OBi110 Voice Service Bridge and VoIP Telephone Adapter

As an avid Google Voice user and owner of a MagicJack, I was seeking a solution that would allow me to eventually drop the MJ service. Also, I wanted my Google Voice number to always show up on the caller ID of the person I am calling, not my MJ number. Prior to purchasing the Obi, I would have GV callback my MJ simply to display my GV caller ID, just an unwanted step. Now with the Obi, I just pick up the phone and dial out and my GV caller ID is displayed. Easy and the sound quality is even better than with the MagicJack. I purchased the Obi110, instead of the Obi100, just so I can plug the MJ into the Obi Line jack until I cancel the MJ service at the end of the year. If I want to use the MJ line I can enter **9 followed by the phone number. If I want to use GV for outgoing I configured the Obi to automatically use this line as the default and no prefix is necessary.The included Obi instructions are ridiculously organized and, therefore, confusing when one first looks at it. The information is there, but it is the organization of the content that will throw off the novice or impatient.MY RECOMMENDATION: If setting up for GV just go to the ObiTalk web site and follow the short video on setting up the Obi for GV. Easy and you'll be up and running in minutes.ADDING SIP CALLING (NOT NEEDED) -TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL: A free SIP solution should also allow me to make free IP calls from my Android phone. There are many solutions but instructions are typically written by super geeks writing for other super geeks and not easily understood by the novice, until I found a user named "Newbies Delight" on a site called Megebe. The setup allows one to create a SIP setup that allows free incoming calls into the OBi and allows me to pick up the call through Google Chat, Cell Phone, Softphone of my choice, Regular Phone, and even using a SIP App on my Android (or any smartphone), without concern for a possible Google Chat conflict that may cause me to miss an incoming call coming in through GV. This setup uses the flow of: Incoming ==>GV ==> SIP ==> Obi, Outgoing ==> GV. Amazon strips out links in comments so I am pasting in the person's post with creative modifications to the URL.HERE IS FREE AND EASY SIP SETUP:In short we are going to use Google voice, sip2sip, ipkall and x-lite to make a totally free call to USA and Canada landlines and mobiles. First make sure you are reading this to have a 100% free voip (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone that you will use to make calls to USA and Canada.What you need:1. Computer with xp/vista/win72. Internet - Highspeed for best result3. Microphone and working speaker. Mic could be builtin or external4. Ability to follow the steps I show youTo begin with, we are going to use Google voice, sip2sip, ipkall and x-lite to make a totally free call with neither credit card nor personal address asked. The phone number that we will get from google voice will be our main line. As I said earlier the aim of this tutorial is to show you a 100% free calls to usa and Canada landline and mobile phones, but if you are already paying or want to keep your existing local phone number all you need is just to signup to google voice , nothing else you are done here.Steps toward our Free Phone which will enable us to make free call all over USA and Canada.Step 1: Get a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) serviceGet a free SIP from [...]IMPORTANT: use a valid email address because that is where all the needed information will be send.Once you signup, they will send you credentials with the following informations:- SIP address: 2233xxxxxx @ sip2sip dot info (you will need this to log in to your sip2sip account)- Password: xxxxxxxxx (needed for ipkall and sip2sip login)- Username: 2233xxxxxx (needed for ipkall )- Domain/Realm: sip2sip dot info(needed for ipkall )Important: If you don't see a mail fron sip2sip on your inbox, look for it in your spam mail and move it to your inbox so that it will be easy for you to find it when you need it.Step 2: Get ipkall number:We need a number that we will use to receive incoming calls on our Sip.Where do we get one for free?* www dot ipkall dot comNow you need to use the information received on email from sip2sip to signon for ipkall.I have already marked them needed for Ipkall on step 1.On ipkall:Your account type is SIPChoose your area code: your number will start with the area code you chose.SIP username : sip2sip username as shown in your email. It is a number without @ on it.Host name or ip address: sip2sip dot infoEmail address: Your email address where you want to receive your credentials.Password: your sip2sip password which is emailed to youNow you will be emailed your ipkall number and the following credentials:Thank you for signing up. Your IPKall phone number is: XXX-XXX-XXXX.SIP Phone Number: 2233xxxxxxSIP Proxy: sip2sip dot infoEmail: xxxxx@ example dot comPassword: xxxxxxxxNotice: your Ipkall and sip2sip user name and password are the same.Step 3: Get x-lite softphoneSo far we only got SIP provider and a phone number for our incoming calls. We need a phone that will enable us to enter numbers. Although we are not going to use this soft phone to make outgoing