Good day.
I'm licking some light wounds as I have had two good ebay experienced followed by two recent bad ebay experiences, coupled with a bone-head move in the heat of the moment.
Initially, I needed to extend a pots line on the cheap for my Bride's new home office. I trolled some forums and IRC channels and learned that the lowest risk manner would be with a pair of Obihai devices - an OBi100 paired with an OBi110. I went and bought them used from a couple of different sellers on ebay. I received the hardware and viola, I was able to instantiate my needed solution for less than $50 USD. I was happy.
Going down that path exposed me to the whole voip world and I have since sunk my teeth into same. I now have asterisk installed on my Asus Router and am implementing a home PBX. Because I can. And because I want to...
As part of that learning process, I signed up for a free
OBiPlus Lite account. As part of that process, I found that it is intended to be used with an OBi202 or OBi500(?) series devices. So, off to ebay to get my hands on an OBi202. This is where the wound licking comes in.
I ordered a used OBi202. Once I received it, I learned that it was faulty for constant reboots. It was totally borked, rendering the device completely unusable. I ended up getting a refund and returned the unit - a week wasted. I then ordered a second used OBi202 and received it, and it too was faulty for other reasons (phone ports totally inop). Refunded/returned.
After getting frustrated, I said eff it and was going to just procure a new unit and be done with the drama of used equipment off of ebay - a pseudo-lesson learned - my time is more valuable than the delta in price... In the heat of my frustration, I inadvertently ordered an OBi302 vs. an OBi202. When I got the confirmation email from Amazon, I thought 'Man, that is a blatant typo' as I hadn't stumbled across any 300 series devices when I was researching things and didn't know that they even existed.
Upon digging a bit more, I found that there are indeed 300 series units and that they are targeted for sale to ITSPs, with an intent towards ITSP management vs. user management, seemingly with some of the consumer OBiTalk functionality rendered inoperative. I was genuinely sad. At first.
I elected not to cancel the order and just take my time and review things a bit more before I reacted. After sleeping on it, I came back and did some more research and it seems that things may actually work out OK or even for the better, unintentionally.?.
Given that I plan on using the device with OBiPlus Lite, when coupled with the fact that it is an OBi302 vs. an OBi202, I may not be in as bad a shape as I had thought. It seems that the OBi302 being configured via OBiPlus (lite, in my case) may actually be a bit more robust from a remote management perspective than an OBi202 would be through OBiTalk. Is anyone able to offer confirmation of this.
Also, does anyone have any comments, lessons learned, or best practices to offer when using OBi302 units with the OBiPlus service?
Please and Thanks, in advance. Take care.
-t
