Hook up POTS to Obi2182 via Obi212?

[FlintstoneGummy]

Hi all - first off, thanks to this forum for helping me figure out the maddening mess of how to configure these darned devices. Trying to help out my in-laws with a weird config question.

Let me describe the situation:

• I have an Obi2182 - works totally fine
• I have an Obi212 - also works totally fine
• In-laws have a landline phone, call it 123-456-7890 that they will not, under any circumstances, port to a VOIP provider
• That being said, they like the idea of being able to access that landline on the Obi2182

So my question is... can I hook up the landline POTS to the Obi212, and bounce all incoming and outcoming calls via the Obi network to the Obi2182? Ie. I can receive calls coming into 123-456-7890 via the Obi2182, and place calls coming from 123-456-7890 via the Obi2182 by using the Obi212 to access the POTS line?

[drgeoff]

Hi all - first off, thanks to this forum for helping me figure out the maddening mess of how to configure these darned devices. Trying to help out my in-laws with a weird config question.

Let me describe the situation:

• I have an Obi2182 - works totally fine
• I have an Obi212 - also works totally fine
• In-laws have a landline phone, call it 123-456-7890 that they will not, under any circumstances, port to a VOIP provider
• That being said, they like the idea of being able to access that landline on the Obi2182

So my question is... can I hook up the landline POTS to the Obi212, and bounce all incoming and outcoming calls via the Obi network to the Obi2182? Ie. I can receive calls coming into 123-456-7890 via the Obi2182, and place calls coming from 123-456-7890 via the Obi2182 by using the Obi212 to access the POTS line?

You have not explicitly confirmed that the you and your in-laws are in the same premises but if not it isn't easy to understand what you want.

Yes you can route 2182 POTS calls in and out via the 212 over the Obitalk network.

[FlintstoneGummy]

You have not explicitly confirmed that the you and your in-laws are in the same premises but if not it isn't easy to understand what you want.

Yes you can route 2182 POTS calls in and out via the 212 over the Obitalk network.

When I say "I have" i meant "they have"

So yes, you can consider it the same premises.

How do you route 2182 POTS calls in and out via the 212 over the Obitalk network? That's basically what I am trying to do.

[drgeoff]

You have not explicitly confirmed that the you and your in-laws are in the same premises but if not it isn't easy to understand what you want.

Yes you can route 2182 POTS calls in and out via the 212 over the Obitalk network.

When I say "I have" i meant "they have"

So yes, you can consider it the same premises.

How do you route 2182 POTS calls in and out via the 212 over the Obitalk network? That's basically what I am trying to do.

For incoming POTS you only need to change one setting on the 212.

Physical Interfaces, Line Port, InboundCallRoute: ph,ob(123456789) ph,pp(123456789)

Replace 123456789 with the 9 digit OBi number of the 2182.

Incoming POTS calls will ring both the phone on the 212 and the 2182. Either can answer.  If you don't want the 212's phone to ring just use ob(123456789) pp(123456789).

For outgoing POTS you need to configure both 212 and 2182.
212
Voice Services, OBiTalk Service, InboundCallRoute: {123456789>(xx.):li}
where 123456789 is the 9 digit OBi number of the 2182

2182
Physical Interfaces, Phone Port, DigitMap
It begins: ([1-9]x?*(Mpli)
Insert 1*xx.S3| to make it begin (1*xx.S3|[1-9]x?*(Mpli)

Physical Interfaces, Phone Port, OutboundCallRoute:
It begins: {([1-9]x?*(Mpli)):pp}
Make insertion so that it begins: {(<1:987654321>*(xx.)):pp},{([1-9]x?*(Mpli)):pp}
Replace 987654321 with the 9 digit OBi mumber of the 212.

Dial 1*8005551212 on the 2182 and 8005551212 will be called on the POTS line.

(With acknowledgement to azrobert from whom some of this was cribbed.)

Edited to correct errors pointed out and acknowledged in posts below.

[FlintstoneGummy]

THANK YOU!

I tried it and it works!!!!!!

QQ: now I'm just being fancy here, but is there a way to get the landline (123-456-7890) to show up on the right line line keys, so I can skip the "1*" and dial out directly?

EDIT: I figured it out! The instructions are here under the heading "Mini PBX – Two OBi ATAs With One PSTN Line"

Thank you thank you thank you!!

[drgeoff]

THANK YOU!

I tried it and it works!!!!!!

QQ: now I'm just being fancy here, but is there a way to get the landline (123-456-7890) to show up on the right line line keys, so I can skip the "1*" and dial out directly?

Yes that should be possible but is not something I have already tried and tested.  It may be several days before I'm able to do that.  If you want to try:

1. You need to explicitly select the Obitalk network.  See page 75 of the Admin Guide https://www.obitalk.com/info/documents/admin_guide/OBiPhoneAdminGuide.pdf.  Probably you'll elect to bind a Call Appearance key to the Obitalk service.

2.  Configure the Obitalk Service DigitMap to prepend 987654321* to dialled numbers containing other than 9 digits.  (That means that dialling 9 digit OBi numbers will continue to work as before.) See page 217 onwards and the second row of the table on page 222 has an example of prepending.

