BYOD Users: Obihai Devices

BYOD Users:

Have any of you used the Obihai devices?

If so, what's your experience and how do you like them?

I have had no issues with them. I have been using the Obi110 since the beginning of this year. I have used it with the following SPs: Voipo (of course) as well as Viatalk and Voip.ms.

I love the call routing/bridging features as well as the auto attendant. I currently remap some of the star codes to make it easier to remember. (i.e. *255 (BLK) maps to *27 and *732 (REC) maps to *28). I also have my office line fork incoming calls to the obiapp on my desktop and phone so I can use a softphone or a regular handset.

I have been using the Obi-110 for sometime now. In fact it was this unit that allowed me to start using Voipo. I was and still with Voip.ms and with the Obi-110 I can use both services with ease. I have SP1 configured as primary with Voipo and it handles all outgoing calls. SP2 is configured with Voip.ms handling all incoming calls. All calls are forward to Voip.ms via sip url which allows me to use voip.ms rich call features (IVR, ring groups, upload OGM's ect...). Not one second of problems.

I was having issues with incoming and outgoing calls not connecting to the Grandstream. After repeated emails exhanges with tech support I was informed the Granstream does not support more than two phones being connected AND they have to be connected directly ... I cannot use the house wiring, really?! So I came on this forum and found this post. I purchased a OBI-100 (which explicitly says it DOES support house wiring), configured it in a matter of minutes to work with VOIPo and the quality is GREAT. No dropped call, no missed connections, and I would suggest the OBI-100 to anyone.

Wow-----I've never heard of not using the Grandstream with house wiring. I'm doing it for both lines and haven't had problems with this. I'm using an Obi110 for Google Voice only. I suspect that there are many, many Voipo Grandstream users with their housewiring phones working correctly.

Out of curiousity, are you leaving your Grandstream connected while you use the Obi100?

From the help ticket: "Hello,

We have two phone ports on our adapter that are for phone jacks. You will have to physically connect each phone to a port on our device, that is how it was designed for use. Sorry, but house wiring simply is not supported with our device.

Kind regards, "

I was really surprised myself. Since I have three phones and I'd like to have them convieniently placed around the house this was not a useful "feature" for me. I did keep the grandstream connected for 2 days just to verify that the problem still existed with the grandstream and not with the obi-100. The only "feature" I see I am missing with the OBI-100 is when I pick up the phone now I don't get the stutter dialtone when I have messages pending. Since I have messages go to my smartphone/email, this is not an issue for me. Since the OBI-100 supported Google Voice, I did get a GV number and set that up as the 2nd device/line on the OBI-100. It works great and now I have two phone lines with two numbers. Dialing out is a little strange, I have to 1st dial **2 to have calls go out on the 2nd line (GV). I don't know that I'll get the wife trained on how to do that, but it works for me. I don't really have a need for the GV line/number right now but it has potential.

Back to your initial question ... since the OBI-100 is setup via the "softphone" mechanism, a person could have the OBI and the grandstream connected at the same time. I did for 2 days but there was no value for me when the grandstream ws having call connection issues.

Sorry ... double post.

If you want the stutter dialtone on the obi devices, just enable the MWIEnable option (can be set on each SP). If you want the visual indicator (for your phone light to blink when you have a VM), enable the X_VMWIEnable option.

Grandstream devices (ATAs) work pretty well. Grandstream phones and other products stink. Grandstream's customer service and support is an absolute joke for all of their products.

That said, most problems have very little to do with the ATA. And if a Grandstream ATA dies, they are cheap to replace and easy to configure.

So I'm satisfied with Grandstream ATAs, but would love something better if it had a comparable price.

Biomesh, thanks for the tip. The MWIEnable works like a champ!

Greenlantern, not sure the price of a new Grandstream ATA, but the OBI100 can be had for less than $50 delivered from Amazon. You can connect two carriers to the single device, but it is a little confusing for my wife as both carriers/numbers ring the same phone. There is a distinctive ring feature but ... like I said it confuses her. So I ended up getting one OBI for Google Voice and one OBI for VOIPo to supply seperate phone lines accessible on our two-line phones. Maybe I had a bad Grandstream but since the policy was I could only connect two phones and they had to be physically connected to the Grandstream before I could get tech support, I opted to shelf the Grandstream for the OBI.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy the setup was and how well it works. With the MWIEnable feature selected, the OBI behaves just like the Grandstream, but more relaible for me. Hope this helps anyone having similar issues or wanting a supported config with more than two phones or using your house wiring.

I had been asked if I needed the Grandstream connected to use the OBI and the answer has been no thus far. I'll post back if that changes.

Cowsr4eating

For those of us using two independent numbers for the two ports of the Grandsteam, the Obi won't work for both numbers. The Obi can only handle one Voipo number at a time, and it will handle the primary number just fine. I haven't figured out how to get the secondary number to work, while leaving the primary number on the Grandstream.

Rob