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IncrediblePBX 911 dialing with Skyetel

Configuring E911 support with Skyetel is simple on their side, as it should be. But because it’s an emergency service, I wanted to do a separate post to underscore the importance on making sure it works.

I mostly followed this support article from Skyetel: https://support.skyetel.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041179233-E911 except I went in reverse order…

Asterisk Settings

I made the Asterisk PBX changes from the bottom of their article first. I also followed this article regarding changes in Asterisk: https://wiki.incrediblepbx.com/Configuring-e911-with-Incredible-PBX

From your Incredible PBX Admin website control panel, navigate to Connectivity -> Outbound Routes.

Skyetel requires that your outbound caller ID is the 11-digit number of your phone. I updated my other Skyetel setup post to reflect this change – it was previously using a 10-digit number.

Edit your main Skyetel route and click Duplicate:

Then you’ll have a copy of your main route that you can edit:

Per the IncrediblePBX E911 Wiki page, set the name to E911 and set Override Extension to Yes. The other change I made was to mark it as an emergency route:

You can see by the help text that it forces the caller ID (CID) to be a specific number (if set). I don’t have any other numbers besides the one I ported from Google Voice, but you’ll be able to see later how it clearly indicates this extension is set up for emergency calling.

Then go to the Dial Patterns tab and remove all of the pre-existing dialplans by clicking the trashcan icons:

Click the Dial patterns wizards button to generate new dialing plans:

Unselect all options except “US Emergency” and then click Generate Routes. You’ll have all of the appropriate 911 and 933 (testing) dialplans added, plus some extras to make sure all bases are covered. There’s a sad story behind Kari’s Law and why these extra dialplans are ultimately unnecessary, but I’ll keep them just in case.

Once those are added click Submit at the bottom and you’ll be brought back to the Outbound Routes list where you can see the emergency icon lit up:

Move your E911 Route up to the top of the list by dragging it by the crosshair icon. Then click “Apply Config” to save all your changes and reload the dialplan.

Skyetel Settings

Over at the Skyetel dashboard, it’s as easy as following their support document. I’ve included screenshots here as additional examples. Head to Phone Numbers -> Local Numbers and click the gear icon on the number you want to edit.

Once editing your number, go to the E911 tab and set it to Enabled. Fill out your name and address so Skyetel can route you to the correct emergency service provider.

Once it’s enabled, the E911 indicator will be bright green:

Enabling E911 will add $1.50/mo to your bill. But for $2.50 per month ($1 for the local number, $1.50 for E911), it’s way cheaper than having a land line. I like that anyone in the house can dial 911, especially kids.

Testing

Testing 911 dialing seems like a nerve-wracking thing to do. Luckily Skyetel understands your anxiety and has set up a test number of 933 that you can dial to make sure everything is set up correctly.

When you dial 933, if everything is set up correctly an automated Skyetel message will tell you it’s working. It will also read back your configured caller ID and address to verify.

One minor hiccup I noticed is that my call didn’t go through until after a 15 second delay. If it were an actual emergency I would be panicking during this time.

The problem was at my RTP-300. You can dial a pound (#) to commit to the dialed number immediately – I like this for dialing my 702 extension. If I want to dial that extension, I dial 702# – because I might otherwise be trying to call a friend in the Las Vegas 702 area code.

I inspected the dialplan for the two lines of my RTP-300:

The default dialplan is:

(*xx|[3469]11|0|00|[2-9]xxxxxx|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|xxxxxxxxxxxx.)

You can see it includes 911 as part of the [3469]11 pattern – which will also recognize 311, 411, 611. I added a separate 933 entry.

(*xx|[3469]11|933|0|00|[2-9]xxxxxx|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|xxxxxxxxxxxx.)

I made these changes on both lines. Now my calls to 933 connect within 5 seconds. Glad to know it will also do the same for 911 🚓🚑🚒

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OpenWrt Bridging with IPv6 support

My network topology at home is pretty simple, it looks like this:

After my recent router hardware and OpenWrt 19.07 firmware upgrades, I noticed my access point connected to my cable modem looked like this on the Status Overview page:

Pro-tip: Notice I’m using the cloudflare DNS servers rather than the ISP-provided ones. The Comcast DNS servers have gone down on me before and their performance is generally lacking.

But over on my bridged router it looked like this:

Further more, when I went to the command line on my bridged router, I couldn’t ping any IPv6 addresses:

root@ap2:~# ping ipv6.google.com
PING ipv6.google.com (2607:f8b0:4009:807::200e): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Permission denied

My concern was if the bridged router can’t contact IPv6 addresses, the same is probably true for the devices that are connecting through it.