calls we will need it to receive calls from google voice which requires conformation to get a google number.What do we need?Install x-lite 4 from www dot counterpath dot comImportant: make sure you downloaded the free version as they have a paid ones as well. And download the windows version for windows and mac version for mac operating machine. Mine is windows so if you are running mac you are on your own, there is nothing I can help, sorry.Once your soft phone has successfully downloaded, there is a button called soft phone (on x-lite 4) on the top left, click on it go to the account setting.All you need is the following (they are all in your email from si2sip) and leave the rest as is:User id: your sip2sip username 2233xxxxxx (without @sip...)Domain: sip2sip dot infoPassword: your sip2sip password (it is on your mail)Authorization name: sip2sip user name (similar to user ID 2233xxxxxx without @sip...)Domain proxy: please select the box "register with domain and receive calls"Click ok to configure x-lite with SIP.If It says phone ready proceed to next step, if not you need to get it right before you proceed.To those of you who configured your x-lite successfully, congratulations and proceed to next stepstep 4: get google voice numberWhat do I need?a. gmail account - if you don't have one, signup and get a gmail account at www dot google dot com - click on the gmail linkb. singin to www dot google dot com/voice with you gmail accountc. when asked for your phone number - enter the phone number you have received from ipkall which is in your mail that you have received from ipkall.Now your x-lite should call, and to enter the conformation code, please use the dial pad on your x-lite (click on the Icon which is located to the left of where you enter phone numbers to call. To be specific there is a call icon on the right.). If you use your key board it is not going to detect it, make sure you used the soft phone dial pad.Once the number is confirmed, you are set. Now go to google voice and make calls to your friend for freeeeeeee. Hey when you place a call if you are asked which line to use to connect you, make sure you select the ipkall phone, not google talk. If you don't know what I am talking about just go to google voice click call, then you will see a pop up window where you put the number to call and provide you option to select , that is where you need to select your ipkall number and save setting for further use.Don't try to intiate call from x-lite it is not going to work because you need credit, instead use google voice.How it works?When you place a call on google voice, it will first ring on x-lite then when you accept the incoming call on x-lite it will automatically calls the number you entered on google voice and make use of your soft phone (x-lite) mic and speaker ready for use.ENTER SIP ACCOUNT INFO ON THE OBIJust enter the same SIP configuration used for the X-Lite into the OBI SIP Provider 2. Now incoming calls into GV will go GV==>SIP==>Obi. All of the phones you have configured in GV will ring without issue.USING ON ANDROIDCurrently using SIPDROID and followed the instruction to configure the SIP account. There are many apps for Android and I am sure there are many apps also for the IPhone.

I write this assuming you've read most of the in-depth reviews on set-up.So I'm one of those who's had a land-line phone number for a long time that I wanted to keep, which meant I had to do the port-to-mobile-carrier-then-port-to-Google-voice route. Follow the directions on the Obihai site (google it). Buy the Pay-As-You-Go SIM card from T-Mobile.com for $6.99 (mine was free because they had some promotion going on) or go to a store. After receiving the SIM card in the mail I went to the store to activate and start the porting process from Qwest (my local landline provider). I stood in line longer (45 minutes) than it took them to start the porting process. It took about a week to get my land line number moved to T-Mobile, and then another 24 hours to port to Google (paid via Google Wallet online). I put the TMobile SIM into an old ATT cell phone I had laying around to make one phone call to complete the porting to Google (I had to call ATT to have them give me the unlock code for the old ATT cell phone I used for this process. If you have a T-mobile phone you don't need this step). The T-Mobile PayAsYouGo SIM card was cheaper than the ATT one at the time, but use whatever's cheaper.Yes, setting up is pretty easy, but there are things that Obihai could make a bit clearer (even though some of my issues are probably on Google's side), and I'm a geek!Some notes/thoughts:1. To get all your phones plugged into phone jacks to ring, go out to your (usually gray) Network Interface Device box (where the phone line(s) come into your house) and unplug the jack. Even though my land line number was disconnected, my phones throughout the house wouldn't ring until I unplugged the phone jack in that network box.2. I have Google Voice handle my phone messages, so to pick up messages from a house phone I dial my phone number (with area code as required here), I really should just set it up as a speed dial already. I haven't really tried to figure out how to use my PIN yet. Also need to figure out how to skip/fast-forward thru messages (3 3 7 would