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Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Monday, 25 February 2013
OBi202: First Impressions
If you've been reading my previous posts, you'll know that I've just replaced a (fake) Linksys PAP2T with a shiny new Obihai OBi202 box, for running my analogue telephone handset and house alarm through the internet. *
It arrived from Amazon on Saturday in a plain-looking white box, but it looks smart, it's compact, and everything plugged in as I expected it should. The on-line device admin guide (pdf) is long, but easy to follow, and 90% of it you'll never need anyway.
The web administration site (find the IP from your router or by entering ***021 from the attached phone) is much prettier, more detailed but easier to follow than the PAP2T. After a minor hiccup everything was set up without any trouble. So far it doesn't seem to be randomly dropping the SIP registration like the PAP2T did.
It supports up to 4 different SIP profiles, as well as Google Voice (if it ever makes it to the UK properly), and usefully, different profiles for things like tone settings, so you can mix and match providers, codecs, ring settings, etc. It'll even allow you to set up a IVR system ("press 1 to speak to Rich") if it takes your fancy. The only improvement I'd like to see is an option to set the ring voltage, caller id, etc automatically to UK settings - you're basically given USA, Nordic, or create-your-own...
Most importantly of all, the call quality of the '202 is very good indeed. How much of this is due to the OBi and how much to the changes my ISP made ("upgraded firmware on your section of the network") I will never know, but I'm happy. The unit also sports a USB socket, so you can hook it up to WiFi, share files or link it to your phone by bluetooth. The bluetooth option initially appealed to me, except the dongle doesn't seem to be available in the UK, and it's the wrong-way-around for my needs - it'll allow you to use your mobile network as a backbone, rather than using your mobile phone as an additional home phone.
I've also edited the phone book entries (prepend *68) on the connected telephone so that caller id is un-suppressed for my grandma, so she knows who's calling. It remains suppressed for everyone else. All I need to do now is figure out how the digit maps work, so I can call 123456 without having to prefix the area code (01234).
* As I have WiMax broadband, I have no need to have a BT landline for broadband, and no need to pay £13/month for the privilege. I've got a free account from Sipgate.co.uk for calls.
Disclaimer: These opinions are entirely my own, I have no affiliation with sipgate or obihai, and paid for the box like everyone else.
It arrived from Amazon on Saturday in a plain-looking white box, but it looks smart, it's compact, and everything plugged in as I expected it should. The on-line device admin guide (pdf) is long, but easy to follow, and 90% of it you'll never need anyway.
The web administration site (find the IP from your router or by entering ***021 from the attached phone) is much prettier, more detailed but easier to follow than the PAP2T. After a minor hiccup everything was set up without any trouble. So far it doesn't seem to be randomly dropping the SIP registration like the PAP2T did.
It supports up to 4 different SIP profiles, as well as Google Voice (if it ever makes it to the UK properly), and usefully, different profiles for things like tone settings, so you can mix and match providers, codecs, ring settings, etc. It'll even allow you to set up a IVR system ("press 1 to speak to Rich") if it takes your fancy. The only improvement I'd like to see is an option to set the ring voltage, caller id, etc automatically to UK settings - you're basically given USA, Nordic, or create-your-own...
Most importantly of all, the call quality of the '202 is very good indeed. How much of this is due to the OBi and how much to the changes my ISP made ("upgraded firmware on your section of the network") I will never know, but I'm happy. The unit also sports a USB socket, so you can hook it up to WiFi, share files or link it to your phone by bluetooth. The bluetooth option initially appealed to me, except the dongle doesn't seem to be available in the UK, and it's the wrong-way-around for my needs - it'll allow you to use your mobile network as a backbone, rather than using your mobile phone as an additional home phone.
I've also edited the phone book entries (prepend *68) on the connected telephone so that caller id is un-suppressed for my grandma, so she knows who's calling. It remains suppressed for everyone else. All I need to do now is figure out how the digit maps work, so I can call 123456 without having to prefix the area code (01234).
* As I have WiMax broadband, I have no need to have a BT landline for broadband, and no need to pay £13/month for the privilege. I've got a free account from Sipgate.co.uk for calls.
Disclaimer: These opinions are entirely my own, I have no affiliation with sipgate or obihai, and paid for the box like everyone else.