I found the solution in this thread on the OpenWrt forums. While it’s easy to statically assign an IPv4 address, along with a default gateway and DNS server – for IPv6 it’s easiest to set up another lan interface specifically for IPv6 that gets it’s IPv6 address (and routes) automatically from the upstream router – rather than assigning it statically.

The TL;DR version of this post is to add this to your network config:

config interface 'lan6'
	option ifname '@lan'
	option proto 'dhcpv6'
	option reqprefix 'no'

Configuring IPv6 Bridging through the Web Interface

To do the same thing above via LuCI – the OpenWrt web interface, here’s how. Initially on the Network -> Interfaces page, ou can see my IPv4 lan with the wan ports disabled:

Click “Add new interface…”

Name it “lan6” and choose the DHCPv6 client protocol. For the interface, select the @lan alias. Then click Create Interface. You’ll be brought to a second screen.

All I had to do on this page was change the “Request IPv6-prefix” value to disabled. No need to change anything on the other tabs – the defaults are fine.

Now the Status -> Overview page on my bridged router looks like this:

Now I can ping IPv6 addresses from the command line on my bridged router:

root@ap2:~# ping -c 2 ipv6.google.com
PING ipv6.google.com (2607:f8b0:4009:807::200e): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 2607:f8b0:4009:807::200e: seq=0 ttl=115 time=17.884 ms
64 bytes from 2607:f8b0:4009:807::200e: seq=1 ttl=115 time=17.351 ms

--- ipv6.google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 17.351/17.617/17.884 ms

One of my 2021 goals is to better understand IPv6 concepts (at least as well as I can understand IPv4). If there’s any *nix configurations I find helpful along the way, I’ll post ’em here.

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Improved Connection Checking in Ubuntu

I wrote earlier about how I had to do some configuration of my DNS to get dnsmasq and resolved to work well together. With it working well I’m able to use dnsmasq, resolved, and network manager together to do local development while also detecting network changes nicely.

Recently I noticed I would occasionally get the dreaded question-mark network icon: “?” I did some digging around and it was related to Ubuntu’s Network Connectivity check. Several posts out there simply say to disable the check by going to Settings -> Privacy and turning Connectivity Checking to “Off.”

But by disabling connectivity checking, I don’t get the automatic prompt to connect through a captive portal (like at my local library). I wanted to actually fix the problem, so I needed to understand what the problem was.

Troubleshooting

Ubuntu uses the URL http://connectivity-check.ubuntu.com/ by default for connectivity checking. I went to the command line to see if there were any problems using curl while on my wired network:

$ curl -v http://connectivity-check.ubuntu.com/
*   Trying 35.222.85.5...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* connect to 35.222.85.5 port 80 failed: Connection timed out
*   Trying 35.224.99.156...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to connectivity-check.ubuntu.com (35.224.99.156) port 80 (#0)
> GET / HTTP/1.1
> Host: connectivity-check.ubuntu.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
> Accept: */*
> 
< HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
< Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2020 16:02:34 GMT
< Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
< X-NetworkManager-Status: online
< 
* Connection #0 to host connectivity-check.ubuntu.com left intact

Everything seemed to work out in the end, but you can see that the first request failed so it had to fall back to the secondary address. This whole request took 122 seconds.

The problem is, the default connectivity check interval is 120 seconds. So after the first one times out Network Manager flags the computer as offline. Apps like Spotify recognize the offline network status and stop working – despite being actually connected to the internet.

Alternate Endpoints

I could roll-my-own Network Manager connectivity endpoint – but I found an easier solution: use the default Debian endpoint.

The Debian default URL is http://network-test.debian.org/nm which has 3 IPs listed (for fall back) and it is much faster. All I had to do was add this file:

sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/11-connectivity.conf

[connectivity]
uri=http://network-test.debian.org/nm
interval=300

I gave it a little longer interval – 5 minutes instead of 2. It’s probably not necessary as their service responds much faster, but I want to avoid the question-mark-of-no-connectivity as much as possible but still retain features like captive portal detection.

Restart after you’ve saved that file and you should be good to go!

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Fitbit Charge 4

At my work we have a thing about giving tacos (🌮) to people when they help you out, do something great or funny – as a show of support. The tacos can be redeemed for prizes or gift cards – and one of those prizes is a Fitbit. I wanted a model upgrade from the ones our company was offering. In November 2020, Costco had a Fitbit Charge 4 bundle for $90.

I brokered a deal with my wife. I’d redeem a $100 Amazon gift card with my tacos and give it to her, and then buy the model I want from Costco.

Built-in GPS

The reason I got the Charge 4 is because it has a built-in GPS. I don’t like using my phone to record my activities as it drains the battery very quickly. Also my handheld Garmin eTrex Vista GPS is starting to act weird – it randomly turns off sometimes when I’m riding.

