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freephoneline.ca - Free Local Soft Phone Line for lifetime VOIP

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Deal Addict
Jul 6, 2005
4451 posts
2139 upvotes
Toronto
Dahlya wrote: This is the only thing I can find, which does seem to suggest hardware failure, perhaps from a power outage, power fluctuation, or old age. You can try a factory reset, but you would have to reconfigure.
Yeah. That's an absolute last resort but I fear that might be the next step. But wanted to reach out to this thread as we have some very knowledgeable posters here and have been a great help in the past.

I don't think a power fluctuation happened as I run all my network gear on a UPS.

I guess my next question is, should I have to buy a new obi200 unit, would I be able to load my saved configuration backup into it?
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
Repooc wrote: I don't think a power fluctuation happened as I run all my network gear on a UPS.
Yes, then it shouldn't be a power spike related issue. It could still be a hardware failure.
I guess my next question is, should I have to buy a new obi200 unit, would I be able to load my saved configuration backup into it?
Yes, but you will have to re-enter passwords and PINs, and if you have Google Voice, you will still need to use Obitalk to re-provision or use hacked firmware.
Deal Guru
User avatar
Sep 21, 2005
13460 posts
12205 upvotes
Repooc wrote: Yeah. That's an absolute last resort but I fear that might be the next step. But wanted to reach out to this thread as we have some very knowledgeable posters here and have been a great help in the past.

I don't think a power fluctuation happened as I run all my network gear on a UPS.

I guess my next question is, should I have to buy a new obi200 unit, would I be able to load my saved configuration backup into it?
The problem may not be the obi unit itself. The power brick may be the problem. I don't have a obi unit. Check the specs on the power brick or the Obi unit. If you have another power brick with the same voltage and current output, try it.

The capacitor at the DC output of the power brick failed. I had open many power bricks and replace the output capacity and fixed the problem.
Have too many phones... This is how I limit my monthly phone payment.
Public Mobile $34 15GB, $11 250MB, 2x $5 50min/50text, $0 FPL home phone,
Fido $5 4GB plan with a free tablet.
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
embguy wrote: The problem may not be the obi unit itself. The power brick may be the problem.
Repooc wrote: I switched the power supply cable and same result.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 26, 2007
7579 posts
5272 upvotes
Toronto
Repooc wrote: So here's an odd issue with my ObiHai Obi200 that I can't seem to figure out....
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PXL_20210509_153003187.jpgPXL_20210509_153017118.jpg
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The first pic with the red power light happens for about 2 seconds as soon as I plug in the power cable and then it goes away. The green network light then begins to flash (second pic) in sync with what looks like network activity. But I'm not getting any service whatsoever, either outgoing or incoming calls. The phone light remains off throughout all of the above.

I switched the power supply cable and same result.

I've had this Obi200 for about 10 years now and using it for my home phone service with FPL (freephoneline) without much issue all this time. This just happened all of a sudden 2 days ago.

Countless attempts to reboot, unplug/replug, switching out networking cables, restarting modem, etc are not getting me my three lights on the unit.

One thing I did notice when this first came to my attention was that all green lights were on, but the phone light was blinking... Just as if there was an active/connected call as per normal; however there wasn't an active call at the time. Very odd. So that's when I first pulled the power cord in an attempt to reboot the unit, but have since had this issue with the power light shining red briefly, going away and then followed by a green blinking network light.

I can't seem to find this issue/sequence of lights reported anywhere else.

Has my Obi200 bit the dust?

It seems odd that there would be "no power" when it's allowing for the network light to flash.

I'm completely stumped. Please help!!!
Similar problem where I tried to hard reboot using pulling the plug method. Got blinking red power a year ago. Now I try to soft reboot whenever I can by accessing the config menu/reboot instead.

Only solution for me was to load another firmware. After that, when the phone or sip shows disconnected, first thing I do is change the voip server to voip2 and its been working so far. Last time I had to change the server was 6 months ago. 2 obihai 200 and 202 with FPL been rock solid for awhile now
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
peteryorkuca wrote: Similar problem where I tried to hard reboot using pulling the plug method. Got blinking red power a year ago.
Repooc's power LED goes out completely, which is not a known issue.

Flashing red/green indicates recovery mode, and the solution is to upload firmware, which might be worth trying, particularly if nothing else works.
Deal Addict
Jul 6, 2005
4451 posts
2139 upvotes
Toronto
After a couple hard reboots, it finally started showing some sign of life by flashing the power LED red and green (actually orange and green... Never seen that before).

I was then able to see the device in my router's device table and connect to it by IP. On the browser page it would ask me to install a new firmware, which I proceeded to do... Which actually was a firmware I already had installed. But that ended up failing. After a few attempts of doing that over and over, it finally gave up and returned to flashing only the ethernet LED again.

