Replacing Simon Google Voice Gateway with PBXinaflash??

[Erik.]

I have been using Simons GV gateway with two phone adapters (Linksys SPA3102 & SPA3102) and a two-line phone.
Since the gateway will soon cease to work, I need to find another solution. I wonder if FreePBX (or some flavor thereof; e.g. PBXinaflash) together with my current two adapters would be able to give me the same functionality as I currently have?:

Phone Line 1 (SPA3102):
Incoming Calls: Google Voice #1 and SIP1 (CallCentric #1) and SIP2 (CallCenteric #2)
Outgoing Calls – Phone Port: Google Voice #1
Outgoing Calls – Voice Gateway: Various SIP Providers (e.g. Dial #1 for Provider 1 etc)

Phone Line 2 (SPA2102)
Incoming Calls: SIP2 (CallCentric #2)
Outgoing Calls – Phone Port: “Google Chat”. I use a Google account, which doesn’t have a GV number, to make “anonymous” calls.

Dial Plans
SPA3102 (phone port): It dials the phone number to my 911-provider (bulkvs.com) when I dial “911” with my registered Goggle Voice #1. It also skips the area code for local calls etc.
SPA2102: It skips the area code for local calls etc.

Can I use FreePBX or some flavor thereof for my functionality? Which one is the simplest to setup and use? PBX in a Flash maybe? Does it have GV support?

I was thinking of first testing it out in a VirtualBox VM running on my Windows 7 PC. Later, I would like to buy a Raspberry Pi and install it there instead if possible (no clue how to do that yet…).

Are there any good websites that explains how set up the above in very simple terms (I am a novice at this stuff!)
Thank you so much in advance!!!

p.s. Are there any advantages of using a PBX, in my case, except to provide the GV connection?

 

[rogerjbos]

There are many people looking to do exactly that, including myself. In my case it is to keep an Obi110 running in a different country for the convenience of having one physical phone that can be used for local and US calling. For me it is as much a hobby to learn how it work. Unless you really want to learn a lot about VOIP, you might be better off paying callcentric's really low rates, or spending $70 on an Obi 202 (which has 2 lines). If you really want to proceed, get a raspi and head over to nerdvittles.com for some really good tutorials that will walk to through it.

 

[Erik.]

I wonder if a PBX may give me some extra features that I cannot get with an Obi202.

Assuming that I will be able to use a PBX to accomplish my goals above, I thought that I first could try a PBX in a VM to see if I liked it, and if I do, then I would buy a raspi and use that instead.

However, I am confused about the major steps. Do I need both Flashinabox and Incredible PBX?
I am guessing here:
1. Do I install Flashinabox first?
-- How do I install it in a VM? Are there maybe VirtualBox images available?
2. Do I then need to install Incredible PBX?
3. Do I then need to install support for GVSIP in Incredible PBX (How?)

Do I need to do anything else (except configuring everything of course)?

p.s. It would be great with a tutorial for novices like myself, showing the major steps with links to more detailed instructions. This is especially important now that Simons GV gateway will stop working.

 

[rogerjbos]

If you go with incridiblepbx, that will have everything you need, including gvsip. Nerdvittles advertises a $10 per year hosted virtual phone system .I don't use it, but it would be the easiest way to test it out. By far, the biggest cost is going to be your time. That is what made GVGW such a bargain. Goto nerdvittles and look for the centis tutorial and look for the HFormance link. Good luck.

 

[Waffull]

If you go with incridiblepbx, that will have everything you need, including gvsip. Nerdvittles advertises a $10 per year hosted virtual phone system .I don't use it, but it would be the easiest way to test it out. By far, the biggest cost is going to be your time. That is what made GVGW such a bargain. Goto nerdvittles and look for the centis tutorial and look for the HFormance link. Good luck.

The hiformance.com hosted IncrediblePBX server option is pretty good. I added Webmin to it and I been testing out lots of different configs. I do prefer RASPBX over IncrediblePBX, but there's no gvsip for RASPBX yet For $10/yr you can't go wrong having another server to play around with.. Electricity alone on something local would be more than that. Their support is also on the ball. I had a problem with IPTables not starting up, missing some dependencies that weren't in the standard repo... They added them and had it up and running within 30 mins of my putting the support ticket in. Worth the the less than $0.03 per day.

 

[rogerjbos]

I read your comment and decided to sign up for HiFormance. It works well once I got the hang of it. Good learning process. Probably more reliable than running my own raspi.

 

[Waffull]

I read your comment and decided to sign up for HiFormance. It works well once I got the hang of it. Good learning process. Probably more reliable than running my own raspi.

Hey,
Looks like you may have edited your first reply... Glad you're up and running. Not sure if you figured out the Webmin thing, but I had to install it. I did so following these instructions... as I haven't been a Webmin user for many years.

 

[Erik.]

1. Isn't Webmin already there? Do I need it to use it?

2. I looked at the signup page and there are several locations (some more expensive). Does it matter which server I would use for a simple home-phone setup?

3. There are also several OSs listed. How do I know which one to choose?

4. Will IncrediblePBX be installed with the latest GVSIP feature so that I don't need the Simons GW (The instructions seem to still require it?)

5. Is there any support for a novice like me in setting this up per my requirements above?

 

[Waffull]

1. Isn't Webmin already there? Do I need it to use it?

No, it's not part of their IncrediblePBX 13-13 image

2. I looked at the signup page and there are several locations (some more expensive). Does it matter which server I would use for a simple home-phone setup?

You want the location that's going to have the lowest latency to your home. Choose the one closest to you. I'm not sure what the difference is with, for example, the two different CA servers. I'm on the Buffalo, NY server and have been, for the short time I've been on it, very happy with it. Then again I have god awful internet service at home, 12/2, so I have my home network QoS'd to hell and back to insure VoIP always has the highest priority.

3. There are also several OSs listed. How do I know which one to choose?

IncrediblePBX 13-13

4. Will IncrediblePBX be installed with the latest GVSIP feature so that I don't need the Simons GW (The instructions seem to still require it?)

The Simons GVGW is, or very shortly will, shutdown. You will need to apply the naf gvsip patch. You'll want to follow the directions at:
http://nerdvittles.com/?p=26204 and http://nerdvittles.com/?p=26285

5. Is there any support for a novice like me in setting this up per my requirements above?

I doubt their support will be of any help with IncrediblePBX/Asterisk/gvsip. But they will help with support for the server. For example when I first booted up, I couldn't get IPTables to start because it was missing some dependencies. Since they weren't avail in the standard repo, they installed them for me.

Remember, gvsip is A WORK IN PROGRESS. naf and others are making tremendous progress and have basically done most of the work in the past 3 weeks and we have working gvsip now. But you have to be comfortable with Linux, otherwise you're going to get yourself very frustrated.

Hope that helps.