Enjoyable part of having an OBi and Google Voice

[Rick]

Lots of political calls.  I hang up, then with a large smile on my face I open GV on my computer and put a note on the number, something like "POLITICAL CRAP" and then block it, so they get a message "We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected..."

Oh, what pleasure that brings me!   

[CoalMinerRetired]

Agreed! It works great during the voting season.

If you use GV's Call Screening, you can send them right to VM.

[Rick]

Agreed! It works great during the voting season.

If you use GV's Call Screening, you can send them right to VM.

We have some elderly relatives that call and any kind of prompt would just confuse them.  We don't get that many calls, so we answer everything and then block it afterwards.

[giqcass]

I have loads of callers that I block.  I have callers that I won't take calls from at night.  I love Do not disturb.  When I need some sleep and don't want anyone harassing me I turn it on and set it to turn off automatically 8 or 9 hours later.  The free calling and text messaging lets me keep a minimal cell phone plan.  Another feature I love is being able to text on the computer.  It blows peoples minds because I can type way faster then they can on their itty bitty phone keyboards. 

I forgot.  I occasionally get a prank call on my voicemail.  Those can be fun to share and when they block their number you can still return their call by just clicking it in the call history and pushing call.

[carl]

I turn off modem/router and Obi for the night. For emergencies there is cell phone. Keeps the sip scanners out too.

[CoalMinerRetired]

...  I occasionally get a prank call on my voicemail.  Those can be fun to share and when they block their number you can still return their call by just clicking it in the call history and pushing call.

Where do you see the bolded part, exactly?

I don't see anything in the GV call history or the Obi call history that works like this for unknown callers.

[giqcass]

What I mean is that if you look at the log for the call.  In the call history or wherever you can find the call.  If they left a voice message it's the inbox otherwise missed calls, or received calls.  You will see the word "Call" underneath it the Name of the caller.  In this case it will be Unknown.  Click that and you can call them back.

***EDIT**  Maybe they blocked us from doing this.  I have been using GV for a long time and I haven't tried it recently.  I tested it tonight and I couldn't click "call" it was greyed out.  I guess you gotta use trapcall to do this now.

[Rick]

What I mean is that if you look at the log for the call.  In the call history or wherever you can find the call.  If they left a voice message it's the inbox otherwise missed calls, or received calls.  You will see the word "Call" underneath it the Name of the caller.  In this case it will be Unknown.  Click that and you can call them back.

***EDIT**  Maybe they blocked us from doing this.  I have been using GV for a long time and I haven't tried it recently.  I tested it tonight and I couldn't click "call" it was greyed out.  I guess you gotta use trapcall to do this now.

You can't call back blocked numbers, since you have no idea where they came from...  Often the junk calls are from spoofed numbers, so if you call them back you get a cell phone with "this voice mailbox is full" message.

[MikeHObi]

CallerID in the U.S. originates at the calling parties central office.  If you block CID, a flag is set on your call that asks for the CID information to be blocked.  The termination point for the call receives the sent phone number and will send it on to the called party or not based on the flag.  If the block flag is set, the number won't be sent on. 

The termination point is also responsible for looking up the number to get the Name for CNAME.  Cname doesn't get sent with the number from the caller.

Thus that google was making the number available was an error on their part.  They really need to block calls that ask to be blocked.  In particular nearly all womens shelters block outgoing cid.

[giqcass]

I'm sure MikeHObi was right about it being unintentional on Google Voices part but as long as it was somebody that blocked and not someone whose caller Id was spoofed or had malformed headers you could (previously) call them back.  Calling them back did not reveal the number in any way it just allowed you to return the call when that feature worked.  It is still possible to unmask a callers identity as long as they don't spoof it.  Like MikeHObi said caller ID is just a Flag that is sent.  All caller information is sent even when the flag is turned on.  Once the call reaches the company responsible for terminating the call they decide what information is passed on depending the flag and the destination.  In some cases they also strip information like the name and replace it with information from their own databases.  For billing reasons caller information is passed on when you call a toll free number regardless of the flag.  Services like trapcall forward the call to a toll free number then they forward it back to you with the caller ID.  On Google voice you can still block people calling from Unknown numbers.  I tested and made sure that still works on a number by number basis.  Google still knows who called you and they allow you to block that person.  Obviously it doesn't help if the number is spoofed but that would be a whole thread by itself.

[jimates]

When you choose to block an unknown caller at google voice, it asks you "are you sure you want to block Unknown.680d21512dca830819c8ea5fb55dd2984b7b87b4?"

The number displayed is the same every time that particular caller calls you. If someone blocks their caller id and calls you, and you elect to block that unknown call. All future calls from that number will be blocked even if they don't block their caller id in the future. All past calls from that number will also be marked as blocked, even if they are in your contact list.

If you get unwanted calls and suspect that it is someone you know, that has called you before. You can block the unwanted unknown call and all past calls from that number will show as blocked also, and you can see if your suspicion was correct.

I have one particular guy that calls and has his cid blocked. On one occasion when he left a voicemail I used the block caller feature to obtain the number like appears above. I put that number in his contact notes. When I receive an unknown caller I can compare it to his and make sure it wasn't him before I block the caller.

[Rick]

When you choose to block an unknown caller at google voice, it asks you "are you sure you want to block Unknown.680d21512dca830819c8ea5fb55dd2984b7b87b4?"

The number displayed is the same every time that particular caller calls you. If someone blocks their caller id and calls you, and you elect to block that unknown call. All future calls from that number will be blocked even if they don't block their caller id in the future. All past calls from that number will also be marked as blocked, even if they are in your contact list.

If you get unwanted calls and suspect that it is someone you know, that has called you before. You can block the unwanted unknown call and all past calls from that number will show as blocked also, and you can see if your suspicion was correct.

I have one particular guy that calls and has his cid blocked. On one occasion when he left a voicemail I used the block caller feature to obtain the number like appears above. I put that number in his contact notes. When I receive an unknown caller I can compare it to his and make sure it wasn't him before I block the caller.

I did not know that.  That's great info!

Unfortunately, most of the calls I get that I'd like to block have a spoofed callerid, like the "we'll clean your vents", the famous credit calls, etc.  Same ones most people get.