Even logging in to the obitalk expert portal it's not seeing the obi200 as connected, so I can't even login to do a soft reboot or factory reset.

As a last resort I tried do a manual/hard factory reset by inserting a paperclip into the back for 5 ,10, 20 seconds and get absolutely nothing. It just continues to flash the green ethernet LED.

I even tried to delete the device from the obitalk portal and re-add it... It won't even come up.

I'm completely out of ideas.
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
Repooc wrote: After a couple hard reboots, it finally started showing some sign of life by flashing the power LED red and green (actually orange and green... Never seen that before).
Click here. Your ATA was in recovery mode.
I was then able to see the device in my router's device table and connect to it by IP. On the browser page it would ask me to install a new firmware, which I proceeded to do... Which actually was a firmware I already had installed.
The firmware version needs to be the same as or higher than the existing firmware on the ATA. You can't downgrade Obihai firmware.

I'm completely out of ideas.
If you are unable to get back into recovery mode or access the ATA, then you need to entertain the possibility that your ATA is dead.
Deal Addict
Jul 6, 2005
4451 posts
2139 upvotes
Toronto
Dahlya wrote: If you are unable to get back into recovery mode or access the ATA, then you need to entertain the possibility that your ATA is dead.
I think it's dead unfortunately. :(

Looking forward, I can't believe how much these things have gone up in price! Looking on Amazon the obi200 is about $78 + tax

What is everyone's thoughts on the grandstream ht801? It's a fair bit cheaper at $55.

I don't need anything fancy, only have the single line with FPL as my home phone.

Am I missing out on anything if I were to switch over to the grandstream in terms of user experience/ease of setup?

I suppose all of the DIY setup FPL tutorials have all been based on obihai hardware, I've yet to come across something similar for a grandstream device (unless you guys can point me in the right direction), so it may feel like starting from scratch.
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
Repooc wrote:
Looking forward, I can't believe how much these things have gone up in price! Looking on Amazon the obi200 is about $78 + tax
Prices increased and availability decreased after Poly/Polycom's acquisition of Obihai.
At least Amazon is an official seller, according to Polycom. The warranty should be valid if the seller is Amazon.
What is everyone's thoughts on the grandstream ht801?
It will work, but after using Obihai devices, you'd have to pay me to use a Grandstream ATA. I feel a $23 savings isn't worth it.
The lack of routing features, lack of Auto Attendant, lack of Google Voice support, and inability to use Nomorobo with Freephoneline are deal breakers.
Those features help a tiny bit to make up for what Freephoneline lacks. It's up to you if you aren't interested in those features.

You can find other Freephoneline configuration guides here, and the Freephoneline community support forum can be found here.
Last edited by Dahlya on May 11th, 2021 1:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deal Addict
Jul 6, 2005
4451 posts
2139 upvotes
Toronto
Dahlya wrote: Prices increased and availability decreased after Poly/Polycom's acquisition of Obihai.
At least Amazon is an official seller, according to Polycom. The warranty should be valid if the seller is Amazon.



It will work, but after using Obihai devices, you'd have to pay me to use a Grandstream ATA. I feel a $23 savings isn't worth it.
The lack of routing features, lack of Auto Attendant, lack of Google Voice support, and inability to use Nomorobo with Freephoneline are deal breakers.
Those features help a tiny bit to make up for what Freephoneline lacks.

You can find other Freephoneline configuration guides here, and the Freephoneline community support forum can be found here.
Thanks for your continued quick replies!

I don't seem to use any of those obihai features, so I guess I wouldn't miss them of I moved over to a grandstream unit.

At one point, many years ago, I was manually adding spam callers to a blacklist, but in recent years with the spammers auto generating fake display numbers I've long given up on maintaining my blacklist. This is a first I've heard of nomorobo, but not sure if I'd be keen on setting it up either. Our home phone rarely rings as is.

Maybe I'll try the grandstream, and can always return with Amazon's easy process of need be.

Thanks again!
Deal Addict
Feb 28, 2015
1311 posts
498 upvotes
Montreal, QC
Dahlya wrote:
Your power LED remains off too?




