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2 Google Voice accounts and 2 different telephones

Started by cvc1968, October 05, 2012, 11:28:29 AM

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cvc1968

I'm considering an OBI for our home and would like to see if anyone out there can advise me on whether the following setup options are possible.

First, we haven't had a landline phone in ages. My wife and I both use iPhones and can receive calls to our respective GV accounts on our iPhones.  The problem is that she is not as diligent as I am about keeping her phone with her at all times when she is in the house, coupled with the fact that she pretty much leaves the phone in silent mode.  The result is that I often need to contact her but cannot.  I feel an OBI with a traditional wired landline phone, whose ring will be heard throughout the house, is a good solution. Heck, I may not even need a phone, just a loud ringer.

Before I buy, though, I would like to see if I can make use of the OBi for BOTH our GV numbers. What I would like is a set up in which each of our GV numbers produce different distinct rings so that we can tell who the call is for.

OPTION 1 (a long shot):
Using OBi100 with a single landline phone attached.  I know we can have 2 GV accounts ring the phone.  My question is whether anyone knows of a phone that can be set to ring with different ring tones or sounds depending on which GV number is being called.

OPTION 2:
Use OBi202 with two different telephones.  Could someone confirm that each of the 2 phone ports on the 202 can be set up to receive from the two different GV accounts, so that one port is set to my GV while the other port is set to my wife's?

OPTION 3:
Use TWO OBi100s with the two different phones.  Any reason why this would not work with one OBi100 set to use my GV and the other set to use my wife's?

Thanks.

QBZappy

Quote from: cvc1968 on October 05, 2012, 11:28:29 AM
OPTION 1 (a long shot):
Using OBi100 with a single landline phone attached.  I know we can have 2 GV accounts ring the phone.  My question is whether anyone knows of a phone that can be set to ring with different ring tones or sounds depending on which GV number is being called.

OPTION 2:
Use OBi202 with two different telephones.  Could someone confirm that each of the 2 phone ports on the 202 can be set up to receive from the two different GV accounts, so that one port is set to my GV while the other port is set to my wife's?

OPTION 3:
Use TWO OBi100s with the two different phones.  Any reason why this would not work with one OBi100 set to use my GV and the other set to use my wife's?

Welcome,

All 3 options are possible. Any of these solutions should work for you. Note that each incoming GV call can be configured to have a different ring sound. Your decision should now be based on
1) Cost (how much you want to spend)
2) Whether you want the flexibility of both using the phone at the same time. In which case you will need 2 OBi100's or 1 Obi202.
3) the extra features of the OBi202. (combination of 4 sip/GV accounts, router, etc...)
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

CoalMinerRetired

Quote from: cvc1968 on October 05, 2012, 11:28:29 AM

OPTION 1 (a long shot):
.
.
.
OPTION 2:
Use OBi202 with two different telephones.  Could someone confirm that each of the 2 phone ports on the 202 can be set up to receive from the two different GV accounts, so that one port is set to my GV while the other port is set to my wife's?
.
.
.
I'm effectively doing this. So yes I can confirm this.  In fact you can go even further and have two VoIP numbers (don't have to be GV) pointed to one phone port, and two more (#3 and #4, can but do not have to be GV) pointed to phone port #2.

Different ringing sounds for each number: Very easy to do. Pre-configured out-of-the-box you'd just use one of the two different 'Ring Profiles' for each port. You can easily change the rings in the ring profiles, for example, many other mentions on here of 'ring cadence.'

cvc1968

Thank you both for your replies.

It seems you both state that the numbers can be configured to have different ring sounds/tones.  I was assuming that the actual telephone that you have hooked up to the phone port would be providing the ringing sound.  But you seem to be saying that the OBI device itself does the ringing and can therefore be configured to ring differently for each GV account (or other voip service).  Am I reading that correctly?

And if that is the case, do you then just turn off the ringer on the telephone(s) you have plugged into the OBI to avoid dual ringing sounds?

The other possibility for me, if the OBI itself rings, is that I wouldn't really even need a telephone plugged into it.  Rather, the sound of the OBI ringing through the house would be enough to let me and/or my wife know that there was a call which we could then answer on our respective iPhones.

jimates

The Obi doesn't ring, it provides the signal to the phone to make the ringer ring. By the Obi varying the signal pulses to the phone the ringer rings differently. You can still choose the particular sound you want on the phone itself, the ring pattern will be determined by the Obi settings.

Also, if you have your phone set for custom rings for certain incoming numbers, the phone will still deliver that tone, it will just have a different ring "pattern"

cvc1968

Interesting.  So does this work with ANY landline telephone?  My plan was to use the simplest of wired POTS telephones...to avoid the problem of keeping a wireless handset on its charger.  My big issue is a reliable ringing sound that can be heard throughout the house when my wife leaves her silenced cell in her purse.

QBZappy

Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

CoalMinerRetired

Quote from: cvc1968 on October 08, 2012, 08:10:37 AM
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Am I reading that correctly?

And if that is the case, do you then just turn off the ringer on the telephone(s) you have plugged into the OBI to avoid dual ringing sounds?

The other possibility for me, if the OBI itself rings, is that I wouldn't really even need a telephone plugged into it.  Rather, the sound of the OBI ringing through the house would be enough to let me and/or my wife know that there was a call which we could then answer on our respective iPhones.
I got slightly mixed up on your land-line question, but reread and see that you were asking about all three possible Obi models.

So to restate what jimates said, the Obi models do not have on-board "ringers" inside them.  The devices work like the dial tone supplied by a local phone company, a certain signal on the phone line makes your plugged in phone(s) ring.

You're asking about two or three different related things, and they can all be made to work together: You can plug a ringer only into an Obi phone port (and as you say have the GV call also forwarded to your mobile phone). Also, there are phones that "ring differently" based on the caller ID the phone receives, meaning the ringer on-board the phone has a different pattern (cadence) based on the caller ID. It makes sense that someone somewhere will also sell a ringer-only that does this same thing.

The ring pattern the Obi sends to the phone ports -- same as what would be supplied by a local phone company -- is also configurable. Here is the default from an Obi202: 60;(2+4), this means for up to 60 seconds, ring for 2 seconds, and be silent for 4 seconds, then repeat.

You can change and configure up to ten of these settings per phone port, for a total of 20 different patterns.  The one gotcha here is if you make up your own pattern, it must comply with/allow for how the Caller ID signal is sent from the phone port to the phone, generically stated as between the first and second ring. So you could not for example have a ring of six seconds, and a silence of two seconds. Well, you could but the Caller ID would not be send out successfully on this ring pattern, based on some experimenting I've done.

cvc1968

Thank you all.
I now have a good idea of how this works. It seems that for my needs, one OBI100 plus a generic POTS  phone (or even just a ringer) with each GV account set to a different ring pattern will do the trick.

This could solve my problem.

Thanks again.