one and rings perhaps a couple times then switches to line 2 before the person can pick up like 1.

I didn't see that happen in my initial testing at home, and will have to look at Obi configs to see what might cause it (like forward on no answer, etc). Still, the jump to line 2 seems pretty quick. This could be related to how the local phone company is handling the calls. Normally they send the call down line 1 and if busy, they roll the call to line 2. In this case we have forwarded line 1 to some number and line 2 is disconnected. Who knows what they are doing.

I may just break the 2 lines up at Voip.Ms and have 2 subaccounts. I have to think that one through.

On top of this, tonight the guy realized that his current business phones may be on their last legs. He may be looking at new equipment and if so, I may have to rethink if an obi is his best choice, an obi IP phone might suffice or something else.

[SteveInWA]

Hi Lavarock:

Since they're considering replacement of their phones, I'd vote for replacing them with a couple of OBi 1032 phones.  I believe that managing a multi-phone business installation is best done at the service provider ("in the cloud").  I use Callcentric, so I'm not familiar with the features of voip.ms, but if you can create separate extensions for each DID, then you can assign them to each of the two IP phones, and manage the hunting or rollover or simulring behavior on the voip.ms portal.

I have a 1022 and a 1032, and both models have outstanding audio quality over the handsets and speaker phones.  I'm suggesting the 1032 because it has more programmable buttons that can be turned into speed dials.  The 1032 also has a RJ-9 headset jack if they want to add business-class headsets (Jabra or Plantronics).

[Lavarock7]

Thanks to both of you. Steve, they currently have 2 lines where Telco does the rollover. We will be only porting the 1st line and creating our own rollover. They have DSL and 3 telephone numbers and pay over $200 a month. I don't know what the unbundled cost is for Internet and 1 number but it has to be lots cheaper.

In reality, I ended up removing the Obi PH1 to PH2 froward as we had a couple of issues. I didn't even get a chance to train and had to leave them a manual I created. Although I tested at home with a single personal 2-line phone, I was limited in being able to test and configure with theirs. They get lots of high priority calls and I was not able to get there after they closed at 10pm. It is a 45 mile round trip and I had been there 3 times in a week.

I ended up using the Obi202 and created 2 subaccounts (extensions) at Voip.Ms and set up a failover there to send to line 1. If line 1 is busy go to line 2 and if line 2 is busy, go to voicemail.

With their current phones it works fine. However one of their analog phones had a "replace battery" indicator and iits audio and ring were a bit distorted. I had to pry the AA batteries out with a screwdriver because it seems they were there 10 years.

They have run the new system for 24 hours and only 2 issues came up. The first was that the call taker this morning did not see the note on how to check voicemail and an odd request came in that required the company to make a call to an Australian cellphone. I enabled International calling but Australia was blocked. Voip.Ms wants a written request to enable certain countries. I understand blocking Russia, Croatia, Afghanistan, but Australia and the MArshall Islanes (which is a U.S) possession by the way). Based upon these two issues, I think the cutover went quite well, all in all.

The owner did ask me about new phones so I will consider the Obi ones. I have a list of must-haves and one is music on hold, which his analog phones and the setup I had with the Obi wouldn't provide. So I think he will be amicable to new phones. I'll read up on these and see if they fit his criteria. Thanks.

[SteveInWA]

Yah, the 10x2 IP phones support music on hold, although I haven't done anything to customize the music itself.

http://www.obihai.com/docs/OBiPhoneDS.pdf

Your mention of the corroded batteries, and the wind blowing pretty hard here right now, leads me to offer a reminder:  switching over from POTS to VoIP makes having an adequate-sized UPS a must-have, too.  Also, if voip.ms has the feature, setting up a rule to "forward to this cell phone number if the DID isn't registered with the SIP server" would be great, as an emergency back-up.

[Lavarock7]

I already have them on a forward if the internet is down, but it is to voicemail. At any given time there could be a different person manning the office, so specific cellphone would be difficult to know. A couple days ago 911 was down. That happens here.

Voip.Ms has music on hold (now something like 9 different selections) and it should work with the Obi phones, however it requires a HOLD digital command be sent to them which a digital phone should do. Alternatively they might like (but not required) was to play a message instead of music. I think I read that the Obi phones can do that with a URI or USB or something. Since it is not a requirement I'm not going to worry about it.

I looked at specs and there were only 2 things that would cause them to consider the 1032 over the 1022 is the jack you mentioned and the size of the display, neither of them is very important to them. I'll ask about the headset but they didn't mention that as a request.

They don't use speed dials or other functions so that doesn't enter the picture. Just a phone line and rollover and usually 1 person in the office and they are also doing dispatching on the radio.

My guess is they would get the 1022 and the extended warranties. We are close to the ocean and far from the mainland. Normally I avoid extended warranties but out here it appears to be a better investment for us. Although I don't think any cover lava flows for tsunamis :-)

[N7AS]

On the subject of MOH for the OBi IP Phones...

Here is my method to get MOH to work in the OBi1032 with my own music...

1. - Create a new anveo account. (you do not have to fund it - FREE)
2. - Click on IVR / Call Flow > IVR / Call Flow Builder
3. - Select Template - DEFAULT CALL FLOW
4. - Edit that Call Flow
5. - The second Call Flow item is GOODIES
6. - On that icon, click on the pencil in the bottom right corner of the icon (it will bring up a menu)
7. - On the General tab, Playback a message while waiting for a secret key
8. - Upload your MusicOnHold music .mp3
9. - After it is uploaded, select the .mp3 file in the dropdown list and click UPDATE CONFIGURATION on the bottom of the window
10. - Click on IVR / Call Flow tab on the top menu and select Inbound SIP Trunk for IVR Call Flow
11. - Click on ADD A NEW INBOUND SIP
12. - in the Call Flow for this Inbound dropdown menu select FROM TEMPLATE - Template DEFAULT and click SAVE
13. - You will see the SIP URI to enter in the OBi1032
14. - On the OBI1032 > IP Phone > Phone Settings > Calling Features > MOHServiceNumber
        enter the SIP URI you got from anveo

That's it