How should I go about this (Obi <---> computer)?

[chucknmonica71]

Hi all, new user here and just got my Obi100 set up at my house, using Google voice.  So far it's been great and I'm very impressed with the call quality (I'll be porting the home number soon and bidding goodbye to "regular" phone service!).  

I'd like to have the ability to make calls between my home phone (attached to the Obi) and my laptop computer (attached to wifi at whatever hotel room I happen to be in) so that my wife and I can keep in touch (I travel overseas often).  Any suggestions on the best way to do this?  After some forum research, I figured the best way would be to set up ObiON on my computer for use with X-lite.  I haven't had any luck getting X-lite to work (and have tried all kinds of "fixes" found on numerous internet forums, to no avail so far).  Before I waste countless more hours trying to figure it out, I thought I'd ask if anyone has a "better" way of accomplishing this communication method?  Am I on the right track here?  If need be, I'll bury my head in the interweb again and keep on trying with ObiON/X-lite.

Thanks all!

PS - I DO have another Google voice number available to me already - would I need to use it in this case?  I don't think so, as from my understanding the Obi can place calls between 2 "soft" phones (i.e. my home handset and my computer).

PS - If anyone is curious, the message I get when trying to sign in to X-lite is "account failed to enable".  

[QBZappy]

chucknmonica71,

Welcome

By far the easiest way to call the OBi is to use a GTALK client with a different user account. On the OBi set up a speed dial to your 2nd GTALK acct. This is especially useful/simple if all you want is to call your home.

If you want to use a sip softphone the are other phone apps you can try. Have a look at Jitsi (more features) or Phoner lite (lighter on resources). Using the OBiAPP gives you the ability to use the OBi unit as a gateway to make/receive calls.

[chucknmonica71]

Thanks for the reply QBZ,

Pardon my newbiness (and lack of tech savvy), but I'll have to research what a GTALK client is (I assume it stands for "google talk" or something).  I like the fact that you mention it's easy though!  I'm sure I can get it figured out, once I figure out what it is, lol.

Yup, all I really want to do at this point is make/receive calls from my laptop to/from my home Obi while I'm on the road.

Maybe after I figure the GTALK thing out, I'll venture into the other phone apps you describe. 

Thanks again very much for your reply,
CnM

[QBZappy]

Have a look here for a discussion on this topic:
So what is unique about the OBion app vs using the Google Talk client?
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=3573.0


Note the OBi speed dial should look like this:
spX(nameX@gmail.com)

spX=GV trunk

[chucknmonica71]

Thanks again for the reply QBZ.  I've had a quick read through your link, and while it's probably a little over my head for now, as I gain knowledge about the Obi I'm sure I'll begin to understand.

I HAVE, however, been able to successfully make/receive calls between my Obi and laptop by simply using Gmail, as you described, so thank you very much for the suggestion.  I'm going to focus on making that more user friendly first, then try a few more advanced uses.

Thanks again,
CnM