How do I make an outbound call via GV using LINE port?

[Agent88]

Noobie here!  Just installed my OBi110 yesterday.  GV set as SP1 and connected.  So far, so good... but how do I make a call thru the Line port which I have connected to the PSTN (local AT&T with no Long Distance service)?

I can't find a User's Manual anywhere for the OBi110.  Don't need setup info... been there, done that.  Just day to day use... are there any special keys I need to press to direct the device to use GV to place the call, or do I just pick up the phone and dial the long distance number?

[ianobi]

I'm guessing that when you set up GV on sp1 you made it your PrimaryLine. That means you don't have to dial any codes, just the eleven digit number. If that's true, then to access your PSTN line, pick up the phone, then dial **8 followed by the number.

When you use PSTN via the Line Port, GV is not involved.

[drgeoff]

The Obi Device Administration Guide, available in the 'Downloads' section of obihai.com contains a wealth of information on both set up and usage aspects.  It can be heavy reading at first but if you stick at it, you can get the most from your 110.

[Agent88]

I'm guessing that when you set up GV on sp1 you made it your PrimaryLine. That means you don't have to dial any codes, just the eleven digit number. If that's true, then to access your PSTN line, pick up the phone, then dial **8 followed by the number.

When you use PSTN via the Line Port, GV is not involved.

How does one use the PSTN via the Line Port?  The Line port plugs into the wall jack.  You mean any other phone in the house connected to the Line but not the one on the Obi device?  I thought that was just using the PSTN thru my ITSP... same-o, same-o.

With the OBI110 in the loop, I tried to call out on the phone plugged into the Phone port and got intercepted by GV.  I have to assume that means the LINE port bridges GV to my ITSP.  If I am right, then if I dial **8, what does this do?  Are you saying the Obi bridges GV to PSTN on a per call basis?  I thought this was a hardware setup that permanently bridged Voip to PSTN.

Let's get down to basics:  I want to make a long distance call from my phone connected to the PHONE port of my OBi110 and not incur any long distance charges by my ITSP.

My LINE port is connected to the PSTN.  By using the analog phone on the PHONE port, I get Google Voice asking me to enter my password.  Does **8 jump around this password prompt?  Will I have to do this every time I want to use GV to make a long distance call?  And will I always have to use the phone connected to my OBi?  Any chance I can get the other phones in my house to make calls via GV?

Another post reported:

Under Interfaces - Line - Digit Map has the following entry with a red ! next to it (<10>[2-9]xxxxxx|xxxxxxxS4|1xxxxxxxxxx|xx.)
....... mine is the same.  Do I need to remove the <10>[2-9]xxxxxx ?



Rant:  Why is there no User Manual?  It would certainly be useful.  The installation instructions are step by step and very simple to follow.  Why not simple step by step instructions to use the darn thing?  I have read the Admin Guide until blue in the face... TMI... I fell asleep.  Can't we just keep it simple?

[drgeoff]

Ideally you insert the 110 between your PSTN line and all the phones in your house. Then all the phones can make or take calls (whether they be GV ones or PSTN ones).  How you achieve that placement of the 110 is dependent on your physical wiring.  I'm in the UK and have no knowledge of how it is typically done where you are.  (In my case I have DECT base station plugged in to the 110's phone port and three cordless handsets registered to the base.  Simple and convenient.)

It is important that the 110's phone port must not connect to the house wiring if the house wiring is still connected to the PSTN line.  The voltage on the telco line can damage the 110's phone port.  The telco line should connect only to the 110's Line port and the 110's phone port should connect only to phones.  If that cannot be achieved the 110's Line port can be connected to the house wiring as an extension and its Phone port connected to phone(s) which are electrically separate from the house wiring.  Only those latter phone(s) will be able to make and take calls via the 110.

The 110 has a single phone port.  To use the connected phone(s) to make GV and PSTN calls there needs to be some method by which the 110 knows which of those to use.  That is what OutboundRouting is for.  By convention, pre-pending numbers with **1 will send the call via SP1 (presumably GV in your case) and **8 will send them via PSTN.  As a convenience you may elect to have one of them as the 'PrimaryLine'.  That will be used when you just dial numbers without the leading **1 or **8.

