OBi110 Long delay to get dialtone on landline

[FM9295]

Just received my unit and noticed some odd things.  Here's my setup: I have my land line connected to the LINE port and my phone to the PHONE port;  I am using GV for SP1.

Although everything states that the default dialout on an OBi110 is the land line, initially, every time I'd make a call to my cell phone (just dialing the number with no prefixes, no #, no **1, **2 or **8 in order to test the system and make sure it was doing what it was supposed to), my cell's caller ID would show my GV number as originating the call (should have shown my home land line if that was indeed the default).  Later I did find that I was able to get it to show my land line's caller ID if I would use the **8 first.

So I went in and changed settings in the Expert setup to make sure that my land line was set to do the outbound calling (it was, but I overrode the ObiTalk and the default settings to force the settings).  Again, it was still showing SP1 (GV) as the originator of the call.  Finally I reset everything from the Expert setup back to defaults.  Now it is actually dialing out on my landline as the primary default outbound number (as it should).

HOWEVER, now what I am noticing is that if I simply pick up the phone (land line) and dial a number, it takes at least 15-20 seconds to get a dialtone (and sometimes it even times out before I get dialtone).  But if I hit "#" first, I can hear it jump to a landline dialtone and I can dial immediately.  Seems like if the device is configured for the PSTN (landline) to be the primary outgoing, I should get dialtone (telco dialtone) immediately regardless of whether I hit the # or not?  Anyone have any ideas?  I tried reducing the >physical interfaces>Line Port>Dial delay down from the default of 500 to 300, but it didn't seem to make any difference so I moved it back to the 500 default.

Aside from the minor annoyance of having to dial "#" before every call I want to route via landline, my concern is also that this same thing could happen when trying to dial 911.  You certainly don't want a 20 second delay to get a dialtone in an emergency, and you also don't want a complicated dialing rule if someone is in your home (babysitter, grandparent, etc) who doesn't know the idiosyncrasies of your system.  I guess I should just schedule a call to my local 911 to check it out, but wondering if anyone knows the answer to this?

[RonR]

An unconfigured OBi defaults to a PrimaryLine of PSTN Line (Line Port).  When you configured SP1 for Google Voice the PrimaryLine probably got changed to SP1 Service.  If you want the LINE Port to be your PrimaryLine, setting it to PSTN Line was the right thing to do.

When you press #, the OBi immediately bridges the PHONE Port to the LINE Port and you're dealing with the PSTN line directly.  In ALL other cases, you hear a dialtone generated by the OBi (even if PrimaryLine is PSTN Line).  In ALL cases except pressing #, you're entering the number you dial to the OBi where it will process the number before sending it out a particular trunk.

When you take your phone off-hook, you should immediately hear OBi dialtone and be able to dial a number.  There should not be any delay in receiving an OBi dialtone.  You should not have to dial # first (which effectively bypasses the OBi).

DialDelay should not need to be adjusted and is not what you think it.  Leave it at 500 ms.

When you pick up your phone to dial 911, you should immediately get OBi dialtone.  Once you dial 911, the OBi will recognize that as a special case and automatically send it out the LINE Port after a 2 second delay.

You first need to figure out why you're not getting OBi dialtone immediately upon picking up the phone.  I would recommend removing the OBi from the OBiTALK Web Portal (do NOT re-add it).  Log into the OBi directly and reset it to factory defaults.  Once it reboots, verify that you get OBi dialtone immediately upon picking up the telephone.  If you don't, there may be something wrong with the hardware.

[FM9295]

Thanks for the quick response.  The special case of 911 is at least reassuring.

I may have misspoken on the dialtone.  Again, I have PSTN as my primary outgoing.  When I pick up the analog phone connected to the PHONE port, I DO get dialtone immediately (I think you are saying it's OBi dialtone--I honestly can't tell the difference from the telco's).  However, when I dial an outgoing number (like my cell) it take 20-25 seconds to hear ringing on the other end of the call (I'm talking about hearing this in the earpiece of my analog phone from which I am originating the call). 

But if I pick up my analog phone, hear dialtone, then press "#," there is a split-second pause and another dialtone (which, from what you've explained, is likely the telco dialtone) and then when I hit the last digit of the number I'm dialing, within a second I'm hearing the ring on the receiving end (again, hearing it in the earpiece of my analog phone from which I am originating the call).

What you explained makes sense about getting a direct path to the telco with the "#" but I don't understand why the gigantic pause if I just pick up the phone to dial and I'm supposed to be defaulted to PSTN for outgoing.  I could see a second or two, but 20-25 seems like somethings not set correctly.

