Very untech newbie with problem for second telephone line (Obihai 202)

[DonM]

Very frustrating

ObiHai 202 both receives and sends call perfectly on telephone line #1,  but has problems will line #2.

When the first line rings, both of my soft phone lines light up- but the call is only on line #1 as it should be.  Otherwise, Line #1 calls both in and out are perfect.

The line#2 passes the echo test, but doesn't ring when called. (Although the caller can leave a voice message on GV.)

When Line#2 places a call, the caller ID on the called number shows as line#1. One of the self help points mentioned the service provider SP1?  Can't locate this field.

Any help would be appreciated!

don

[drgeoff]

1.  I'm puzzled by your mention of "soft phones" as that term is normally used by PC software which (in combination with USB phone or a headset) does what the OBi hardware box plus an 'ordinary' phone does.  Therefore it isn't usual to have a softphone connected to an OBi.

2.  Although the OBi202 has jacks for two (ordinary) phones the PHONE1 jack has two of its 4 pins wired for Phone1 and the other two wired for Phone 2.  (The PHONE2 jack is only wired for Phone2.)  I'm wondering if this is part of the reason for what you are observing.  What exact phone(s) are you using.

[DonM]

Thanks for your reply.

I thought the term soft phone referred to a regular telephone. This was reinforced to me when I initially added the obihai 202 device because the dashboard said soft phone.

I ported two phone lines. They ported about a day or two apart. I initially used a single jack for two lines from my phone into the Obihai 202  phone #1 JACK . I didn't think it would work when the second line ported because when I got a call on line#1 both lines lit up (although the call was only on line#1- this never happened before GV and ObiHai)

I'm using a single AT&T two line phone with a two line answering system (5.8 DigitalPlus)

[drgeoff]

OK, I think I see the problem.

1.  Outgoing from OBi.  Except for the OBi110, for all other devices, the default Primary Line is SP1 for both PHONE ports.  This means that if you just dial an 'ordinary' number without prepending ** something the call will go out on SP1.  Try calling from PHONE2 by prepending **2 and see if that gives the expected CLI at the receiving end.

2.  Incoming to OBi.  In a similar manner the default is for all incoming calls is to be sent to the PHONE1 port.

Both the above defaults can be changed by you.  You can configure the OBi202 such that dialling from PHONE2 will go out on SP2 without needing **2 and that calls coming in on SP2 will go to PHONE2.  (The changes are independent - you can make either or both as you wish.) However I don't think the configuration can be done from the OBi dashboard.  (I never use the dashboard and I don't have a 202!)  I do all my configuration by logging in locally to the OBi.  Other people prefer to use the Expert Configuration on OBi's web site.

Download http://obihai.com/docs/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf

Refer to pages 109 and 111.  For SP2 change X_InboundCallRoute from 'ph' to 'ph2'.  (No quote marks.)

Refer to pages 140 and 143.  For Phone Port 2 change PrimaryLine from 'SP1 Service' to 'SP2 Service' using the drop down choice box.

(Re the mention of 'softphone' on the OBi dashboard.  You should see two numbers there.  One is the OBiTALK number of your 202 as written on the label on the bottom of the 202.  The other is the number of a softphone which you could install on a computer - a bit like a Skype ID.)

[DonM]

drgeoff,

Thank you for your help- I was able to edit the SP2 configuration as you suggested and everything seems to be working well!

Actually I was able to make these changes via the Dashboard! One of my frustrations was an oddity that maybe you have some thoughts on?

When I log on to the ObiTalk site via the recommended Google sign-in option, the Dashboard is different than if I signed on without going through Google Voice! When I went through with the GV sign in, I was then able to access the SP2 configuration to edit it. When I didn't go via Google I got a different Dashboard and wasn't able to access the configuration.

Another difference- when signing on ObiTalk through GV I wasn't acknowledged on this Forum site as a member. When I don't go via GV I am recognized as a forum member. Seems counterintuitive?
any thoughts?


Also, I saw somewhere on the forum a mention of GV starting or thinking about charging for their services. Is this the word on the street? I guess if they do charge it would make sense since it seems too good to be true being free.


thanks again

don

[drgeoff]

I don't use the Dashboard and I don't use the Google log-in so I don't have any thoughts on the differences you found.

The changes to Google Voice are not about the introduction of charging.  GV is going to remove the XMPP protocol which OBi use to connect to GV.  See http://blog.obihai.com/2013/10/important-message-about-google-voice.html.  There is plenty of discussion on this forum.  Eg  http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=6867.0

[sdb-]

Don,

It sounds as if you have created two different Obitalk and Obinet accounts.  One of them belongs to a person who authenticated using Google authentication.  The other one belongs to a person who created an account directly with Obitalk and while it may have the same gmail address, etc. Obitalk doesn't know those two accounts really belong to the same person.

Using Google authentication is not the same as creating another account using the same user info and password.  For one thing, when using Google authentication Obitalk never sees your google password.  (Well, you can enter it into the device config, but that's a different issue entirely.)