Help with Obi202 newbie coming from a MagicJack Plus

[Integraoligist]

Hi all, I've been researching info on the 202 and it sounds outstanding, but I have a couple of questions that concern me.

My setup will be using a Google Voice #. One phone line will be voice and the other will be on a fax machine.

1. You can set up both lines to accept the same GV #, so that if someone calls the GV# both lines will ring... someone answers and is talking on the phone... while another person calls the GV# and faxes something, the line not in-use will ring and the fax will pickup, correct?

2. People that call the GV#, will they hear that Menu, press 1 to continue the call, press 2 to cancel message? This is a huge concern for me and I can't find any info on it. When I watch YouTube videos, everyone that calls gets that Menu option... I absolutely can not have that menu option... i need it to directly ring the phone and use it like a landline.  How does this menu thing work?

3. What is the minimum internet speed needed for the 202?  I only have a 6mb down and 786kb up DSL service.

Thanks all for the help!

[QBZappy]

Integraoligist,

Welcome,

1. You can set up both lines to accept the same GV #, so that if someone calls the GV# both lines will ring... someone answers and is talking on the phone... while another person calls the GV# and faxes something, the line not in-use will ring and the fax will pickup, correct?

GV has 2 voice channels. I expect that it should work this way if the fax machine is connected to the phone port which is free when the second call rings. FYI GV is not known to be fax friendly. I don't have an OBi202 to test.

2. People that call the GV#, will they hear that Menu, press 1 to continue the call, press 2 to cancel message? This is a huge concern for me and I can't find any info on it. When I watch YouTube videos, everyone that calls gets that Menu option... I absolutely can not have that menu option... i need it to directly ring the phone and use it like a landline.  How does this menu thing work?

Have a look here. It explains how to setup GV with the OBi. The call should end up ringing your phone normally.:
http://www.obihai.com/tutorial1.html

Pay special attention to this part referenced here:
http://www.obihai.com/tutorial9.html

3. What is the minimum internet speed needed for the 202?  I only have a 6mb down and 786kb up DSL service.

More than enough.

[Integraoligist]

Other then the fax issue it looks perfect, thank you for the info!

Is there anyone out there they uses a GV# with the 202 to accept faxes? I accept orders via fax so this is a necessity for my situation... I dont see why it would not work once the calls are connected to one another... right?  Why would GV interfere?

[Stewart]

I agree with QBZappy on (2) and (3), but have some additional comments on (1):

It's not possible for a fax machine to know that an incoming call is a fax, unless it (or another device on the loop) first answers the call.  That would unfortunately have the effect of "stealing" a voice call that came in when the first line was not in use.

However, what you are asking for seems pretty strange.  Unless you have a special reason for wanting the same number for voice and fax, I would use two separate GV numbers; one would ring the voice line and the other the fax.  If your fax machine can recognize and answer a "distinctive ring", you could set it up so voice calls would also ring the second line, which would have the both the fax machine and one or more phones.  That way, you could also make or receive a voice call while the other line is in use.

Going a step further, I'd use a fax-to-email service to receive faxes, which has many advantages over using the machine.  You can get free fax numbers from Callcentric (NY), k7.net (WA) or VoxOx (CA).  Or, get an Anveo Value DID in your area for $0.99/mo.  All of these are IMO more reliable than GV through the OBi.  If you have paper documents to fax, you could still use the machine for sending.

[Integraoligist]

I guess having a 2nd GV # for the fax line is not an issue at all... I just figured that because the fax has a phone attached to it already, if the 1st line is busy then the 2nd line/fax line could be used as another voice line... much like rolling over from line to line from the Telco.

I was looking into those fax services... the problem is that when a fax is recieved, I would have to call my staff (if i'm not there) stop the POS service on the PC, go to the email, and print the fax anyway because we need paper copies.   So actually using one of the fax to PDF services is more of a pain then anything.

[Billt928]

I have also left MagicJack Plus or should I say returned it to best buy a week after getting it.

So I looked around and found the OBi202 and though great. set it up with two GV lines
GV and faxes did not work so great so I went to callecntric for that line, and also use them for E911
and a few custom calling plan later I'm very happy with the service. I ended up porting both lines to callcentric. spending about $13 a month and its been rock solid and includes name and number caller id.
I still have the other GV lines on the OBi202, but do not use them much but I have them setup as call forward numbers for other outbound callcentric numbers I have

[Lavarock7]

I was looking into those fax services... the problem is that when a fax is recieved, I would have to call my staff (if i'm not there) stop the POS service on the PC, go to the email, and print the fax anyway because we need paper copies.   So actually using one of the fax to PDF services is more of a pain then anything.

Hewlett Packard printers costing over $100 are supposed to all have Eprint now. The printer is Lan connected and there is an email account associated with that printer. The fax service could create a pdf and email it to the printer instead of a regular email account.

As an aside, for those worried about spam on their printer, the email account is pretty cryptic and you can change it at will. My idea for my ecommerce website is that when an order is received, I normally get an email copy of the order. Now I can configure the store with my printer email and the order is printed automatically.

[Integraoligist]

Are there any other sites like GV that are capable of doing faxes?

Billt928, you say GV and Obi didnt receive faxes to good... what actually happened? Were the faxes all scrambled or what?

Lavarock7, looked up that HP ePrint, and that would work good for people ordering products online... at my old shop I had a Online Ordering page and the company that created it was just getting off the ground and used me as a free guinea pig.  They made a simple printer software so that when someone ordered online, it shot an email, a text to me, and activated whatever printer that was connected to the PC with their simple printer software.  So it was basically a redundancy program so if 2 options fail, you still have 1 leg left.