Of course you would still need to press the relevant LINE key before dialling so that would not take less keypresses than keying, say, a * or # before a number.  In which case an alternative to the two above paragraphs is to merely change one part of what I wrote in my previous post.

2182
Physical Interfaces, Phone Port, DigitMap
It begins: ([1-9]x?*(Mpli)
Insert <*:1*>xx.S3| to make it begin (<*:1*>xx.S3|[1-9]x?*(Mpli)

Now keying an initial * will cause the following digits to be dialled on the POTS line.

Change the <*:1*> to <#:1*> if you prefer to use an initial #.

[drgeoff]

Bigelow567 is a SPAMMER.  His post above is a verbatim copy of mine at http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=13651.msg87650#msg87650.  What I wrote there is irrelevant to this thread.

[myobinameisinuse9987]

For incoming POTS you only need to change one setting on the 212.

Physical Interfaces, Line Port, InboundCallRoute: ph,ob(123456789)

Replace 123456789 with the 9 digit OBi number of the 2182.

Incoming POTS calls will ring both the phone on the 212 and the 2182. Either can answer.  If you don't want the 212's phone to ring just use ob(123456789).

Let me ADD to the post quoted. On the OBi212, the only way I could get it to work was to use the below for InboundCallRoute, where 123456789 is replaced with my OBi1062 number.

ph,PP(ob123456789)

Using ph,ob(123456789) or even just ob(123456789) didn't work for me. No way, no how.

Can I also add additional OBi's to the list without problems? Is there some reason I couldn't get it to work as posted by Drgeoff, or was it just incomplete or a typo?

Thanks.

[drgeoff]

Yes, an error on my part. The correct forms for routeing to an OBi number are

pp(123456789)

pp(ob123456789)

The pp and optional ob may also be in upper case.

[drgeoff]

Can I also add additional OBi's to the list without problems? Is there some reason I couldn't get it to work as posted by Drgeoff, or was it just incomplete or a typo?

Yes you can add additional OBis to the list.  Somewhere the documentation mentions a limit of four destinations in an InboundCallRoute.

[myobinameisinuse9987]

Thanks drgeoff.

Now that we're doing more things with the OBi's, have to do more complex configurations. Syntax documentation seems hard to find. Is there a "Master List" document for syntax, keywords, etc?

Four destinations? That works great for me.

For someone who has already forwarded a connection to another device, they would automatically know to add the 'pp' but for my first attempt, I didn't know. Thanks for confirming the solution.

[drgeoff]

Thanks drgeoff.

Now that we're doing more things with the OBi's, have to do more complex configurations. Syntax documentation seems hard to find. Is there a "Master List" document for syntax, keywords, etc?

Four destinations? That works great for me.

For someone who has already forwarded a connection to another device, they would automatically know to add the 'pp' but for my first attempt, I didn't know. Thanks for confirming the solution.

The Admin Guide available from the Docs section of obitalk.com has lots of info. There is also a good tutorial on Digit Maps and call routeing.

[myobinameisinuse9987]

The Admin Guide available from the Docs section of obitalk.com has lots of info. There is also a good tutorial on Digit Maps and call routeing.
[/quote]

Thank you.

Can you tell me (I've searched and searched and....)

Does OBi212 support 2-line phones into the line port OR out to a 2-line phone via the phone port?
Does OBi202 support out to a 2-line phone via the phone port(s), using a single 2-line wire (2-pair)?
Does OBi212 pass CallerID to other OBi devices, when using InboundCallRoute?

FYI. I called Poly last week to ask about features of 312 vs 212. They were spectacularly UN-knowledgeable. So we're it, guys. Help each other out.

Thanks.

[drgeoff]

The OBi212 has no support for two line phones.  The PHONE jack is wired for one phone.  The LINE jack is wired for one POTS type line.  Electrically the OBi212 has 1 FXS and 1 FXO port.

The OBi202 supports a two line phone.  Connect a two line phone using a 4 conductor cord into the PHONE1 jack of the OBi202 or by using two 2 conductor cords - one into PHONE1 jack and one into PHONE2 jack. Electrically the OBi202 has 2 FXS ports.

Yes, the OBi212 passes CallerID to other OBis when using InboundCallRoute.

The OBi312 is identical to an OBi212 except that the 312 does not support Google Voice.  (Ditto for the 302/202 and 300/200 pairs).

[myobinameisinuse9987]

Thank you for the definitive answers

I have another challenge, if you wish.

I'm using the InboundCallRoute now. In my plan, I have to change for 5 locations to ring on incoming 212, including the local ph port on the 212.

You said it was limited to 4.

It made me wonder if I can take one of the 1062 phones that rings from the 212 InboundCallRoute and somehow make it ring that 5th device? Daisy chain, if you will.

Yes, I know that if that device is offline, the chain will break. But I'm dealing with a hybrid of analog and VoIP, customer choice and 2yr landline contract.

I can easily do 5 ring locations from Anveo with any VoIP lines, but these analogs...

Thanks!

[drgeoff]

Thank you for the definitive answers

I have another challenge, if you wish.

