Questions - Google Voice on Obi, New to Obi202, not new to GoogleVoice or VoIP.

Started by PDX_Mark, September 01, 2020, 12:40:22 PM

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PDX_Mark

Hello,

I ordered an Obi202 and awaiting delivery.It looks like it is a week out. meanwhile I have the following questions about Obi202  with Google Voice integration.

1) If I set up a Google Voice account on the Obi and the password to that Google Account is changed, will the obi or obi portal need to be updated to reflect the new password?

2) I have a mult-function printer/fax and am considering using one line for old school faxes. (Yes some people still use that!) . I read on one thread here that a user has success if he dials "*01" before the number. Isuspect this is a feature access code to lock the ATA into a specific CODEC, turn off the jitter buffers, etc . Looking further, I can not find an explanation of this specifc feature code "*01". Anyone know about this feature code?

3) If I do not want to use asterisk, and use the Obi202 only to access Google Voice, with all voice calls originating and terminating on asterisk, can I use multiple simultaneous outbund calls on a single Google Voice account?

Thanks

Mark

SteveInWA

Quote from: PDX_Mark on September 01, 2020, 12:40:22 PM
Hello,

I ordered an Obi202 and awaiting delivery.It looks like it is a week out. meanwhile I have the following questions about Obi202  with Google Voice integration.

Quote
1) If I set up a Google Voice account on the Obi and the password to that Google Account is changed, will the obi or obi portal need to be updated to reflect the new password?

To set up Google Voice, you first need a working Google Voice number assigned to a Gmail account.  When you configure the OBi 202, it will walk you through a procedure to add Google Voice to one or more of the four Service Provider configuration slots (SP1--SP4).  You must perform this on the OBiTALK portal, not on the device's embedded web server config page.  Successfully completing this will add a OAUTH secure token on your device, thus authorizing that device to use the Google Voice service (only) on your Gmail account.  It does not use a username/password stored on the device, and changing your Gmail password won't impact the OBi SP configuration.  This means:  the device can only access the Google Voice service on your account, and nothing else, like your email or documents.

Quote
2) I have a mult-function printer/fax and am considering using one line for old school faxes. (Yes some people still use that!) . I read on one thread here that a user has success if he dials "*01" before the number. Isuspect this is a feature access code to lock the ATA into a specific CODEC, turn off the jitter buffers, etc . Looking further, I can not find an explanation of this specifc feature code "*01". Anyone know about this feature code?

Google Voice typically works with faxing, with no modifications to any settings on the OBi.  Just be sure you understand how a 202's two phone jacks are physically wired:

  • The Phone 1 jack is a four-pin, RJ14 jack.  The center two pins are for line 1, and the outer two pins are for line 2.  This corresponds to two-line analog phones that have a RJ14 jack.  You'd use a four-conductor modular phone cord in this scenario.
  • The Phone 2 jack is a two-pin, RJ11 jack.  The center two pins are for line 2.  These two pins are simply directly connected to the outer two pins of the Phone 1 jack.  This for installations where two separate telephones (or a phone and a fax machine) are used.  If you configure SP2 to a different Google Voice number on a different Gmail account, then you should plug in a TWO-conductor modular phone cord with RJ11 plugs on each end; one such cord for Phone 1 and another for Phone 2.

Quote
3) If I do not want to use asterisk, and use the Obi202 only to access Google Voice, with all voice calls originating and terminating on asterisk, can I use multiple simultaneous outbund calls on a single Google Voice account?

Google Voice is not a plain vanilla SIP trunk service.  It is not intended for use with Asterisk, and it is only capable of making two simultaneous outbound calls.  Attempting to use Google Voice as a SIP trunk provider for multiple calling violates Google's terms of use, and may result in your Google Voice service being suspended.

azrobert

See:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=6625.msg41922#msg41922

The old GV using the XMPP protocol limited the OBi200 to 2 simultaneous calls, but this restriction was removed when they switched to SIP. I got 3 simultaneous calls to work. I don't know what is the max. The default OBi200 MaxSessions setting limits it to 2, so this must be increased.

GV allows multiple devices connect to the same GV account. I assume several devices placing simultaneous calls doesn't violate Googles terms of use. I wonder if you can simulate multiple devices by defining multiple connections to the same account on a single OBi200. I have not tried this.

SteveInWA

Quote from: azrobert on September 02, 2020, 07:28:38 AM
See:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=6625.msg41922#msg41922

The old GV using the XMPP protocol limited the OBi200 to 2 simultaneous calls, but this restriction was removed when they switched to SIP. I got 3 simultaneous calls to work. I don't know what is the max. The default OBi200 MaxSessions setting limits it to 2, so this must be increased.