be great). Suggestions/help if there's an easier way to access VM besides dialing the entire phone number would be great if you have them.3. My Tivo boxes have trouble dialing out to update programming, so I'm about to buy this: Western Digital WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit to get ethernet from the router in my home office to the Tivos in my living room (as there's no way to wire ethernet behind my brick walls). I've been wanting to do this anyway so I can network my Tivo's, so no big deal. But you should know this aspect if you cannot get a wired or wireless internet signal to your Tivo's. I'm still tinkering with the Tivo settings to see if I can get it to dial out. Any help with the dialing out feature would be appreciated as I haven't bought the WD ethernit kit YET).UPDATE 11/2/11: I did buy that Western Digital Powerline Kit and it works great. Since one of my Tivo's is an older Series 2, with no ethernet jack, only USB ports, I also had to buy a USB-to-Ethernet Adapter (didn't want to go wireless, too slow), so I bought TRENDnet USB to 10/100Mbps Adapter TU2-ET100, which works great with Series 2 Tivos.4. Call quality has been great so far, and I'm thrilled to not spend $70 a month for a landline anymore. In three months that savings will pay for my Obihai and my Western Digital ethernet-over-powerline adapters.5. Follow the advice of others and get a Gmail address JUST for your Google Voice number. Import your contacts there, and then you can create custom voicemail greetings for friends, family, spouse, business, spammers, etc. Pretty cool. I also have it set within Google Voice that only select friends and family ring both my Google Voice number and my cell phone at the same time, so I can answer whatever phone I'm closest to. Everyone else can just ring my GV #, others go straight to VM, and Spammers get blocked (you save them as a contact on your Google Voice page, mark them as Spam, and check "Block") or you can record a "special" message just for them. HA!6. The incoming Caller ID I get provides no names, just phone numbers. I have DECT phones that talk to me and that I can program, so I make sure friends/family names/numbers are in the phone's phonebook, and it announces the names after that. Otherwise it just says the number. When you call into your Google voicemail, though, it still says "unknown caller" and then the number.7. As others have said, no 911, but use your cell, or use one of the $1.50/month or so services mentioned in other reviews. Have yet to do this.8. This doesn't apply to me, but from what I understand, since each Obihai box comes with its own number, and if everyone in your family has an Obihai, and say you're all in different countries (or states for that matter), you can call each other's Obihai numbers for free. I still don't quite get being able to call into your US-based Obihai from abroad and then calling within the states for free, but I guess I'll try harder to understand when I need it! UPDATE 10/1/12 Read below9. Customer Service: After looking thru the forums and not finding the exact answer I needed, I just emailed [email protected] and received an answer (and answers to my follow-ups) within a few hours. Clear and concise.I do think there are items that could be clearer in the Obihai FAQ, but these are early days, and we're among the pioneers (and thanks to those who came before and answered those questions in the forums). If all you're doing is setting up a new Google Voice account and plugging it into the box, then yes, it's easy. But if you're looking to port your land-line number or for other features, it's gonna take you some time in the forums or more than 15 minutes to set up. But after the initial cost, it's FREE (unless Google starts charging).I'll update in a few weeks. But do not hesitate to buy one of these. I'll be telling each family member to buy one. I just wanted to go iron out my kinks in case I need to walk them thru it.General UPDATE 11/2/11: I have had times when it was hard for the other party to hear me, as others have reported, but I just hang up and dial back.UPDATE 10/01/12: I still have the above issue on occasion.OBI iPhone APP Report: OK, so I just returned from Korea, where I had a couple reasons I needed to call back to the States. I didn't have time to buy any SkypeOut credits or Google Voice credits, but remembered I had the OBI app on my iPhone. WOW. I made several calls to US friends who don't have iPhones (and couldn't FaceTime)over WiFi. As long as the WiFi connection is a decent one, the app worked great. As soon as the OBI app says "Ready", you are able to dial any US number as if you were there (caller ID shows your Google Voice number)! Now I understand the use of the OBI Phone app.UPDATE 02/25/13: FAX: I had a need to fax something recently, and had heard/read something somewhere about not being able to via the Obi. Not true. I don't even have a traditional fax machine or an all-in-one copier/scanner/fax that works. I do have a Windows 7 Professional computer and just used Windows Fax and Scan. Yes, my computer has a phone modem in it and it is connected to the Obi box (actually I have a splitter on the back of the Obi, one line goes to my computer and one goes to my phone). It worked just like a traditional fax machine.