By default the 110 is configured such that incoming calls on both your GV and the PSTN will be routed to the phone port.  You just have to pick up the phone when it rings.

[Agent88]

That information does not jive with the enclosed instructions to the OBI110.  It very clearly instructs the user to plug the LINE port into a wall jack with ITSP service, and an analog phone into the PHONE port.  I think you may be referring to the OBi100.

edit:  Yes, the same warning on the OBi110 regarding the PHONE port is as the OBi100.  The thing is, that the OBI110 has a LINE port.  It is the only OBi device that does.  The LINE port is designed to connect directly to the ITSP via standard wiring.  The warning is for those who attempt to connect the PHONE port to the wall jack....

Anyway... you describe the Obi device as routing phone calls to one or the other... GV OR ITSP.  I was under the impression that it was a "Bridge" that connected the two services.  Am I wrong?

[Shale]

It is probably obvious, and maybe you are already saying this, but PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network. For those who have such a connection, the connection usually comes in via a jack. The only port on an OBi110 that should electrically connect to the PSTN is the Line jack signal.

Some people, such as those with OBi100, isolate the house wiring from the PSTN, and use the existing wires to pass the Phone jack signals to other phones in the house.

Somebody with an OBi110 might feed the Phone jack signal around the house in a similar way, but that would be on a pair that is not connected to the PSTN. The same jack in the wall can typically handle two pairs. It takes some wiring knowledge to do that properly.

What an OBi110 user might want to do is to split the PSTN pair with a splitter and have  both a telephone and the Line port of the OBi110 teed to the PSTN. That way there would be a phone that would work in the event of a power outage. The old OBi110s had a relay to bypass the OBi110 in case of a power outage. You could test for that by seeing if a phone plugged into the Phone jack of an OBi110 gets dialtone when the power is removed from the OBi110.

If I were to actually answer " How do I make an outbound call via GV using LINE port? ", I would say to call into the OBi via the PSTN from a phone that you have listed as a trusted caller on OBiTalk. Use the OBi Attendant to dial a call out on SP1-- presuming that you have GV on SP1. I saw that that is not what you were actually trying to do.

[drgeoff]

That information does not jive with the enclosed instructions to the OBI110.  It very clearly instructs the user to plug the LINE port into a wall jack with ITSP service, and an analog phone into the PHONE port.  I think you may be referring to the OBi100.

edit:  Yes, the same warning on the OBi110 regarding the PHONE port is as the OBi100.  The thing is, that the OBI110 has a LINE port.  It is the only OBi device that does.  The LINE port is designed to connect directly to the ITSP via standard wiring.  The warning is for those who attempt to connect the PHONE port to the wall jack....

Anyway... you describe the Obi device as routing phone calls to one or the other... GV OR ITSP.  I was under the impression that it was a "Bridge" that connected the two services.  Am I wrong?

I don't see 'ITSP' anywhere on the instructions that came with my 110.   I do see:

"D. (Optional) Using the supplied RJ11 telephone line cable, connect the OBi LINE port to an active analog telephone (POTS) jack."

POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) = PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)
ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider).  Service comes over your internet connection via the ethernet cable into the 110.  So when you write "The LINE port is designed to connect directly to the ITSP via standard wiring." that is nonsense.

You are not wrong about bridging. The 110 can bridge the POTS and ITSP services. A call coming in one one can be routed to go out on the other.  But that is "running" and you are still at the "crawling" stage and trying to get to "walking".  With the default settings the 110 does not bridge - it just routes any incoming call to the phone port.

I hesitate to say it but it is all in the Admin guide, though I don't claim it is clearly presented.

[Agent88]

My apologies to all  I have used the term ITSP when I meant POTS/PSTN.  Thanks for the hand slap... I needed it.

