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Newbie Small Business Question - 2 Lines / 2 Extensions

Started by JohnRiver, September 16, 2016, 02:38:37 PM

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JohnRiver

Hi all,
I am trying to replace my POTS lines and keep the functionality roughly the same and then possibly add a little more funtionality to it from there.  The old setup is 2 POTS lines in a hunt group from the phone company hooked up to qty.2 of some 2-line business phones ( 1 in the front, 1 in the backroom) . We have our "main" number published but not the other.  Someone calls us and it rings on Line1 at both the front and the back phone.   If someone calls us when we are already on Line1, it hunts to Line2 and rings whatever front or back phone that is not in use.

I ported our 2 numbers to Google voice and purchased the obihai 202.  I then cut the wires off from the phone company coming into the building.  I hooked up the wiring that fed both handsets to the obi with Line1 going to the first physical jack on the obi, and Line 2 going to the 2nd physical jack on the obi. (With the wiring for POTS lines- the handset wires are joined from both handsets together and then connected to the incoming wires from the phone company.  Not really extensions as i cant call from 1 to the other, but both handsets were able to pickup Line1 and Line2).   

Right now i get Line1, Line2 working at both handsets but no hunt group functionality. I have been doing some reading and not sure if i am missing something here.  Does Line1 have the capability to make/receive more than 1 call at a time?   That might fix the caller id issue when i do place a call on line2, as it shows the other phone number.   Not sure if i am explaining this well or not.

Basically i need to still be able to receive a call even if i am already on a call.  Plus need to be able to answer from either spot depending on where i am in the building.

(I did setup anveo 911 service on Line1 - which i think uses sp3)  Not exactly sure what the sp numbers mean though.

As far as future functionality, it would be nice to answer a call to the Line1 number when i am not in the office ( assume i need another obihai box of some sort for that.

Does anybody have a better handle on this than i do?? Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

SteveInWA

Google Voice is intended for individual/personal use, not for business.  It doesn't support hunt groups or sequential ringing.

A better/easier/cleaner solution is to port your two numbers to a SIP VoIP service that offers cloud/portal-based provisioning and call-handling rules ("call treatments").

Many of us here on the forum use Callcentric, voip.ms, Phonepower, or one of the other VoIP service providers that offer business-class features.  It's relatively easy to add, delete, and/or change the number of lines you have, and how inbound calls are routed, and you can support multiple OBi devices, either in the same building, or anywhere else you have internet service.

azrobert

You can forward an inbound call to phone2 when phone 1 is busy or no answer after a specified number of rings. There have been some reported problems with this function, so make sure you have the current firmware installed. One person reported that this function didn't work with both Busy and NoAnswer configured, but worked with just Busy defined. You can't test the Busy option by taking the phone off-hook, the phone must be on an active call for the call to forward. Use OBi Expert to make following changes.

Voice Services -> SP1 Service
InboundCallRoute: ph
CallForwardOnBusyEnable: checked
CallForwardOnBusyNumber: ph2
CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable: checked
CallForwardOnNoAnswerNumber: ph2
CallForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount: 2 (Default)

The call won't forward when call waiting is enabled.
Physical Interfaces -> Phone1 port -> CallWaitingEnable: Unchecked

GV will support 2 simultaneous calls, so phone1 and phone2 can route outbound calls to your 1st GV trunk. If you have 2 active outbound calls, an inbound call will go to GV voice mail.

If you want to do this, just change phone2's primary line.

Physical Interfaces -> Phone2 port -> PrimaryLine: SP1 Service

JohnRiver

Thank you all,  I will look into these solutions.  That makes sense.

Steve - Would you have a suggestion on which of those providers may be better than the others for my situation?  Not sure if some are better suited for larger companies or something.

Thanks so much


SteveInWA

Your needs are pretty basic, as far as being met by the various SIP VoIP carriers.  The market is mature, as far as capabilities and call quality goes.  The very lowest-costs providers may use the cheapest VoIP carrier routes, resulting in variable call quality.  The better providers strive to select and use better quality routes.

Google Voice is fine for personal (or even simple SOHO) use, but over on the Google Voice help forum, where I hang out to help, we have to rescue users daily who've put their business numbers at risk and screwed something up, thus losing control of their numbers, and losing revenue or customer goodwill.  There is no direct customer support for GV.

The service provider differences that may matter to you are mostly in ease of setup and making changes, and the quality and availability of customer support.  The higher-priced service providers typically have invested in better tools to enable customers to manage their numbers and customize call handling, and will have responsive customer "how-to" support.  The folks who hang out in online forums like this one tend to prefer do-it-yourself solutions, which can require time dedicated to learning how to configure devices and navigate the service provider's settings.  People who want to focus mainly on other things tend to choose service providers that have more of a hands-off setup.

I'd suggest starting by looking at a couple of the service providers websites.  Can you make sense of it?  Can you see yourself using their portal to add services, set up your OBi and set up your hunt group, voicemail, etc?  If so, sign up for a number and give it a try.  I like Callcentric's "sweet spot" of features, price and ease of use with OBi products, but Phonepower is another good choice for business.  Services like Ringcentral and Nextiva are higher-priced, but they may be a better fit for larger business' needs.  voip.ms is a good choice too, but their portal is one step down in terms of ease of understanding for newbies.

On the OBiTALK web portal, when you click on a service provider slot (SP1--SP4) for your OBi device, it will take you to a screen where you select the VoIP service provider to use.  If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click "OBiTALK Compatible Service Providers", you'll see a list of clickable links, which will set up that SPx with pre-configured parameters for the selected company.

If you find a provider you like, you can generally port your now-GV numbers in for free, or for a fee.

You can configure as many OBi devices as you wish to the service, and you may want to consider using  Obihai's line of IP phones, too.