Hooking it up to Strava was simple, I did it through the https://strava.fitbit.com/ website. Here’s an article that goes into detail about connecting the two. When you finish an activity, Fitbit automatically transfers the information via the app (including GPS track) to Strava. As a bonus now my heart rate information is sent for more accurate effort calculation.

Battery Life

Since I considered GPS to be a requirement, this is the 2nd best feature. It would be a folly to call it charge if the battery life sucked. Without GPS use, I can easily go a week before putting it on the charger. With GPS use, I’ve found it takes about 10% of the battery for every hour you’re recording activity. By that marker, I’d guess you could use the GPS for 9+ hours before it conked out.

Sleep Tracking

All fitness trackers can track sleep. Along with a great battery life, the Charge 4 charges quickly. Putting it on the charger while I take a shower is enough to keep it topped up. I don’t ever have to take it off for a night to get a full charge.

Water Resistant 50 Meters

I always would put my phone in a ziplock bag while kayaking and still worry that it will make it’s way to the bottom of the lake. Fitbit says you can wear your tracker or smartwatch in the shower, pool and beyond. That should be just fine for kayaking – it will get wet, but it will survive.

Those are the good things, now onto some of the annoyances…

UI Issues

The swipe functions don’t always work as expected, partly because the screen is small, partly because the screen is very tall and skinny.

The most common issue is when I swipe down from the top to get the notification list (to inevitably clear it out). The Charge often thinks I’m swiping to the side because I didn’t swipe perfectly vertical top to bottom.

Another thing I do occasionally is leave the home screen on the weather. It will stay here until you press the watch button – so the next time you wake the screen you can see the weather. You’ll still get notifications on these secondary screens, but once they go away you cannot swipe down to see them again – you must go back to the home screen (clock) and swipe down from there.

Multiple Activities

I realize this is probably an edge case, but I imagine I’m not the only one experiencing this issue. The Charge 4 currently can’t pause one activity and start another. Here’s the scenario: I put studded tires on my bike and rode to the local nature center:

I brought my snowshoes with me, and when I got to the trail, I walked around the park. On the Charge 4 you can pause and resume your activity. This is great if I bike somewhere like the library, I can pause my ride when I arrive, and resume once I head home – then it records as a single activity.

But you can’t start another GPS activity until you finish the first one. Rather than my activity showing up as three (ride out, hike, ride back) I want them to appear simply as two: bike & snowshoe.

So I used my trusty(?) Garmin for the hike and hoped it didn’t turn off on me while I was out.

Verdict?

I looked at getting the cheapish Apple Watch for around $150 and also looked at the new Fitbit Versa 3. While they both have built-in GPS, neither of them were going to match the battery life of the Charge. If it goes on sale again for < $100 I would easily recommend it to anyone looking at a fitness watch – especially for tracking bike rides.

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1/24 Scale Christmas

Every year, we put some sort of motorized conveyance under the tree. In the past it’s been an HO scale train or slot cars from my childhood. While I like the nostalgia of them, let’s face it – I’m old which means they’re old. So they’re a little finicky to get working well. Still fun, […]

The post 1/24 Scale Christmas appeared first on Meatball Racing.

I’ve always wanted to have an indoor model train layout, but since we don’t have room I turned my thoughts to doing an outdoor layout But that always seemed extremely expensive. Then a couple ideas came together for me: 1) my #1 Christmas gift item is a 1/24 scale crawler – Axial’s SCX24 and 2) I found a G-scale train set for less than $50.

Continue reading “1/24 Scale Christmas”

Trains

I found several Lionel Ready-To-Play train sets at Wall 2 Wall Deals – it’s a small Unclaimed Freight or Derailed Commodities type of store. We opted for the Frozen and North Pole Central sets – each set was less than $50 out the door.

These models are essentially G (garden) scale – which is traditionally 1:22.5 scale. The Lionel Ready-To-Play (RTP) trains are actually the same rolling stock that they use for their G-guage trains – you can read this article about converting between RTP and G-gauge. However, the RTP trains run on a slightly wider 2″ (50mm) track than the G-guage standard of 45mm.

So I give up compatibility with other brands of garden scale trains and track, but at this price, I don’t really care. Plus I can 3D print additional track.

The trains are battery powered and remote controlled. I was hoping that by buying two sets, we could bind both engines to the same controller, but I tried and it doesn’t work. I still might design some sort of 3D printed rig so we can have a double header:

Next spring, I’m going to see what I can do outside, but spinning around the Christmas tree right now is fun enough.

