OBi110 Syslog messages: Report status of Message-Waiting-Indicator (MWI)?

[Telex]

Does anyone know what, if any, syslog messages can be used to indicate the presence or absence of new voicemail?

Does the Obi110 report the status of the Message-Waiting-Indicator (MWI) in its syslog messages?  In other words, when it detects there is new voicemail, does it report this via a syslog message?

I'm looking for the ability to detect when MWI is enabled/disabled by monitoring the Obi110's syslog messages.  Here's what I tried:

• While monitoring the syslog, I called my home phone, left a message, then hung up.
• The moment the MWI indicator light lit up on my house phone, a syslog message appeared indicated  a "howling" tone. This may correlate with MWI being enabled.
• Using my house phone I called my voicemailbox, erased the new voicemail message, and hung up.
• At the moment the MWI indicator turned off on my house phone, I could not find a correlating syslog message.

I know I can detect MWI status whenever the phone goes off-hook because syslog indicates a "stutter" tone. However, this tone is generated only when the phone is off-hook and I want to detect MWI while the phone is on-hook.


BTW, based on what I've read, the 'howler tone' is supposed to indicate a phone left off-hook for too long. Odd that it was reported in syslog even though my phone was onhook at the time.

[jeffml]

From my obi syslog output:

+++ mwi notify state 0

[Telex]

Thanks for the quick reply.

What is your Obi110's syslog level? Seven? Mine is set at seven and yet I don't see that message.

I'm using a perl script to monitor the syslog traffic and I'm fairly confident that it is displaying all received messages. Maybe I'll try a syslog monitoring program and compare the results.

UPDATE
I installed Syslog Watcher and it confirms the perl script I use works fine. I do not get the "+++ mwi notify state 0" message.

Do you have some other option enabled that causes the OBi110 to generate this message?

[jeffml]

Do you have some other option enabled that causes the OBi110 to generate this message?

Syslog Level 7 with:

X_MWISubscribe enabled in ITSP Profile A/SIP
X_SipDebugOption set to "Log All Except REGISTER Messages" in Voice Services/SP1 Service
MWIEnable and X_VMWIEnable enabled in Voice Services/SP1 Service/Calling Features

Not sure if these all need to be set but everything works as expected at this moment.

[Telex]

OK, I already had MWIEnable and X_VMWIEnable enabled.

I set X_SipDebugOption to "Log All Except REGISTER Messages"  and that generated several lengthy SIP-related messages but nothing about MWI status so I put the option back to its default state (disabled).

Finally, I enabled X_MWISubscribe and that produced the desired results:
+++ mwi notify state 1
and
+++ mwi notify state 0

The only unwanted side-effect is that the following message is being generated every ten seconds:
++++ mwi subs failed

Are you also receiving this failure message? Anything I can do to help 'subs' succeed rather than fail?


PS
If there's no way to suppress the generation of the "mwi subs failed" message, then I suppose I could use it as a 'heartbeat' for monitoring the OBi110's operation. As long as those 'subs failed' message are received regularly, it means the OBi110 is alive and well.

[jeffml]

I set X_SipDebugOption to "Log All Except REGISTER Messages"  and that generated several lengthy SIP-related messages but nothing about MWI status so I put the option back to its default state (disabled).

I think I had this set to watch for lost registrations and send me an email when it dropped.

The only unwanted side-effect is that the following message is being generated every ten seconds:
++++ mwi subs failed

Are you also receiving this failure message? Anything I can do to help 'subs' succeed rather than fail?

I don't get that currently but looking back at my logs I have received it (not continuously) but it was preceded by a "SIP/2.0 404 Not found (no mailbox)" message from my provider.  Maybe put X_SipDebugOption back in place for a bit and see if that helps explain it.

[Telex]

I followed your suggestion and my OBi110 is configured with:
X_SipDebugOption set to "Log All Except REGISTER Messages"
X_MWISubscribe is enabled

The following pattern of syslog messages repeats itself:

• NOTIFY
• mwi notify state 0
• sendto
• SIP/2.0 200 OK
• mwi subs failed
• RxFrom

Here is the exact pattern except I've anonymized the SIP and IP addresses and put in line-breaks (hopefully in the right places) to make it more readable:

