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Calling OBi from a number which does not exist in the "Trusted Caller IDs"

Started by ajayhere24, February 22, 2011, 09:43:00 AM

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ajayhere24

Is the following possible:

1) Call the phone line connected to the OBi - my home phone number in this case. The number i call from is not in the "Trusted Caller IDs".
2) Have the AA pick up and give me the three options?

Scenarios where this would be useful:
1) if i calling from work where all the outgoing numbers show up as the main company number
2) if i forget my cell phone and am using a friends phone
3) if i calling from a pay phone.

Thank you in advance for your assistance on this.

thanks,
Ajay

MichiganTelephone

I'm sure it's possible but do you really want to do that, considering that ANYONE who called your number would get the same three options, and would therefore be able to make calls on your nickle?  Once word got around you could have the most popular number in town!  ;D

However, all is not lost.  If you go to the device's web page, and go to Voice Services, Auto Attendant, you will see that there is a "UsePIN" option and places where you can set up to four PIN codes.  I have not tried to use that feature, but I suspect that if you set that up, then the AA would prompt you for a PIN before you could call anyone.  If you can configure that and get it working to the point that you are comfortable exposing it to the world, then all you should need to do is go to Physical Interfaces, LINE Port and change the InboundCallRoute to: aa

Please understand that I haven't actually tried any of this, so I'm basically just speculating on how it should work.  But it seems straightforward enough, as long as you test to make sure that just anyone dialing your number can't make calls.  I'd use a strong PIN if I were you (at least 7 or 8 digits, and NOT your current phone number or anything that anyone other than you might be able to guess).

Keep in mind that you may not be able to use Auto-Provisioning if you do the above (at least until they have the upcoming "Advanced" section of the OBiTALK portal ready), since it might change some of your settings.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

ajayhere24

You are right, i can easily have the AA answer all the calls and just have a pin set too so that not everyone can take advantage of the service. I currently have it setup to do both, ask for the pin and only respond to Trusted Caller IDs.

What i want to do here is that, let all the calls ring just like they normally do but while its ringing if i hit a key(could be a * or a # or something) then it takes me to the AA. So i agree with you and don't want AA to answer every call unless they are in the Trusted Caller IDs or if i press a certain sequence of codes to while it is ringing (as i am assuming that OBi is listening while the phone is ringing). Please let me know if i have manged to confuse you here.

thanks again in advance for your help.

Ajay

MichiganTelephone

You haven't confused me but if you think about it, while the line is still ringing there is no audio path for the OBi to detect.  The call hasn't yet been answered so there's no way to pass touch tones.

What might be theoretically possible, although I don't think the OBi devices have the capability at this time, is to answer the incoming call and play "fake" ringback tone while simultaneously listening for touch tone input AND simultaneously ringing the phone port.  That's a pretty specialized usage scenario and I don't know if many users would want something like that, nor how hard it would be to implement.  Plus you'd have to know to wait until after the first ring (because you need to allow one "real" ring before the telco passes Caller ID) before dialing your code to get into the menu.  I just see some issues with that sort of implementation but I won't comment any further on it.  Maybe someone from Obihai Support would like to comment on this one.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

OBi-Guru

@Ajay, as MichTel points out, it is not possible to do what you described.   
The call from Line port has not been answered and thus not connected yet.

ajayhere24

Thank you both for the quick responses! MichTel thank you again for the quick and detailed responses.

Ajay

jimates

Just asking, how does google voice do it?
Pressing * while the phone is ringing brings up the attendant. Some cell providers do the same thing.

OBi-Guru

GV phone app is the equivalent of the Phone attached to the OBi.   In this case, yes, one can do almost anything to make it work during the "ringback" state - because the ringback is actually audio signal sent out by the OBi device to the phone.

However, the OP asks about incoming calls which the OBi has not yet answered, and trying to send some DTMF tones.   This is not possible.

jimates

Not calling from google.

I am talking about calling my GV number from any phone, and as soon as it rings the first time I press * and it goes to the attendant. I don't have to wait for 4 rings and the voicemail pickup.

i can do the same thing to access my cellular voicemail from any land line.

MichiganTelephone

One thing you need to understand is that there are differences in operation before and after a line is "answered."  When you call someone, until the line is answered, the destination switch can send audio back to the caller (ringing signal, busy signal, number not in service recordings, etc,) but cannot receive audio from the caller (touch tones or voice).  Once the call is "answered" and the caller begins to be charged for the call (if on a traditional long distance call), then audio can be sent in both directions.  So if Google Voice or any other service can receive touch tones and act on them while you're listening to a ringing signal, it means they have already answered the call and (if you're calling via regular long distance) you are getting charged to listen to ringing signal, even if no one ultimately answers (either that, or they're not following standard telephone company practices).

So with the OBi devices, in order for them to allow touch tone input during ringing signal, they'd have to actually answer the call first to establish two-way audio and then play "fake" ringing signal (fake only in the sense that it's not coming from the telephone company), and then long distance callers would get charged to listen to ringing signal  >:(, and a lot of people would complain about that!
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

jimates

I understand what you are saying about how it is suppose to work.

But we use prepaid cellular 100% and we don't get charge for listening to ringing when calling a gv number or when calling one of our cellular numbers from another cell to check VM.

I have the Nettalk Duo and that is the reason it doesn't work with GV as a forwarding phone, it actually lcoks on to every call. So all the other phones ring once and then the Nettalk has taken the call. Odd thing is the Nettalk continues to ring normally, but GV goes straight to VM after the Nettalk locks onto the call.

If you call the Nettalk directly it works great.