However, like I said, the people would order on-line.  My new shop will not have online ordering, instead just a Catering print out that people will print, fill out, then fax in.  I'd like to just have them scan and email it to me (which would fix all my problems) but there are still to many companies out there that can't comprehend how to email/scan.

[Billt928]

Billt928, you say GV and Obi didnt receive faxes to good... what actually happened? Were the faxes all scrambled or what?

GV worked fine for me most of the time on faxes under 5 pages, but longer faxes always resulted in a fax error. GV faxing was night an day when compared to MagicJack Plus, (they were very slow and most failed) I still had an occasional issue with one page faxes with GV where the person faxing me said my fax never answered, and went to Google voicemail.  I have had no issues at all with callcentric and faxing.

I have received 100+ page faxes without issue and extremely fast. I have not had a fax error since switching it over to callcentric.

Since I mostly have inbound faxes I got one of there dirt cheap unlimited DID's for $2.95 a month and pay per minute for outbound. you can also enable inbound faxes to be diverted to a email address if you are away and bypass your local fax machine.

[Integraoligist]

Really? Thats actually great news for me, as my faxes will only be 1 page or possibly 2 if the company does an auto-cover letter

Also.i've been doing more research here on the forum and it looks like a lot of people are making GV and OBi work with their fax machine by just needing to change your fax machine to the slowest BAUD like 9200 or better yet the 7200 rate.

Did you change your Baud rates when working with the fax? I wonder if you can get over your 5 page limit if you drop it to 7200?

[Billt928]

Really? Thats actually great news for me, as my faxes will only be 1 page or possibly 2 if the company does an auto-cover letter

Also.i've been doing more research here on the forum and it looks like a lot of people are making GV and OBi work with their fax machine by just needing to change your fax machine to the slowest BAUD like 9200 or better yet the 7200 rate.

Did you change your Baud rates when working with the fax? I wonder if you can get over your 5 page limit if you drop it to 7200?

With callcentric I connect at max speed everytime.

I did try lowering the baud rate with GV, I just found it to be slow and unreliable. the slower the transmission speed the more time that it can error out. and the way I look at it. its my business and I needed reliable and for $2.95 its a small price to pay. I know that $2.95 a month is well worth it as opposed to the time it takes to resend or miss important faxes.

If it was just a for for occasional home use I may have stayed with GV, But with my business I just can not afford to have issues.

[Integraoligist]

Now why exactly does callcentric work while GV has issues?
Arent they the exact same thing?

[Billt928]

Now why exactly does callcentric work while GV has issues?
Arent they the exact same thing?

That I do not know. maybe GV just does not have the bugs worked out yet. callcentric has been doing this a bit longer that GV. GV also states to do not support faxing.
callecntric also supports T.38 fas standards GV does not

I'm not going to try to force you to use callcentric. It seems your set on GV, remember  that's free till the end of 2012. Who knows what it may cost after that. If you can accept the issues with faxing with GV like needing to drop your baud rate down to the speeds used 30 years ago to save $3 buck that up to you.
I use faxes for my business and $3 bucks to be reliable is worth it to me.

[Integraoligist]

I gotcha, I'm in electrical engineer by trade so it's my nature to try and figure out why things dont work while similar products do work and how you would go about fixing it. 

[Integraoligist]

Another question... when you setup the OBi, are you able to move it to any location without having to set it up again? i.e. set it up at home, use it for a while, then move it to the business... is there no other setup required?

[Billt928]

Another question... when you setup the OBi, are you able to move it to any location without having to set it up again? i.e. set it up at home, use it for a while, then move it to the business... is there no other setup required?

I have done that for 3 ObI's so far. I have had no issues setting them up in one location and them relocating them at a later date. I did have a bit of an issue with a OBi110 and a firewall wanting it put it as a DMZ. Did not have to change any thing on the OBi, OBitalk, GV or Callcentric

[QBZappy]

Integraoligist,

I think YMMV. There are differing variables between locations to know with certainty without actually trying it.
Variables= Router model, DSL, perhaps a few others

If making/receiving calls is what you are envisioning and a computer is available to you, you might consider using the OBiAPP+soft phone combination to connect at the remote site. You can get most of the benefits using the soft phone connecting to the OBi which might be physically located elsewhere.

[Integraoligist]

Ok, so i've been going over the specs and isnt the obi202 the exact same thing as 2 of the obi100's?
So just buy 2 of the 100's and you get the same effect as the 202?

[Ostracus]

Ok, so i've been going over the specs and isnt the obi202 the exact same thing as 2 of the obi100's?
So just buy 2 of the 100's and you get the same effect as the 202?

Well sans the router, USB port, and file storage. Not to mention the unified configuration (you don't have to jump from one device to another to configure). Plus there may be some slight differences when writing a digitplan when accessing a resource on another device vs the same resource contained in one device. Eh, pretty much with the caveat that we can't be certain there isn't some hidden functionality peculiar to just the Obi202

[Lavarock7]

An extra advantage with the 202 is that you can easily say that 3 of the providers are assigned to 1 phone and the other provider to a second phone. With 2 110's (unless you play games) you are two per phone. You could also force all outbound calls out one provider with only 1 registration to that provider. Many providers don't allow two bxes to access the same account (registration login).

Two 110s would allow you to have two 911 providers (a different one for each box) such that if one was not configured right or working, you could switch to the phone on the other 110 to make a call.