ALERT GV: The Sky Has Fallen... Really

wardmundy

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DcW_7BgW0AALKVe.jpg

We've been down this Sky Is Falling Road several times before with Google Voice, but this time it looks to be real. Google has announced they are dropping XMPP support in mid-June. That's 5 weeks. All of the usual indicators that they may change their mind appear to be missing this time around.

What this means is all of your Google Voice trunks being used with Asterisk or 3CX or OBi1xx devices may cease to work in about 5 weeks. That includes GV trunks hosted through Bill Simon's GV/SIP gateway which also relies upon XMPP.

What can you do? There are at least three options, none of which are appealing. First, you can port out your GV numbers to a SIP provider if the phone numbers are important to you. Second, you can go into your current GV configuration and forward the calls to another working number. You lose outbound calling with option #2, but you won't lose your incoming calls. Third and reluctantly I think the best short-term solution even given Obihai's miserable business model these past few years, you can purchase an OBi200 ($50) or OBi202 ($75) device and move your GV numbers there. This will allow you to link the OBi to your Asterisk server as a SIP trunk and manage GV calls inbound and outbound just as you do today. The OBi solution apparently has the blessing of Google and will survive the demise of XMPP. NOTE: an OBi 110 will not work.

Google Announcement here.

ObiHai Discussion here.

Best Summary from current beta tester.

DSL Reports Discussion here.

We will have a new Nerd Vittles article next week documenting how to set up a FreePBX trunk for Google Voice using an OBi200. An alternate setup is documented by @restamp here.
 
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billsimon

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stanjohn

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Google may not be locking the door on astrisk so much as protecting the google app from non google apps on smart phones. I find the news that Sprint software update was the cause for the breaking of Sprint integration with GV a little suspect at this point. I'm getting too short on time from all these free lunches, time for me to invest in a real / transparent company for my Voip aka Vo-wifi. Should be a good time for the free transfer number in specials.
 

Aaron Outhier

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Anybody else using the Simonics Google Voice gateway? Any of those folks having trouble accessing their GV account via Simonics?

I haven't changed anything with my RPi 3 IncrediblePBX setup in the last 3 months, and was quite surprised when my 3 Grandstream phones rang from someone calling my GV number.

I was planning to switch providers/port out my GV number as soon as I had a chance. (I haven't had that chance just yet). I'm kind of glad I don't use that line very often...
 

Eliad

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I am using OAuth and Motif and so far GV still works.
I tried Simonics and for some reason I can make outgoing calls but incoming calls go to Google voicemail.
 

billsimon

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I am using OAuth and Motif and so far GV still works.
I tried Simonics and for some reason I can make outgoing calls but incoming calls go to Google voicemail.

Usually incoming call problems related to SIP registration misconfiguration, NAT timeout, etc because of our multiple proxies scenario. Config instructions are on support.simonics.com.
 

Twilight Sparkle

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it's gotten to the point where im going to port my Google Voice # out to vitelity.net, i cant take this any more having to do all kinda work arounds just for free... voice its time to move on for me and pay per minute or monthly... i dont use fax any more its been a year since i had to fax something so its just call and sms now... ill just have vitelity forward my SMS as an email... cuz i cant seem to find an app for android...
 

Eliad

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An update.
i figure out why simonics did not work. On the same number I tried Obi and i failed to make it work with my PBX. I had to go into the google voice account and remove the Obi device. Just removing it on Obi website is not enough.
Now the incoming GV through Simonics do work fine.
 

wardmundy

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Almost ready for pioneers for new Google Voice gvsip Asterisk module. You'll need an existing Google Voice account with a Google Voice OAuth 2 refresh_token plus Incredible PBX 13-13 server running CentOS or Scientific Linux. No OBitalk device required. No Simonics gateway required. If you are currently using the same Google Voice account elsewhere OR on the server you wish to upgrade, you'll need to shutdown Google Voice and remove the XMPP trunk credentials using FreePBX GUI. MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR SERVER FIRST!

More details coming soon...
 

kdthomas

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Am I missing something? My Google voice trunks are working for Inbound and Outbound calls with a stock install of Incredible on CentOS. No Obi, no gateway in use. June 18th has come and gone. Sky still falling?
 

jerrm

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Google's dates are almost always wrong, but usually happen eventually once announced.

I never expected the 18th to be the real drop dead date, but we are now on borrowed time.

Things could keep going for months or come down tomorrow.
 

wardmundy

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I think we're ready for the pioneers now. Complete tutorial available on Nerd Vittles tomorrow. Until then, it is recommended that you only attempt this if you have purchased a HiFormance VPS with Incredible PBX 13-13 support. Other options are the Incredible PBX 13-13 ISO or a CentOS 6 (only!) server running the latest Incredible PBX 13-13. Start there. Once your server is operational (one minute at HiFormance), do the following:
Code:
cd /root
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/gvsip-naf.tar.gz
tar zxvf gvsip-naf.tar.gz
rm -f gvsip-naf.tar.gz
cd gvsip-naf
./install-gvsip.sh

Making calls: dial GV prefix (48) plus a 10-digit number
Receiving calls: call your GV number from a smartphone or outside phone

For future reference, your refresh_token is stored in pjsip_custom.conf in /etc/asterisk. You can modify it to assign a new Google Voice number to your account. Then restart Asterisk. Multiple GV numbers are not yet supported, but it's on our radar.

