OBi202 2-Port VoIP Phone Adapter with Google Voice and Fax Support for Home and SOHO Phone Service

The Good:1. It works!2. Voice quality is great3. When paired with Google Voice, it's FREE. FREE. FREE to get and place calls in the US.4. Setup is simple (*)5. It's CHEAP compared to the alternatives. Especially, e.g. Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service, Vonage, Xfinity. Even the outlay for the cost of the box is less than you'll pay for those services because they charge more outright (Ooma is $120), or require a one year contract.6. It has TRUE multi-line support. Ooma, for example, allows you to have "two lines" but they behave like one unless you purchase Ooma's handsets and their $10/month service. You need two (or more?) Google Voice numbers.7. You can probably port your EXISTING phone number to Google Voice - if you first port the number to a cell carrier (find any carrier with a Pay as you go plan and a low cost, e.g. T-Mobile). Google Voice will not port numbers from most landline or VoIP providers, but for $20 will port from nearly all cell carriers. Ooma, by contrast, charges $40 to port a number.8. Google Voice has voicemail to text, multiple ring, spam call reduction, call screening, text notifications and more. Want those services elsewhere they will cost you. E.g. with Ooma you'll be paying a minimum of $20/month ($10 service, $5 for the cheap voicemail transcription and about $5 month in taxes and fees).The Iffy:A. The obitalk website which is needed to configure your device is a little wonky. By wonky, I mean it may be a bit intimidating to anyone who is a first time VoIPer. But I had little problem connecting my two Google Voice accounts, connecting two cordless phone system bases, and having one phone ring for my "home" line and the other ring for my "hobby" line. See the attached shots for examples of the ObiTalk website.That's a small bit of "iffy" and a lot of Good.

SOHO (small office / home office) analog FAX machine users -- You can retire your land-line POTS service and save $$$ every year with the OBi202!My Story:For the last 15 years I've been paying my local phone provider $50/month for an analog FAX line that is rarely used nowadays. I'm not ready to go completely FAX free, but its dwindling use has made it hard to justify. I looked at internet fax services, and I liked their low monthly cost, but I'm old school and prefer a conventional fax machine.My Solution:Despite reading about the random reliability of VoIP Fax, I decided to try it out. It seems that some users have good luck with it, others not so much. In my case I was hopeful it would work for me because my Comcast Xfinity Broadband connection has good performance. Spoiler Alert: With OBi202 I'm a VoIP FAX winner!My Installation:I plugged the OBi202 into my LAN and powered it. The instructions provide details on enabling the web interface (for security it is disabled out of the box), so I did that. I also configured my router to assign it a fixed local IP, but this optional step is not required. I also created an account on obitalk.com and registered my OBi202 device. These steps are described in the brief (one page) quick start manual.Then using the keypad on my Brother FAX machine I entered the "Miscellaneous Menu" and changed the Compatibility entry to "Basic." This sets the FAX communication to 9600 baud and disables error correction (ECM). These settings are common recommendations for FAX VoIP.My VoIP Provider:Next I had to select a VoIP service provider. With Google's help I found an endless list of companies to choose from. I read many online reviews and narrowed it down to a short list of contenders; CallCentric was chosen after a coin toss. Since I don't send/receive many FAX's I selected their "Pay Per Call" service for outgoing calls (inexpensive per minute rates). For incoming calls I selected their "DID - Pay Per Minute" service ($3.45 monthly rate + inexpensive per minute rate). I funded it with a credit card, but they also accept PayPal.The CallCentric account included a free local phone number (you choose the area code, they choose the 7-digit local number). In my case the phone number I was given will be short lived because it will be replaced after porting my existing analog phone number to it. By the way, the CallCentric site includes an online porting tool that checks an existing number to confirm it can be ported; Mine passed the test so I don't expect any problems porting it.After getting my new phone number I went back to the Fax Machine's keyboard and selected the "Initial Setup" menu, where I entered my CallCentric 10-digit phone number as the Station ID. This step is important, as noted later in my review.The CallCentric account needed to be registered to my OBi202 device. To learn how to do that I used CallCentric's online search box and entered "obi202." I quickly found the general instructions for setting up the OBi202. No issues doing the steps and my Obi was registered in minutes.Please keep in mind that I'm not here to push CallCentric's VoIP service. Please do your own research and decide which VoIP provider to use. There's a lot of them out there and plenty of user feedback to help you decide.My FAX Tests:I used the HP FAX test number (888-473-2963) and sent several different multi-page FAX's to it. They were all successful because the HP test site FAXed back a reply to each test call (takes about five minutes for HP to call back). NOTE: It is important that your FAX machine's ID setting has your 10-digit VoIP phone number because that is the one HP will use to call back.My Second VoIP Line:The OBi202 supports two analog phones/devices. With the FAX machine on one port, what should I do with the other? Well, Google Voice of course. It's hard to ignore getting FREE domestic long distance (and cheap international) voice calls. No need for me to explain Google Voice and how to install it. Plenty of other OBi users and related YouTube videos provide all the details.My Final Thoughts:Keep in mind that I installed the OBi202 a day ago and so I don't have long term experience with sending/receiving VoIP FAX calls. But so far things work great. In case my luck changes I have a backup plan. CallCentric's service includes a dedicated Fax feature that I can use to receive FAX calls instead of my machine. When it is enabled (log into account, click DID Forwarding Tab, select Fax entry) my VoIP line does not ring. Instead the incoming FAX is received by Callcentric's fax server (which avoids internet speed/quality problems) and is emailed to me. I tried it out and it worked, so the backup plan is good to go if necessary.My Configuration:Brother MFC7820N FAX/Printer/Scanner.OBi202 VoIP Phone Adapter.VoIP Service Provider: Callcentric.Broadband Provider: Comcast.

as everyone else knows, technology has changed and the 1xx series no longer works with Google Voice. I updated to the 202 and was up and running in a couple minutes.

I've been trying to set up my new Obihai device all morning with no luck. When I try to register my device ObiTalk just reports that it fails.

I am using it with 2 Google voice line, voice and fax working good

Good alternative for a landline.

I am using this product to replace my land line

Successfully installed the OBI202 & ObiWifi behind G1100 (Verizon FiOS) router without issues (no need for port forwarding, DMZ host set up, firewall, etc, just plug & play),...

It works well! When receiving calls there is no delay in the phone line ringer going off. In fact, it often rings before Google Voice rings my cell phone.

It is crazy what a person can be charged for phone bills if they want any sort of landline service. While this is not a traditional landline, it acts as one through Google...

Does exactly what is says. Allows you to setup 4 VOIP services which can include Google Voice. Very easy to setup and use with obitalk's system.

Exccelent