Shale:  Yes, I have an OBi100 in a remote location (my vacation home in FL) where the landline is disconnected.  I physically disconnected the wiring at the NID and connected the PHONE port of the OBi100 to a wall jack. ( I have cable for HSI in FL... and IP cameras online 24/7/365)  Since I already pay for HSI via cable, I have phone service without paying an extra monthly fee to a telephone company for all those months I am not there.  I set this up with a Google number with an area code that is local and it works fine.

drgeoff:  I see why you think I was not connecting my device properly... I confused the acronyms.  Sorry... I am multitasking too many things these days trying to build a web site, certify for insurance licenses, configure my business lines with an OBi202 and my private line with an Obi110.  Trying to get my business line configured with Anveo is a PITA.  When I get frustrated with this, I redirect my efforts to set up the Obi110.  I know how a schizophrenic feels in a multitasking contest.  You are right about the connections, and I have not violated the connection protocol, just the terms.  Substitute all my references to ITSP to POTS/PSTN and I think we will be saying the same thing.

[Agent88]

Now that THAT is out of the way, my question remains:

Q? >>>  With my Obi110 LINE port connected to a wall jack (POTS) and an analog phone connected to the PHONE port, when I pick up the receiver (off-hook/have a dial tone), who or what am I connected to?  ObiTalk, GV, or AT&T (POTS)?  IOW, who is providing the dial tone?

Note: AT&T is both my ITSP and my POTS (I have U-verse here in my home in KS).  My digital service (ITSP) runs on top of my POTS. (I have a low-pass filter installed at the NID, and out of the splitter, I have a home-run line connected to my Gateway modem/router).

Q? >>>When I punch in a phone number, who am I communicating with?  

After I get a satisfactory answer to these questions, I will move on to the next question.

[Shale]

Q1: OBi is generating that dialtone. It will connect you to GV or the Line port based on what you dial and how you have configured things.

Q2: It is OBi that is storing up the numbers, and will route according to the rules set up. The exception is that if you dial just #, you will connect to PSTN immediately, and the tones will be decoded by the phone company.

[Agent88]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  That's what I wanted to know.

That answer covers a lot of ground for me and I have no other questions at this time.

I just figured out that when I call my GV number from another phone, it rings the phone connected to the Obi device, so this must mean that the phone number of the phone appears as my Google Chat number.

[drgeoff]

As Shale said, when you punch in numbers what happens depends on how the OBi is configured and what you dial.  If you haven't change the defaults:

If you prepend the numbers with **1, they will be stripped off and your call go to GV.

If you prepend the numbers with **8, they will be stripped off and your call will go to AT&T POTS.

If you dial numbers not starting with ** nor # your call will go to whatever you have chosen to be the 'Primary Line'.  IIRC the default setting for that is POTS.

If you dial #, the OBi will connect the phone to the POTS line.

[Agent88]

Q1: OBi is generating that dialtone.
Q2: It is OBi that is storing up the numbers, and will route according to the rules set up.

These two salient points are worth their weight in gold.  I was suspicious that the ATA device was generating the dial tone but didn't know for sure.  Now things make more sense.  I get the rest of the story, now that I recognize the ATA is more than just a pass-through device.

[Agent88]

As Shale said, when you punch in numbers what happens depends on how the OBi is configured and what you dial.  If you haven't change the defaults:

If you prepend the numbers with **1, they will be stripped off and your call go to GV.

If you prepend the numbers with **8, they will be stripped off and your call will go to AT&T POTS.

If you dial numbers not starting with ** nor # your call will go to whatever you have chosen to be the 'Primary Line'.  IIRC the default setting for that is POTS.

If you dial #, the OBi will connect the phone to the POTS line.

This is a very good quick reference tool.  Think I'll make a copy of it and post it near the analog phone.

(I have 3 Obi devices, an IP phone and a house wired to AT&T POTS.  I am prone to forget the dialing rules, especially if I don't use them for months....  )

My business lines are Anveo Voip, my personal lines use POTS for local calls and GV for long distance.