[RonR]

It's normal for there to be a 4.9 second delay when making calls through the LINE Port.  There's a 0.5 second delay for the OBi to get dialtone once it takes the PSTN Line off-hook.  Then for an 11 digit number, there's 0.4 seconds for each digit to be dialed, totaling 4.4 seconds.

A badly crafted DigitMap could introduce another 10 second delay.

Please post the contents of (preferably from the OBi itself and not from the OBiTALK Web Portal):

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap

What format does your PSTN line use?  7-digits for local and 1 + 10 digits for long distance?

When you dial a number using Google Voice (**1), how long is the delay before you hear ringback?

[FM9295]

A badly crafted DigitMap could introduce another 10 second delay.

Please post the contents of (preferably from the OBi itself and not from the OBiTALK Web Portal):

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap

What format does your PSTN line use?  7-digits for local and 1 + 10 digits for long distance? 

When you dial a number using Google Voice (**1), how long is the delay before you hear ringback?

1.  Here are both the LINE and PHONE DigitMaps:
Line Port:
(xxxxxxxS4|1xxxxxxxxxx|xx.)

Phone Port:
([1-9]x?*(Mpli)|[1-9]S9|[1-9][0-9]S9|911|**0|***|#|**1(Msp1)|**2(Msp2)|**8(Mli)|**9(Mpp)|(Mpli))

2.  We have 10 digit dialing so all numbers are 10 digit (plus 1 for LD)

3.  Surprisingly, only about 3 seconds max.

[RonR]

Line Port:
(xxxxxxxS4|1xxxxxxxxxx|xx.)

2.  We have 10 digit dialing so all numbers are 10 digit (plus 1 for LD)

There's the extra 10 second delay.  The default DigitMaps in the OBi aren't usually optimal.  Use this instead:

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap : ([2-9]11|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx)

[FM9295]

Thanks!  That's much better.  I guess I should have called the thread "Long delay to get ringback" (rather than dialtone).

[Stewart]

That's much better ...

You can probably save another 2-3 seconds by setting (for the LINE port) DialDigitOnTime and DialDigitOffTime to 70.  If that doesn't dial reliably, try 100.  If still no luck, set them back to 200 (the default).

You could reduce call setup time further, by setting up speed dials for your often-called contacts.

If you need to make international calls on the landline, set the LINE port digit map to something like
([2-9]11|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx|011xxxx.)

[lk96]

for whatever is worth, in addition to optimizing the digitmap (ie by adding a S0 term after
the matchin expressions), I did set the digiton/off times to shorter intervals.
My Dialdigitontime is set to 100ms and the Off timer is set to 50ms for couple months now.

These settings worked well for me and haven't introduced any side effects.
Keep in mind though that in my case, my line port on Obi is connected to a Vonage adaptor.
So for other adaptors or a real landline, you may have to eye on it until you verify
that everything is stable and working predictably.

L.

PS: if I recall correctly I had experimented with shorter values for the dialdigitontime and
that was working also ok. But I decided no to push my luck since the time savings
were very small.

[FM9295]

This may be slightly "off-thread" but when I made the changes to the "digitmap" line, I did so via the web interface (ie, 192.168.x.x), then saved and rebooted.  However, when I went back to the ObiTalk Web portal (via Expert setup), the change appeared not to have been saved.  (I even logged out and back onto ObiTalk to see if that was the reason it hadn't noticed the changes sent to the device--that didn't do it either.)

Strangely enough, I did make changes to the "ontime" and "offtime" lines via ObiTalk and then saved them and they did show up when I went back into the web interface (192.168.x.x).

Is this some sort of bug between the web interface and the ObiTalk web portal?

[RonR]

You cannot use the OBiTALK Web Portal *AND* configure the OBi directly.  You must use one method or the other.

With Auto Provisioning in the OBi enabled, you must make changes using the OBiTAL Web Portal.  Any changes you make to the OBi directly will not be reflected back to the OBiTALK Web Portal and will be overwritten by the settings on the OBiTALK Web Portal.

With Auto Provisioning in the OBi disabled, you must make changes to the OBi directly.  These changes will not be reflected back to the OBiTALK Web Portal.  Changes made using the OBiTALK Web Portal will not propagate to the OBi.

[FM9295]

Thanks-I had not understood that.  So does that mean that the only way to save a configuration (to avoid getting it wiped out with a firmware update as others have posted elsewhere on the forums) is to deactivate autoprovisioning, make sure the web interface has everything correct, and save the configuration?