I'm using the InboundCallRoute now. In my plan, I have to change for 5 locations to ring on incoming 212, including the local ph port on the 212.

You said it was limited to 4.

It made me wonder if I can take one of the 1062 phones that rings from the 212 InboundCallRoute and somehow make it ring that 5th device? Daisy chain, if you will.

Yes, I know that if that device is offline, the chain will break. But I'm dealing with a hybrid of analog and VoIP, customer choice and 2yr landline contract.

I can easily do 5 ring locations from Anveo with any VoIP lines, but these analogs...

Thanks!

The limit of four is in the first of the Notes at the bottom of page 193 of https://www.obitalk.com/info/documents/admin_guide/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf.  I have never verified this so you might want to try five - perhaps the newer 2xx series OBis are not as processor bound as the 1x0 devices were.  If five does not work I see no reason why the daisy chain method would not.

Note that you probably need to up the "MaxSessions" from the default 2 in the 212's Obitalk Service, Calling Features.

[myobinameisinuse9987]

The limit of four is in the first of the Notes at the bottom of page 193 of https://www.obitalk.com/info/documents/admin_guide/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf.  I have never verified this so you might want to try five - perhaps the newer 2xx series OBis are not as processor bound as the 1x0 devices were.  If five does not work I see no reason why the daisy chain method would not.

Note that you probably need to up the "MaxSessions" from the default 2 in the 212's Obitalk Service, Calling Features.

I'll take a look at that section in the AdminGuide, thanks for the link. I didn't realize the Notes sections were for "reading" LOL. This is the guide where I found the 'PP' syntax in previous posts.

What would you recommend for MaxSessions? I haven't come across any criteria yet, or how to figure it out. Will this be affected by OUTBOUND calls from the 1062's that I plan to allow to dial out on the 212 ?

As I understand it, setup Trunk on 212 Li interface, then pass from 1062 to the 212. From what I understand, this is to require password to prevent unauthorized usage of Line interface on 212 (presumably from an errant Transfer from a user?)

I saw the suggestions early in this thread but haven't tried and tested it yet. I plan to test tonight/tomorrow with a 212 and 2182 I have here.

Fyi- YES, you can use FXS port of OBi202 as FXO line in on OBi212, although any calls passing there come up RESTRICTED. Perhaps due to GV being on that line?

Again, thank you for all the help.

(BTW, nice syntax help in that section of the guide, too)

[drgeoff]

If you will be forking to four other OBis using the OBiTALK service then I would set MaxSessions to 4.  This is only relevant to calls coming into the 212's LINE port (and ringing its PHONE port and being forked to four other OBis.  Regarding outgoing calls on the 212's LINE port there can only be one at a time!

Some protection would be a good idea to prevent any other OBi on the planet coming in over the OBiTALK network to the 212 and calling out on the POTS line.  See page 19 of the tutorial I mentioned above.

Yes the LINE and PHONE ports conform quite well to FXO and FXS standards so no surprise that you can connect them together though I cannot immediately think why RESTRICTED  would come up.

[azrobert]

There is a hack you can use for more than 4 destinations. You need an open SP to do this easily. Your inbound route will send the call to 3 destinations. The 4th will be looped out say SP4 and back into SP4. The SP4 inbound route will send the call to the 4th and 5th destinations.

Setup dummy trunk:
Service Providers -> ITSP Profile D -> SIP -> ProxyServer: 127.0.0.1
Service Providers -> ITSP Profile D -> SIP -> X_SpoofCallerID: Checked
Voice Services -> SP4 Service -> AuthUserName: anything
Voice Services -> SP4 Service -> X_RegisterEnable: unchecked
Voice Services -> SP4 Service -> X_ServProvProfile: D

Inbound route:
dest1,dest2,dest3,sp4(0@127.0.0.1:5063)
5063 is the X_UserAgentPort
5063 is the default, but might get changed to 5083 with GV setup

SP4 inbound route
dest4,dest5

[myobinameisinuse9987]

There is a hack you can use for more than 4 destinations. You need an open SP to do this easily. Your inbound route will send the call to 3 destinations. The 4th will be looped out say SP4 and back into SP4. The SP4 inbound route will send the call to the 4th and 5th destinations.

Setup dummy trunk:
Service Providers -> ITSP Profile D -> SIP -> ProxyServer: 127.0.0.1
Service Providers -> ITSP Profile D -> SIP -> X_SpoofCallerID: Checked
Voice Services -> SP4 Service -> AuthUserName: anything
Voice Services -> SP4 Service -> X_RegisterEnable: unchecked
Voice Services -> SP4 Service -> X_ServProvProfile: D

Inbound route:
dest1,dest2,dest3,sp4(0@127.0.0.1:5063)
5063 is the X_UserAgentPort
5063 is the default, but might get changed to 5083 with GV setup

SP4 inbound route
dest4,dest5

That is very logical to forward it directly within the 212 itself. I'm guessing the SP4 also allows 4 InboundCallRoute locations, making it 7 locations?

Any delays expected? Do I need to increase MaxSessions or anything else for the extra SP4 processing?

Thank you!

With the help you guys are giving, this system is really coming along.