GV allows multiple devices connect to the same GV account. I assume several devices placing simultaneous calls doesn't violate Googles terms of use. I wonder if you can simulate multiple devices by defining multiple connections to the same account on a single OBi200. I have not tried this.


That's a bad assumption.  Multiple OBiTALK devices can, of course, be connected to one consumer Gmail account, but go ahead and try placing calls on them all at once, and see what happens to the Google Voice service on your account.   Consumer Google Voice is not intended for that use case.

azrobert

This policy doesn't make sense to me. If Google doesn't want people to make simultaneous calls, why don't they technically block them? Anyway, I decided to see what the use policy was and I couldn't find anything on simultaneous calls. I checked Specific Terms, Additional Term and Acceptable Use Policy. I didn't read every word, so I might have missed it or they could be listed somewhere else. Could you show me where to look for the simultaneous policy. Thanks.

SteveInWA

The only reason you've been able to make simultaneous calls is in support of call-waiting and three-way calling on inbound calls.  It's not to support anyone making multiple calls at once from multiple devices.

You'll note that there is also no documentation anywhere that explains, supports or encourages multi-call scenarios.

There is no specific documentation on this.  The consumer version of Google Voice has never been intended for any sort of business use, and Google can and does use a variety of triggers to enforce this policy.  The business-class version of Google Voice for G Suite customers is the offering for other use cases.

PDX_Mark

Quote

Google Voice is not a plain vanilla SIP trunk service.  It is not intended for use with Asterisk, and it is only capable of making two simultaneous outbound calls.  Attempting to use Google Voice as a SIP trunk provider for multiple calling violates Google's terms of use, and may result in your Google Voice service being suspended.


@SteveInWA , WOW! thats a lot of info about things I never asked about!

To reiterate, I asked in first question ONLY about the changing password. Absolutely nothing about the rest of it

In question 2 my question had NOTHING to do with the wiring of the obi jacks or pin-outs thereof.

I did type an error in question 3 but it should read "If I do not want to use the Obi202 phone port for Calls....." This has nothing to do with your "legal OPINION"  of the Google TOS as nowhere does it say you are an attorney nor even an ermployee of Google. As someone else pointed out Google already allows several methods of simultaneous calls.

I appreciate your replies, but you may want to consider that your future replies need not be filled with irrelevant information. 

SteveInWA

Quote from: PDX_Mark on September 03, 2020, 05:11:05 PM
Quote

Google Voice is not a plain vanilla SIP trunk service.  It is not intended for use with Asterisk, and it is only capable of making two simultaneous outbound calls.  Attempting to use Google Voice as a SIP trunk provider for multiple calling violates Google's terms of use, and may result in your Google Voice service being suspended.


@SteveInWA , WOW! thats a lot of info about things I never asked about!

To reiterate, I asked in first question ONLY about the changing password. Absolutely nothing about the rest of it

In question 2 my question had NOTHING to do with the wiring of the obi jacks or pin-outs thereof.

I did type an error in question 3 but it should read "If I do not want to use the Obi202 phone port for Calls....." This has nothing to do with your "legal OPINION"  of the Google TOS as nowhere does it say you are an attorney nor even an ermployee of Google. As someone else pointed out Google already allows several methods of simultaneous calls.

I appreciate your replies, but you may want to consider that your future replies need not be filled with irrelevant information. 

I don't see any problem whatsoever with my replies.  I answered what you originally asked; how can I possibly read your mind?

You asked about the password change scenario.  I explained WHY it doesn't matter.  Some people want to know why, not just a one word answer.

The reason I described the pin wiring of the OBi 202 jacks is that countless people over the years have misunderstood it, causing failures.  Other posters and I have then had to explain it; I simply provided that information so you'd not fall into that trap.

As for the multiple call issue:  I'm designated by Google at the highest-level of product experts on the Google Voice help community.  I've been supporting the service for over a decade, and I have direct contacts at Google.  I know exactly how the service works behind the scenes, and I am pointing out that a) it's Google's service, you have no legal contract nor entitlement to use it however you wish, and b) Google can and does kick people off of the service when, at its sole discretion, they don't use it as Google intends.  It happens every week; just look through the official forum.

I'll make a note not to waste time replying to your posts going forward.

PDX_Mark

@SteveInWA,

Man you are so full of yourself while tooting your own horn.

Google does not pay you, and more than probably the "experts" that designate you are also not Google employees.  You may even be a self professed "expert" as I see no "Google Certification" nor the like cited. If you were in fact some SIP "expert" you would not be working for Google for free.  

