Doesn't work with my bank

[prospero]

I installed the OBI100 device a few days ago and ported my number to Google Voice. Yesterday, I tried to use my bank's interactive voice-response (IVR) system.

It would not recognize the numbers I punched in. It would tell me that there was no such account number, or that this account wasn't set up to use the IVR system, or that it was still waiting for my input.

I had none of these issues before.  I found a related topic that suggested changing the DTMFRxMODE parameter to "software", but this didn't make any difference.

Experience tells me there's something wrong with the tone parameters, but I have no idea how to fix them.  What can I try besides going back to AT&T?

[QBZappy]

prospero,

Why don't you try playing around with the following settings:
Service Providers->ITSP Profile A/B->General->DTMFMethod

Try Inband

[prospero]

Thank you, that worked.

[R_Chandra]

Dude(tte)!  I would think long and hard about doing this!  Your bank account numbers MAY be being transmitted across the Internet for anyone technically adept enough to eavesdrop!  It's as if you were logging into your bank with http instead of https.  I strongly urge you NOT to tone any sensitive information (such as your bank account number) over VoIP, whether in-band or not.  Last I checked, using SSL with GV was NOT working in the OBi firmware.

[QBZappy]

R_Chandra,

How else can someone navigate a bank IVR system with DTMF to perform banking transactions. Is it really any different than tapping a PSTN line? Anyone with the right smarts can listen in. It seems to me that using voip may be as insecure as using the PSTN line. Short of avoiding the telephone altogether and using a browser with https, the inherent risk with voip vs pstn is inherently similar. The techniques for snooping in may be different.

[Felix]

Hmm... I am checking my voicemail both at home and at work from VoIP phones on a regular basis. I can get into John Edwards shoes before I know it (no, I am not qualified to run for US President; and no, I don't have a pregnant mistress - but you can't be too cautious these days!)

Then again... in 20+ years nobody hacked into POTS-based IVR system. Maybe I'll take my chances with this new Internet thing as well...

[infin8loop]

I don't leave my flat without my aluminium (spell check here seems to favour the British spelling) foil hat and I quit using my bank's IVR system when Al Gore invented the Internet and on-line banking.  Anyone in possession of my bank's transit routing number and my account number can theoretically debit my account through ACH, much like they could with that old fashioned thing called a forged cheque (Frank Abagnale?).  If you're using google voice, the eggheads at Google are recording everything you say and the DTMF tones as well.  Where would Mel Gibson go with these conspiracy theories?  I'm off to the bank tomorrow to convert all my dollars to pounds.  Is it still 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound?  Damned decimalisation.  Pluto was actually a planet in those days.       

[Lavarock7]

Hmm... I am checking my voicemail both at home and at work from VoIP phones on a regular basis. I can get into John Edwards shoes before I know it (no, I am not qualified to run for US President; and no, I don't have a pregnant mistress - but you can't be too cautious these days!)

Then again... in 20+ years nobody hacked into POTS-based IVR system. Maybe I'll take my chances with this new Internet thing as well...

I have to admit, I'm impressed that you have a password on your VM. Some people don't and it only takes a bit of callerID spoofing to break into someones voicemail.

I have tapped my own analog phone line with a telephone and a couple or dollar parts from radio Shack. In the past you could listen to cordless phones in your neighborhood with a scanner. People gave CC numbers that way. You can still listen to baby monitors that way where people have tapped their own houses and made the audio available to any neighbor with a scanner. Cell phone calls used to be listenable via the analog twist UHF knob on the TV. That is why they removed those upper channels from TV. I once used a spectrum analyzer I borrowed, hooked it to my C-band satellite dish and listened to hundreds of one way telephone calls going to Europe. Another channel was the back channel to the US.

I would NEVER use an analog phone to call a bank! I would only use an encrypted internet connection. I would never use a debit card, it is like giving away your check book. I check ATM card readers to ensure it is not a scamming plug in.

I have considered selling aluminum hats for fun and profit but will be happy to encrypt the credit card payment connection and not store credit cards on my own site, thus helping to make the site PCI compliant.

I am not paranoid. I am imformed. Doing anything financial with out some protection is just asking for trouble.

[prospero]

Since the Obi device converts the  touch-tones to digital, I wouldn't overly worry about people overhearing them, or my conversation.

I *would* worry a lot more about the casual use of wireless handsets to conduct such business, as that *could* be listened in on.  But VOIP? Not without an additional DAC and suchlike.

However, you can't simply turn your back on IVR, saying you won't use it. This isn't practical in this era.  IVR systems save buckets of money and enable customer service at a much higher level.

At some point in the path from you to the bank, your analog signal is certainly digitized. Odds are very high that the bank has digital service -- a T-1 or at least a partial, however tiny the bank.  Staying entirely analog from your phone to the bank is a vanishingly rare phenomenon.  Quite likely it's converted to digital at your local hub, in your backyard or your neighbor's. The odds, or the point at which the signal might get intercepted, aren't significantly different either way.
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But what I do find, is that the setting won't "stick". That is, I'll find that tones aren't working anymore, getting erratic results, so I log back into my OBI100 and find that the setting has reverted to "Auto" from "Inband".

I would change the password on the OBI if I could, but this also reverts every time I attempt to change it.

[RonR]

But what I do find, is that the setting won't "stick". That is, I'll find that tones aren't working anymore, getting erratic results, so I log back into my OBI100 and find that the setting has reverted to "Auto" from "Inband".

If you're making changes directly to the OBi, you must also set:

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

or the OBiTALK Web Portal will push its settings back into the OBi.

[8tugs8]

I have 5 obi100 setup on Google, I can call my house and office.  But when I plug in ATM to call processor it calls, processor picks up and does its noise thing, but seems as though ATM won't communicate back so it hangs up.  So I have been reading on here all day so tonight I'm going to change as follows:

Physical Interfaces -> PHONE Port -> DTMFRxMode : Software

Service Providers->ITSP Profile A/B->General->DTMFMethod,  Inband

So if anyone has any suggestions please help.  Oh and fyi I tried my FAX sending somethingto another FAX, worked no problem on the stock settings.

[prospero]

Having done all this, the Obi *seems* to work with my bank, but now it does NOT work with Google Voicemail.  I call in to see what calls I've gotten, VM tells me to press 2 for this, 7 for that, etc.  I press the number and wait.  VM tells me it's still waiting for my input. It eventually hangs up on me.

I verified that the settings hadn't changed on me again.  Now it's also dropping every call I answer.

It's going to take up to a month to port over to Nettalk. In the meantime, does anybody know what I can do to make this service work with voicemail and stop hanging up when I answer?