I come from an engineering background but in an entirely different industry from telephony, so I am admittedly very confused by OBiTalk. Even OBi as a company doesn't seem to explain exactly what it is and how it fits in to the telephony architecture. If you go to
OBiTalk.com, you see promotional material, all sorts of ads touting GoogleVoice support, information on devices, etc., but nothing about OBiTalk as a technology, per se (at least that I could find...).
So here is my "disconnect": If I buy an OBi202 unit--an ATA (analog telephone adapter) device that connects to my house phone using standard POTS RJ11 and to the internet--and then I go to the IP address of the OBi202 and get to its configuration screens, I can configure my Vitelity (my VOIP provider) under the ITSP section and then further configure that connection using the Voice Services section. As far as I understand it, once properly configured, my OBi202 will work and I will be able to make and receive calls. I never have to even think about OBiTalk or ever visit
OBiTalk.com (as far as I know).
So where/how does OBiTalk fit in? I understand that I can "see" my OBi devices once I create an account and log on to
obitalk.com, but is it just a friendly way to configure my devices using the internet so that I can make tweaks to my equipment when I do not have access to my home network (where the equipment is physically installed)? Is OBiTalk just a website to help you configure devices or is it also an actual active middleware layer that sits between my Vitelity account and my OBi202 device? Is there a network architecture diagram available anywhere on the OBi websites (obihai.com,
obitalk.com, or elsewhere?) that explains the architectural role of OBiTalk rather than tout its features???
I ask because I had a working OBi202/Vitelity set up and then added the OBi1022 phone. And now that I have two OBi devices, understanding the architecture is no longer optional. I am especially confused when it comes to the auto attendant (AA). Apparently (I think, at least!) the OBi202 AND ALSO the OBi1022 offer an auto-attendant--so now I have two AA's. On my phone system, I would want a SINGLE auto attendant to be available because I want my two Vitelity accounts to behave the same way on both OBi202 and OBi1022 devices--so I want both devices to share the AA as if the OBi1022 acts like the RJ11 phones hanging off of the OBi202 device... (see my other post about ringing:
https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=11401.0) I think configuring this properly requires a deeper understanding of the role OBiTalk plays in orchestrating inbound and outbound calls to/from my OBi devices...
Thanks,
Steve