What "End Of Support" or "Not Supported" Really Mean

[Lavarock7]

This is not directed towards any particular person or product. I wanted to give yo a bit of background behind those terms. I have worked in the computer industry for 17 years and electronics for decades.

Many people hear the terms Not Supported or End of Support and think that the product will instantly stop working; which can be far from the truth. What those statements mean is that company (usually) stops all efforts to update or fix problems with the item after that date. The product may still work long thereafter. What those statements also may mean is that "If you break it, you now own both halves". Even if there are issues, some third party may have a fix. There have been VOIP adapters that stopped working and someone has hacked a fix to keep them going.

I personally have a couple of Windows 7 boxes which Microsoft long ago decided not to update, yet I still can get some updates from Microsoft through a patch I installed. Still, they will stop at some point, but long after Microsoft decided to no longer support them.

[Kage]

No one knows how long Google Voice will continue to work past end of support. And hacks, though possible can often be unreliable and unstable.

Added to that Google has now made it virtually impossible to get a new Voice number without a verified mobile or landline number. Fortunately I already had a second account with a number so when obi stops working I can at least visit the Google Voice page for messages.

To ensure I can keep using obi for outbound calls I'm looking at either callcentric or voip.ms. They have reasonable pay per call plans.

[david2]

I think Google Voice will continue to work on OBi 20x series devices until Google decides to make major changes to their protocol. When you think about it, that's bad design on Google's part for not adhering to a set standard. I understand implementing new features and all that, but they should still design backwards compatibility into their protocol. When I first purchased my OBi devices back in 2015, I was thinking at that time that these devices would work indefinitely or until Google (if ever) discontinued their Google Voice service.

[taylorgodiva28]

This is not directed towards any particular person or product. I wanted to give yo a bit of background behind those terms. I have worked in the computer industry for 17 years and electronics for decades.

Many people hear the terms Not Supported or End of Support and think that the product will instantly stop working; which can be far from the truth. What those statements mean is that company (usually) stops all efforts to update or fix problems with the item after that date. The product may still work long thereafter. What those statements also may mean is that "If you break it, you now own both halves". Even if there are issues, some third party may have a fix. There have been VOIP adapters that stopped working and someone has hacked a fix to keep them going.

I personally have a couple of Windows 7 boxes which Microsoft long ago decided not to update, yet I still can get some updates from Microsoft through a patch I installed. Still, they will stop at some point, but long after Microsoft decided to no longer support them.

ohh so that means I threw away a lot of the product even though it was working fine until I read this article of yours 
Geometry Dash Scratch

[drgeoff]

^^spam

[RobertNYC]

"No one knows how long Google Voice will continue to work past end of support. And hacks, though possible can often be unreliable and unstable."

GOOGLE VOICE should continue to work just fine. It's just that the OBI devices that provide VOIP-service to a landline phone in one's home of office may eventually stop working. Many GOOGLE VOICE users do not have and likely are completely unaware of the OBI devices. I had a GOOGLE VOICE number that rang my cell phone well before I knew about the OBI devices or obtained one for myself.

[Lavarock7]

I am cheaper than most people I know, so it does not concern me that a free service *might* go away. I have GV and use it, but I also have a VOIP service on the same Obi and I spend all of maybe $10-$15 a year.

I had cable internet and for over 10 years the cable company never filtered out some of the channels. I had free TV until they finally went all digital. I finally had to actually pay to watch some things. That didn't bother me either. So if GV were to stop working on my Obis after all the years I have gotten free service, so be it. At that point I will say "It's been a great ride!".

[bluechip]

I've been using my OBi200 with Localphone and Callcentric for years, and found reliability to be much better than configuring the OBi200 for Google Voice. With Google Voice, when Google made changes OBi engineers would have to make corresponding updates, or calls would stop working. This was happening too often for me. Localphone is a bargain at $1.60 for 800 outgoing minutes with unlimited incoming minutes. However, Localphone does not provide caller ID names, just caller ID numbers. For caller ID names I use Callcentric. I also use Callcentric for reliable outgoing FAX. Should you decide to test Localphone, I'd appreciate your using this link,
http://www.localphone.com/?rb=g-ETNf1B4i76gTsjj-iP3fQIYAZUfCRTcvkGVW5UAN8
Thank you and good luck!

[videobruce]

Your LocolPhone is not compatible to emergency services (911).