Back to the ringback delay--after making these changes (to "digitmap" and "ontime" and "offtime") another strange thing has occurred:  somehow something must have reconfigured that is making the unit think that every local call I make (with my PSTN landline in the primary position for outgoing calls) is long distance.  I live in an area code where everything is 10 digit dialing, but there are lots of numbers that don't require the "1" in front of them.  

Any ideas what I could have inadvertently changed?

[RonR]

Thanks-I had not understood that.  So does that mean that the only way to save a configuration (to avoid getting it wiped out with a firmware update as others have posted elsewhere on the forums) is to deactivate autoprovisioning, make sure the web interface has everything correct, and save the configuration?

Since you're obviously comfortable with configuring the OBi directly at this point, there's no real advantage to using the OBiTALK Web Portal for configuration.  By configuring the OBi directly, you have more options, more status which is accurate and up-to-date, you know that changes got made instantly, and you're not dependent on the OBiTALK Web Portal being up and reliable.  Firmware updates are available by dialing ***6 or simply downloading the file and updating manually.

If you elect to configure the OBi directly, I recommend removing it from the OBiTALK Web Portal as the OBiTALK Web Portal has the ability to change your configuration even if Auto Provisioning is disabled.

Anytime I make changes to an OBi, I create a new backup file as soon I'm convinced those changes are working properly and are to become permanent.

Back to the ringback dealy--after making these changes (to "digitmap" and "ontime" and "offtime") another strange thing has occurred:  somehow something must have reconfigured that is making the unit think that every local call I make (with my PSTN landline in the primary position for outgoing calls) is long distance.  I live in an area code where everything is 10 digit dialing, but there are lots of numbers that don't require the "1" in front of them. 

Any ideas what I could have inadvertently changed?

Double-check that your OBi is still set to:

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap : ([2-9]11|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx)

or, if you wish to allow internationals calls also:

Physical Interfaces -> LINE Port -> DigitMap : ([2-9]11|[2-9]xxxxxxxxx|1xxxxxxxxxx|011xx.)

These allow:

10-digit numbers that do not start with 1
11-digit numbers that start with 1

[ProfTech]

My wife was complaining about the delay also so I decided to experiment with the setting
Physical Interfaces -> Line Port -> DetectOutboundConnectMethod

I had been using "None" as I thought this would shorten the delay. However, I was wrong. The default setting in the newer firmware is "Assume connected after a short delay" so I tried it and Viola! The Obi generates its own ring back almost instantly after you have completed dialing. Of course this is somewhat of an illusion but it should give the user the warm and fuzzies. The actual connect time doesn't change but they will hear ringing instead of silence. Didn't seem to make a difference if I dialed a 7 digit number or a 10 digit number.

[babobi]

You cannot use the OBiTALK Web Portal *AND* configure the OBi directly.  You must use one method or the other.

RonR, I don't understand how to configure the OBI 110 directly WITHOUT using the web portal. How is this accomplished? With a phone ONLY? Using touchtone dialing? Is there an instruction manual? I'm having the same problem, long wait for PSTN dialtone, and lately it doesn't work at all (keep getting an Obi error recording "There is no service available to complete your call") so I am forced to use SP1 to dial out, which then shows Google Voice as my Caller ID, and not the Comcast Digital Voice landline number that I want people to see when receiving an outbound call from me.

Your counsel is much appreciated! Thanks so much!

[RonR]

RonR, I don't understand how to configure the OBI 110 directly WITHOUT using the web portal. How is this accomplished?

1. Determine the OBi's IP address by dialing ***1.

2. Place the OBi's IP address in your web browser address bar as if it were a web site : http://192.168.1.123

3. Log in with a username and password of admin and admin.

4. Set:

System Management -> Auto Provisioning -> ITSP Provisioning -> Method : Disabled
System Management -> Auto Provisioning -> OBiTALK Provisioning -> Method : Disabled

Click Submit at the bottom of any page that has had changes made to it.

Click Reboot in the upper right corner when all desired changes have been made.

[MurrayB]

If Auto Provisioning is disabled do speed dials have to be set individually on each Obi?

Thanks!

[RonR]

If Auto Provisioning is disabled do speed dials have to be set individually on each Obi?

If Auto Provisioning is disabled, nothing configures the OBi but you.

[MurrayB]

Thanks RonR

Is there a way to print a speed dial list?

[RonR]

Is there a way to print a speed dial list?

Not that I'm aware of.

You can do a 'Save as' in IE of the Speed Dials page and get an XML file, but even IE can't display it afterwards.