Everyone I know with an OBi200 or OBi202 isn't having a problem, and a discontinued service can't affect the power LED.
Sorry, I misread.. I don't have the same issue, my power light constantly flashes red/green and based on that it appears as my device lost power during f/w upgrade. I tried flashing the latest f/w and resetting to factory defaults without any success. (Same behavior)

I guess my good ol' obi200 is fried.. sniff.
Deal Addict
Nov 6, 2003
2558 posts
823 upvotes
Does FPL block calls ? One of my friends got a new cell number. Every time he calls my FPL, it gives him some message like "the person you are calling is not available or not taking calls" He's the only one who has problems calling me. Is it possible FPL might have blocked the previous owner of his phone # ?
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
sylvestor2002 wrote:Is it possible FPL might have blocked the previous owner of his phone # ?
Freephoneline generates revenue from termination fees. The more incoming calls to their network, the more money they receive. So, no, they wouldn’t block any incoming call on purpose.

They don’t even offer a call block feature.

I’d wait 24 hrs, and if the problem continues, submit a ticket with your friend’s phone number.
Deal Addict
Nov 6, 2003
2558 posts
823 upvotes
Dahlya wrote: Freephoneline generates revenue from termination fees. The more incoming calls to their network, the more money they receive. So, no, they wouldn’t block any incoming call on purpose.

They don’t even offer a call block feature.

I’d wait 24 hrs, and if the problem continues, submit a ticket with your friend’s phone number.
I wasn't sure if his number was flagged by FPL as being a spam number. That's the only reason I can think of as to why he can't call me. It's been going on for a few months.
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
sylvestor2002 wrote: I wasn't sure if his number was flagged by FPL as being a spam number.
No, FPL doesn't block anything on purpose because that would run counter to their business model. They need incoming calls to be answered.
Unless you have an Obihai ATA and/or know how to route incoming calls elsewhere, even if you block incoming calls, they will still be picked up by FPL's voicemail system because once the call is answered, even by the voicemail system, that counts as an incoming call having been answered.

I would submit a ticket that specifies your friend's phone number and have your friend contact the mobility provider to mention an inability to call Fibernetics carrier numbers or your FPL number. Fibernetics is FPL's and Fongo's parent company in addition to being a CLEC. Freephoneline does not offer free technical support, but someone will at least read the ticket.
Deal Addict
Nov 6, 2003
2558 posts
823 upvotes
Dahlya wrote: No, FPL doesn't block anything on purpose because that would run counter to their business model. They need incoming calls to be answered.
Unless you have an Obihai ATA and/or know how to route incoming calls elsewhere, even if you block incoming calls, they will still be picked up by FPL's voicemail system because once the call is answered, even by the voicemail system, that counts as an incoming call having been answered.

I would submit a ticket that specifies your friend's phone number and have your friend contact the mobility provider to mention an inability to call Fibernetics carrier numbers or your FPL number. Fibernetics is FPL's and Fongo's parent company in addition to being a CLEC. Freephoneline does not offer free technical support, but someone will at least read the ticket.
Thank you for the information. Good to know FPL doesn't block calls.
Jr. Member
May 6, 2009
135 posts
38 upvotes
Montreal
Hi RFD,

Not sure if someone can help me.
I have the obi200 and all was working well until yesterday i noticed that at work i can't dial at home.
When i do dial home it takes a while to answer and goes straight to unavailable leave message voicemail. No typical ringing. Yet nobody on phone, not busy.
Yet from home i can call at work and from cellphone to home is fine. It rings and everything. So i am thinking FPL is ok.
From work phone to cell or other residential phone numbers works fine too. Ringing and all that.
So i don't think its a work phone problem.

So why when calling from work number to house number does it go straight to voicemail ?
I tryed rebooting obi200 and it looks all ok.

Any ideas.....?
Member
Nov 23, 2012
314 posts
177 upvotes
Ontario
phantomvs wrote: Any ideas.....?
A) Check your FPL call logs. Do you see the incoming call listed for the work number?
Is there an abnormal disconnect reason?

B) Dial ***1
i) enter the IP address you're told into your web browser. Login to your ATA.
ii)Navigate to Status-->Call History
iii) Locate the call. Is the incoming call listed? If not, it never reached your ATA.

C) Navigate to Status-->System Status-->SP(FPL) Service Status
Your ATA must be registered in order for it to receive calls at the time when the problem happens, and only one device registration is permitted at any time per FPL account.
You can't have two devices registered simultaneously with the same FPL account, and only the one that is registered will ring.

D) Change proxyserver in your ATA to voip4.freephoneline.ca:6060
Refer to step 9 on page 41 from the guide.
No change?
Then submit a ticket and include your work phone number in the ticket.

It may be useful for @sylvestor2002 and @phantomvs to determine the carrier of the numbers that can't call them and include that information in their tickets when contacting support.

For general troubleshooting information, follow the steps listed on pages 40 to 42 under the section, "Are you getting one way audio issues with an OBi200/202 and Freephoneline? Are incoming calls not ringing?".
Last edited by Dahlya on May 18th, 2021 10:35 am, edited 2 times in total.

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