You also can modify the Google Voice behavior for incoming and outgoing calls by editing extensions_custom.conf. At the top of the file, you’ll find the [from-internal-custom]context which controls outbound calling with your Google Voice trunk. If you would prefer to use a different dialing prefix for outgoing Google Voice calls, simply change 48 to the prefix desired in every line of the context. Then reload your Asterisk dialplan by issuing the following command: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"

To modify the Google Voice behavior for incoming calls, jump to the bottom of extensions_custom.conf. There you’ll find the [from-external-custom] context which controls the routing of incoming calls to your Google Voice trunk. Several examples are provided. By default, the inbound calls are routed to the Demo IVR (3366). If your PBX has a Ring Group 777 and you’d prefer to send the calls there, simply change 3366 to 777. If you would prefer to send the calls to an extension, then comment out the Demo IVR line with a semicolon and uncomment the SIP/701 line while also replacing 701 with the extension desired. If you’d prefer to send incoming calls to a specific Asterisk application, an example is provided to route the calls to the NV Weather ZIP application. Then reload your Asterisk dialplan by issuing the following command: asterisk -rx "dialplan reload"
 
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restamp

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Very brief report: Last night (late) I loaded 13-13 plus the NAF software onto a spare VPS. (Would have preferred using the Hiformance preloaded image, but this VPS was sitting there doing nothing.) Too late to test much, but noted the following:

+ The NAF install went smoothly. Did not see any glitches or anamolies. One minor nit: At the end, the installer indicates a 68 prefix for GV calls, but it is 48.

+ Simple incoming calls seem to work, but no time for any rigorous testing. Hope to do more of that today.

+ I did not bother killing or deactivating the GV acct on my OBi. Here's what resulted: After adding NAF, it seemed to take preference over the OBi when it was active. After deactivating the Refresh Token and rebooting Asterisk, the OBi reasserted itself. (And, I wonder what the method of prioritization is here.)

I realize this is code in its infancy and a lot of peripheral development remains to be done, but can someone tell me whether PJsip is still usable outside the realm of GVsip after the NAF mods have been installed?
 

wardmundy

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+ The NAF install went smoothly. Did not see any glitches or anomalies. One minor nit: At the end, the installer indicates a 68 prefix for GV calls, but it is 48.

Fixed. Thanks for catching that. Hope that's all you find. :)

Don't know what collateral damage has been done to PJsip. Hopefully none. The patches were additions for the most part, but there's only one way to find out. :)
 

Eliad

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When Motif GV is removed from a server, that server needs to be rebooted otherwise is still logged in. I did a trial install for one GV on Incredible PBX iso test server, so far so good, I will keep testing the service.
If I want to install more than one GV number what it the proper procedure to do so? Does anyone know how many channels one GV number supports?
 

restamp

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My understanding is that right now only one GVsip connection per server is possible with NAF's software. As far as number of channels, here's a data point from the XMPP days: At one point I was able to get 4 channels, but could only set up the n+1 channel after the nth channel was fully established. (Trying to set up two channels simultaneously usually failed.) Also, I got cited once for breaking Google's TOS, I think for having 4 channels active. Bear in mind that GVsip may operate completely differently that XMPP did, but currently I'm limiting the channels/trunk to two here.

I also noticed XMPP stayed logged in even after the Motif entry was removed. However, even while logged in, I was able to use GVsip from an OBi without problems. Still, it's probably a good idea to restart Asterisk and purge the XMPP connection for good.
 

wardmundy

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UPDATE #1: While initially you could leave both Google Chat and the so-called OBiTALK Device enabled, that appears to have changed in the last few hours. You now may need to disable Google Chat in Legacy Google Voice Settings:Phones before inbound calling will work.

UPDATE #2: We also are observing intermittent disruption of inbounding calling with Google messages that the number is not in service. Currently, there is no fix for this since it’s at Google’s end. We recommend that you whitelist obihai.telephony.goog using /root/add-fqdnjust to eliminate the remote possibility that the IPtables firewall is disrupting these calls. To better monitor PJsip in the Asterisk CLI, issue the command: pjproject set log level 5

UPDATE #3: In troubleshooting the failed incoming calls issue, I tried a call from a different phone number. And, presto, the call went through. Apparently, making multiple calls of short duration from the same number gets you placed in Google’s spam bucket. By going into your Legacy Google Voice profile, you can turn Global Spam Filtering OFF in the Settings:Calls tab.
 
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