Corestar

After spending a few hours last night finally getting this second VOIP number working on the BOB2, I figured I would write it out, and hopefully help someone!

At first, when reading about the BOB2, I got the impression that we could get 2 DID (Direct Inbound Dialing) numbers for the BOB2 from iiNet. This isn’t the case (at the moment at least!) as their policy is that they will only give one DID with a bundle, and won’t sell DID’s on their own. So the lovely help desk there told me to look elsewhere…

We have our old handset, and the one that comes with BOB2, so the plan was to have our existing home number (also voip) going to the BOB phone, and a new number going to ‘Phone 2′ which we would use for our home business. All this over our existing naked installation.

So, I looked. And because I’m kind of new to the whole VOIP thing (as far as setting one up is concerned), I took a few miss-steps on the way to Nirvana. There are a few providers out there willing to connect you to a SIP for free – allowing free calls to anyone also on a SIP, but pretty much unusable from the BOB2 point of view. Using SIP from a phone, requires dial-out, and, if you want to receive calls on it, a DID. So after signing up for 2 services – bbgGlobal don’t seem to work, and sip2sip works fine but doesn’t have access to DID numbers.

So, back to the drawing board, where I found PennyTel who not only set have a nice easy free setup, but provide a DID and to my surprise very reasonable call charges.

So, once you have signed up to PennyTel, or some other provider that you are happy with – how do you make the BOB2 work with it?

Log in to the modem (by default IP is 10.1.1.1), passwords are in the documentation, or on the screen if it is still the default (probably a good idea to change that, you think?).

Click on 3.Set up my VOIP. You should see the details for your phone 1 voip service. Don’t touch these. Then click on 2. Set up phone line 2 in the left menu.

On this screen, enter your VoIP number (NOT the DID number, but the ‘username’ provided by your supplier, and enter your password.

I left ‘enter the state you are in’ as WA – where I am – as I didn’t know what effect this had. VoIP SIP domain (if using pennytel) is sip.pennytel.com, VoIP SIP server I left as sip.wa.iinet.net.au, and display name I don’t think does anything, so I put in my DID number.

Proxy IP: sip.pennytel.com on port 5060, registrar IP: sip.pennytel.com on port 5060.

Click save (top right) and then go to the 1.wizard page (top menu)

With luck, you will see Line 1 [VoIP Registration: Up] and Line 2 [VoIP Registration Up]

If that is all good, then by default, if you call your home number, from your mobile, then both phones should ring (assuming phone 2 is plugged into your BOB at this point!). Calling your DID should also ring both phones. Now, click on 3.Set up my VoIP again. and select 9.Phone Mapping from the left menu. If you now point the DECT phone to VOIP1 and the FXS phone to VOIP2 (just click on the radio buttons you want turned off), then you can call from your mobile, and the home number will go to the BOB phone, and the DID to the other phone. Another test – call the DID from the home phone. It will ring, and you can answer – you now have 2 lines into the house. For the grand sum of $25 (to pennytel) and some time.

Hope you have the same success.

Edit: I forgot to mention, thanks to http://www.ozinternetphones.com/ who pointed me to Pennytel.