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Getting an Obihai 202 working with Sipgate UK
I received my Obi202 VoIP ATA yesterday, took it out of the box, tossed aside the counterfeit PAP2T, plugged it all in and fired up the web interface (dial ***030, option 1). I entered the settings for sipgate.co.uk (from their website), but kept getting "403 - No valid Username" whenever I tried to register. Googling didn't seem to help, so I thought I'd share the solution here.
The OBi202 has 3 fields (amongst others) under System Management -> Voice Services -> SPx service, they are AuthUserName, AuthPassword, URI.
I set them to my sipgate 8-digit username, my sipgate password, and then guessed at "sipgate.co.uk" for the URI. I then wasted an hour trawling through the other settings (of which there are many) - none of which made any difference.
The solution? URI isn't a url or domain name, it's just your username, so set it exactly the same as the AuthUserName, and everything will work perfectly.
The OBi202 has 3 fields (amongst others) under System Management -> Voice Services -> SPx service, they are AuthUserName, AuthPassword, URI.
I set them to my sipgate 8-digit username, my sipgate password, and then guessed at "sipgate.co.uk" for the URI. I then wasted an hour trawling through the other settings (of which there are many) - none of which made any difference.
The solution? URI isn't a url or domain name, it's just your username, so set it exactly the same as the AuthUserName, and everything will work perfectly.
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
I've been sold a counterfeit VoIP ATA
Recently, the call quality of my VoIP calls over my Linksys PAP2T box has dramatically decreased, to the point that calls are barely decipherable. So off I go to the internet to research reasons and solutions. I tried a few things, but to seemingly no effect. Even a call to sipgate's 10000 test number was garbled. It didn't matter whether I used G.711u or G.729a. I found reloading the status page whilst on a call very slow indeed, making it difficult to get stats on jitter and packet loss, etc.
When I got to the bottom of this page I noticed a warning about counterfeit Linksys PAP2Ts, and curiosity took me here. To my dismay my grey box failed all of the prerequisites for being a genuine product:
1) I bought it on eBay
2) The item description was "UNLOCKED LINKSYS PAP2T-NA SIP VOIP Phone Adapter 2 Port From london sell"
3) It came from china, from a seller with poor english
4) It was cheap (£21)
5) The MAC address started 00:AA:B9 which isn't a Cisco MAC
6) The sticker on the back was not just wrong, it was missing entirely
7) The 2 pin power supply looked nothing like it should
8) I'm not even sure I got a box with it.
The most worrying part is, the potentially dangerous piece of kit had been plugged into the mains in my house 24/7 for many months.
The call quality may be entirely unrelated to the provenance of the ATA, but I'm buying a new one nonetheless.
more information:
VoIP Fan - Check if a PAP2/PAP2T is genuine:
When I got to the bottom of this page I noticed a warning about counterfeit Linksys PAP2Ts, and curiosity took me here. To my dismay my grey box failed all of the prerequisites for being a genuine product:
1) I bought it on eBay
2) The item description was "UNLOCKED LINKSYS PAP2T-NA SIP VOIP Phone Adapter 2 Port From london sell"
3) It came from china, from a seller with poor english
4) It was cheap (£21)
5) The MAC address started 00:AA:B9 which isn't a Cisco MAC
6) The sticker on the back was not just wrong, it was missing entirely
7) The 2 pin power supply looked nothing like it should
8) I'm not even sure I got a box with it.
The most worrying part is, the potentially dangerous piece of kit had been plugged into the mains in my house 24/7 for many months.
The call quality may be entirely unrelated to the provenance of the ATA, but I'm buying a new one nonetheless.
more information:
VoIP Fan - Check if a PAP2/PAP2T is genuine:
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Fix a noisy toilet pipe
If your toilet (or any tap for that matter) vibrates noisily like a foghorn after the toilet cistern has finished filling (or you shut the tap), there's a really easy fix.
Ours started after we'd had the water turned off a few times, and got to the point where it happened every time for several seconds - not brilliant at 3am!
To fix:
1) turn the water off using the stopcock under the sink
2) open all the taps in the house
3) get someone to hold down the toilet flush
4) very slowly turn the water back on
5) shut off the downstairs taps
6) shut off the upstairs taps
7) let go of the toilet flush
You should now have a quiet toilet again! The cause is 'pipe hammer' caused by the inbuilt air traps in the house filling with water over time. Without the shock absorbing air in the traps the sudden stopping of the water flow when the toilet finishes filling causes the pipes to vibrate.
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