You seem to impy that my intention somehow is to abuse Google's service when in fact you have no idea what my usage is and in fact my usage is nothing more than residential , using the Obi202, an officially supported Google Voice device. I just need to know what happens if someone else goes to place a GV call when one is already in progress.

If Google has a problem with that they should take it up with Polycom that makes the officially endorsed Google Voice Obi products with the inteface to asterisk and other SIP devices possible.

I would actually appreciate it if you would refain from repying to me in the future, I have no need for your opinions and even question the accuracy of any relevant portons of your reply. So do not make that a threat, make it a promise please.


SteveInWA

What a piece of work you are.  First me, then attacking Taoman.

The actual title of your thread said "New to Obi202, not new to GoogleVoice or VoIP."  It was a reasonable assumption that you here to augment your existing knowledge by learning about how OBiTALK devices work with Google Voice.  I replied in the spirit of helping you with that.

For the record, your reply "I did type an error in question 3 but it should read "If I do not want to use the Obi202 phone port for Calls.." is an outright lie, since you followed up with a post about using Asterisk.

And by the way, you are very late to the party of outraged whiners regarding second-guessing the ToS and Asterisk.  There was a 44 page (!!!) DSLReports forum discussion on this, which was finally put to rest by Alex Wiesen, head of Engineering for Google Voice, who clearly stated that it was a violation of the ToS.  Nobody is interested in re-hashing that ugly shit-flinging mess: 
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32016984-Asterisk-Google-Voice-SIP-testing-and-technical-discussion~start=1170

So: learn to have a civil, respectful discussion, or GTFO.

PDX_Mark

I NEVER mentioned Taoman in this thread, whoever that is. That name appears Once in this thread and YOU wrote it.

Secondly I KNOW your fax info is completely inaccurate , see this thread http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=17418.0


ProfTech

Quote from: PDX_Mark on September 01, 2020, 12:40:22 PM
I have a mult-function printer/fax and am considering using one line for old school faxes. I read on one thread here that a user has success if he dials "*01" before the number. Isuspect this is a feature access code to lock the ATA into a specific CODEC, turn off the jitter buffers, etc . Looking further, I can not find an explanation of this specifc feature code "*01". Anyone know about this feature code?

You are correct. The post(s) you may have seen referring to pressing "01' before sending a fax probably refer to a feature code [self programmed]. If one wants to use the port on the Obi for both voice and an occasional fax you may be able to do that by programming a "feature code". It is your choice which code is used. I used *99 [an unused slot] but never got faxing to work that way using a fax modem and gave up. However it did enable occasional use of my dial-up modem and that was more important to me. But if you are using the port exclusively for fax the 5921 firmware does indeed have the capability of the settings for fax only, etc you describe in your other post. There are also settings in the codec section dealing with fax and the rtp section.  I'm making no statements whatsoever regarding the efficacy of all of those settings.

techno.express

Quote from: PDX_Mark on September 01, 2020, 12:40:22 PM
3) If I do not want to use asterisk, and use the Obi202 only to access Google Voice, with all voice calls originating and terminating on asterisk, can I use multiple simultaneous outbund calls on a single Google Voice account?

I been using this feature for some time now. If you want more that 2 simultaneous call, follow the instructions in https://twosortoftechguys.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/how-to-use-an-obihai-200-series-voip-device-as-a-gateway-between-google-voice-and-freepbx/, basically it's changing the preset 2, under Voice Services -> SP1 Service -> Calling Features -> MaxSessions.

There are no hacks needed, no violations of TOS, Obihai just need to remove the options altogether!


PDX_Mark

Quote from: SteveInWA on September 04, 2020, 03:00:54 PM

...

For the record, your reply "I did type an error in question 3 but it should read "If I do not want to use the Obi202 phone port for Calls.." is an outright lie, since you followed up with a post about using Asterisk.


Then explain to me how the origial post #3 Makes any sense at all with the error I made?

"3) If I do not want to use asterisk, and use the Obi202 only to access Google Voice, with all voice calls originating and terminating on asterisk, can I use multiple simultaneous outbund calls on a single Google Voice account?"

"I  do not want to use asterisk", but then say  "with all voice calls originating and terminating on asterisk". Obviusly there is an error there somewhere as the statement contradicts itself!


As for your "party of whiners" that I did not attend but you apparently did, I do not take any unofficial forum as containing any official contet. Just like the BS posts that go on here in this forum from supposed self professed "experts" whom themselves do not really know.

I do not believe that Google would be stupid enough to think that they could make such a legally binding clarification in such an unofficial manner in an unrelated forum.

techno.express

It didn't make sense, his whole reply was off.

Simultaneous calls can be made, it just require configuration changes. Just don't expect the experts to give it up.