Parking and Holding with a standard touch tone phone

[Brian_Yurgin]

This my seem like a stupid question but I could not find instructions anywhere for this... How do I put calls on hold or park and pick them back up with a normal touch tone phone? I can use the flash button to put a call on hold and answer a second one but what if I have 3+ calls at the same time? The obi is set to have a max of 8 concurrent calls so it can handle it.

My Phone has a Redial, Reset, and Flash button. The Reset button seems to have the same functionality as the Flash button.

[CoalMinerRetired]

You have to dig through the Obi documentation to find the answers.  Although once you do the digging, it works almost exactly like POTS/land-line phone service you'd get from Verizon or Ma Bell. In theory you could pick up a traditional white pages phone book, even one from 10 or 20 years ago, and read the same instructions (and the white pages version will be cleared to read).

Call Holding has slightly different contexts, for inbound calls, and for outbound calls.

Inbound: In Call Waiting, you accept a third inbound call when you are already on a two party call, you and the party you are talking to.

Outbound: In 3-Way Calling, i.e., you add a third out bound call to an existing two-party call, momentarily the second party is placed in a call waiting mode. 

All of this is controlled by Flash Hooking, or the flash button on your phone.  In some circumstances it takes up to a third flash hook to get all the calls connected or disconnected.

Here's some of the Obi documentation, http://www.obihai.com/OBiAdminGuide.htm#_Toc333506054
And some more documentation, http://www.obihai.com/OBiAdminGuide.htm#_Toc333506037:

The OBi PHONE port supports 3-way Calling when the second call is an outbound call.
-   On the first Hook-Flash during an active call the OBi can make a second outbound call.
-   On the second Hook-Flash, the first call and the second outbound call are placed in a conference.
-   To remove the second conferenced party, invoke a third Hook-Flash.

When the OBi goes On-Hook during a 3-way Call, this will become a transfer when 2nd (outbound) call is ringing or connected.  If the 2nd (outbound) call does not succeed, e.g. no answer or busy, then the OBi PHONE port can go to an On Hook state and will ring as the holding call is still on the line, or simply Hook-Flash to resume the first call.

Call Waiting, http://www.obihai.com/OBiAdminGuide.htm#_Toc333506053

Call waiting lets you take a second call that comes in when you are already on the phone with another party and not have to disconnect to take the new call.  When you are on the line with the first party, you will hear a tone signalling you there is a second call coming in.  To answer this call, press the "flash" button on your phone or depress and release the switch hook on the telephone.  The first party will be placed on hold and you will be connected to the second party until you press the "flash" button or depress and release the switch hook again.

The Obi documentation does not explicitly state it, but I believe you can turn a call waiting call situation into a three way call. I think I did this once or twice.

The service provider you use (Google Voice, Anveo, etc) must support the call waiting, three way calling, etc., and almost all of them do.

Call Parking: I've never used. I believe it only works in context of a Gateway configuration with SIP phones or an Obi302 with OBIPLUS (a subscription service).

Closely related, but not exactly call waiting or call parking are the Collaborative Features on OBi202 Only (other models have only one analog phone line/port), Link: http://www.obihai.com/OBiAdminGuide.htm#_Toc333506064.