• [NOTIFY
  sip:999999@11.11.11.11:5060 SIP/2.0
  Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 22.22.22.22:5060;branch=z9hG4bK7fd93dab;rport
  From: "Unknown" <sip:Unknown@montreal.voip.ms>;tag=as694a18b1
  To: <sip:sip:999999@11.11.11.11:5060>;tag=SP158723cae4c602f7c
  Contact: <sip:Unknown@22.22.22.22>
  Call-ID: 22471cf8@10.1.1.1
  CSeq: 127 NOTIFY
  User-Agent: VoIPMS/SERAST
  Max-Forwards: 70
  Event: message-summary
  Content-Type: application/simple-message-summary
  Subscription-State: active
  Content-Length: 96
  Messages-Waiting: no
  Message-Account: sip:asterisk@montreal.voip.ms
  Voice-Message: 0/0 (0/0)]
• [<7> +++ mwi notify state 0]
• [<7> sendto 43cd4aa4:5060(342)]
• [SIP/2.0 200 OK
  Call-ID: 22471cf8@10.1.1.1
  CSeq: 127 NOTIFY
  Content-Length: 0
  From: "Unknown"<sip:Unknown@montreal.voip.ms>;tag=as694a18b1
  To:<sip:sip:999999@11.11.11.11:5060>;tag=SP158723cae4c602f7c
  Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 22.22.22.22:5060;branch=z9hG4bK7fd93dab;received=22.22.22.22;rport=5060
  Server: OBIHAI/OBi110-1.3.0.2651]
• [<7> ++++ mwi subs failed]
• [<7> ++++ mwi subs failed]
• [<7> ++++ mwi subs failed]
• [<7> RxFrom:43cd4aa4:5060]

The NOTIFY message clearly shows that I have no waiting voicemail messages. When I left a message, NOTIFY indicated one voicemail was waiting and the log displayed 'mwi state 1'. This part seems to be working properly.

I'm not sure what the next log entry, SIP/2.0 200 OK, means buts it seems to suggest everything is fine. Nevertheless, the next entries are 'mwi subs failed'.

I have a feeble grasp of the true purpose of X_MWISubscribe. From what I've read, it is a request, from a SIP-based device to the server, to be informed of (subscribe to) the status of voicemail messages. Apparently, one device can even subscribe to another device's status. My house phone's MWI light works just fine if X_MWISubscribe is disabled and MWIEnable and X_VMWIEnable are enabled. Clearly, X_MWISubscribe must serve some higher purpose than the menial task of lighting up my phone's MWI light ... and I don't know what that may be.

In my OBI110's configuration, X_MWISubscribeURI is blank. Is this option blank for you as well do you have it populated with the URI of your SIP account?

[jeffml]

A couple things:  I'm using voip.ms same as you but I'm using the london server and also using a sub-account.  May or may not make a difference.

X_MWISubscribeExpires = 360
X_MWISubscribeURI is blank (default setting)

I'm also using the Expert Config on the website but verifying on both.

[Telex]

X_MWISubscribeExpires = 360
X_MWISubscribeURI is blank (default setting)
I'm also using the Expert Config on the website but verifying on both.

My X_MWISubscribeExpires option is set to 3600 (default).  I also use Expert Config (and verify the changes took place locally).

Reaching at straws here but maybe voip.ms's London server is configured to respond differently than their Montreal server; I see 'subs failed' whereas you don't. Now it seems like the 'subs failed' message may appear for some folks but not others ... and I win the 'prize'.


Maybe some of the other forum gurus can chime in and shed more light on this issue; I'm stumped.

[jeffml]

Do you by any chance have something configured as your second provider?  The failed message doesn't specify which SP it comes from.  *crosses fingers*

It will probably be one of those things you will end up having to ignore but you are probably like me and it will drive you insane.  Good luck.

[Telex]

No, I only have SP1 configured for voip.ms and nothing else and yes. this will drive me to distraction!

I'm collaborating with another forum member (etc6849) to develop an Obihai driver for a Home Automation (HA) program we both use (Premise Home Control). The driver is done and I now have a log of inbound and outbound calls that I can view on my kitchen's touchscreen.

I want to add one more feature and that is to indicate if there are new voicemail messages. Upon arriving at home, I want my HA system to inform me (via voice announcement) if there's new voicemail. The "+++ mwi state 1" message, that you revealed to me, is the ideal candidate. However, the accompanying 'subs failed' messages (that only I seem to get) suggests I may have misconfigured my OBi110 in some way.  

I've asked etc6849 to set his OBi110 to display MWI syslog messages and report if he also gets 'subs failed' messages.  If anyone else is willing to carry out the test and report their results, I'd appreciate it.

[Telex]

I've arrived at a solution that provides me with the information I was seeking.

Configuration settings:
X_SipDebugOption set to "Log All Except REGISTER Messages"
X_MWISubscribe is disabled (default)

The X_SipDebugOption causes my OBi110 to display a periodic (~ 30 sec) NOTIFY message (see a sample, about 5 posts above) that contains the following key-value pair: "Voice-Message: 0/0".

I've discovered that the first digit represents the number of new voicemail messages. I do not know what the second digit represents. If anyone knows, please enlighten us!

My SIP provider is voip.ms. My colleague, etc6849, uses Google Voice and he reports that his Obi110 is not generating the NOTIFY message. It generates debug messages specifically for the Google Voice service and one of them clearly reports the number of new voicemail messages. I'll hazard a guess that the NOTIFY message is generated if you are connected to a 'standard' SIP provider.

So if you are using Google Voice, voicemail status is readily available from the debug log. For other SIP providers, set X_SipDebugOption as indicated and parse the resulting NOTIFY message.

PS
Be advised that etc6849 is currently experiencing a few issues with Google Voice's polling frequency (see
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=2070.0)

[ProfTech]

The second number should indicate the number of saved messages.