Vehicles

The apple of my eye has been these fantastic Axial 1/24 scale crawlers. I’ve watched just about every RC Sparks TV episode about these rigs and I want to build a crawling course for mine. But you don’t need to build a course to have fun. I drove mine all over the gift boxes Christmas morning. They’re incredibly capable and there are a ton of option parts available.

Something I’m looking forward to is putting the SCX24 in my bike trunk, and heading to the nearby nature trail for some crawlin’.

Figures

When we had the slot car set out, I found this little guy tucked in with everything.

I recognized him from my youth – he was a figure from a cartoon & toy line called M.A.S.K. After a bit of eBay browsing I found he’s called Dusty Hayes and he originally came with a Jeep that turned into a boat.

He traveled 30 years to get here – he deserves an upgrade from a 70s CJ to a brand new JLU Wrangler. M.A.S.K figures were made by Kenner – who also made the Star Wars line. They have the same articulating legs, just at a smaller 3-inch size – perfect for 1/24 scale.

If you don’t mind being a blockhead – Minecraft figures are also 3 inches tall

Buildings

Lastly, for Christmas my wife asked for one of these scale buildings made by a brand called TODY. They also happen to be 1/24 Scale I’m thinking about getting some of the other models with full exteriors to start building a little town. But we’ll see how the build on this first one goes…

The post 1/24 Scale Christmas appeared first on Meatball Racing.

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Skyetel Local Number VOIP Setup

After setting up my new OpenWrt router, it is time to get my local phone number that I ported from Google Voice to Skyetel working.

Most of the configuration follows this Nerdvittles Skyetel post, but I include some specifics and screenshots for my configuration using OpenWrt, IncrediblePBX on Raspberry Pi, and a Linksys RTP-300 analog telephone adapter.

Firewall Setup

On my OpenWrt router that acts as a gateway, I added a firewall port forward for UDP Port 5060 to my Asterisk server (Raspberry Pi).

I didn’t need to run any of the Skyetel add-ip customizations from the original article. On my Raspberry Pi those settings were already there. You can check to see if the firewall settings for the Skyetel IPs are already present by running:

# iptables -nL | grep 52.41.52.34
ACCEPT     all  --  52.41.52.34          0.0.0.0/0

If you see the ACCEPT all row, then you’re good to go. If you don’t get any output, you’ll need to run the commands from the Nerdvittles Skyetel post.

Trunk Setup

I also didn’t need to run any of the Skytel Trunk Setup scripts, as I already had the six Skyetel trunks configured and enabled.

I also didn’t need to change the context configuration from from-trunk to from-pstn-e164-us (for a normal 10-digit US phone setup). It was already there 💪 Also, nat=yes was already set, so no need to add that either.

Inbound Routing

Next we’ll configure the routing of incoming calls from Skyetel to your Asterisk extensions. I use the first two extensions (701 & 702) that come pre-configured in Incredible PBX with my Linksys RTP-300. To add routes, go to Connectivity -> Inbound Routes and click Add Inbound Route.

For the DID and Description I added my full 11-digit number: 1 and the other 10-digits. I also set the destination to the “777 All-Five” ring group. It’s a default ring group setup to ring all extensions (701 to 705) all at once.

Once you click Submit there will be an “Apply Config” notification.

Click it to apply your new route and reload the dial plan.

Outbound Routes

The default Incredible PBX config already had default route. Click edit to view it:

As you can see it already has some Skyetel trunks pre-configured. Go ahead and click Duplicate to make a copy of this route we can change.

This will create a copy that we’ll edit.

Rename the route, add your 11-digit phone number, and add the additional Skyetel trunks, removing any extras.

After submitting the new route, use the crosshair icon to move the Skyetel route to the top, then click Apply Config.

I didn’t need to do any configuration of SIP Settings in Asterisk, my defaults all looked good.

Skyetel Configuration

Skyetel configuration is normally pretty simple, but for my configuration I want to combine my Dynamic DNS setup with the inbound SIP IP. But it turns out that Skyetel doesn’t work that way. Instead they support a script that will periodically call out from your asterisk server and update the endpoint IP at Skyetel if it’s changed https://bitbucket.org/skyetel/ip-endpoint-group-update/

In order to use the script, you must first create a set of API keys on the Skyetel dashboard by clicking the gear icon by your login name.

Go to the API keys tab and click Create. Save the keys somewhere safe, they won’t be displayed a second time.

Then head back to your Raspberry Pi to install the script. You’ll need git to install the script. Additionally, I also needed jq on my Raspberry Pi:

# apt --assume-yes install git jq

Then clone the repository:

# git clone https://bitbucket.org/skyetel/ip-endpoint-group-update.git

cd into the ip-endpoint-group-update directory, and then run the script. I used the defaults for port and transport by simply pressing <Enter>. Enter your API keys that you created on the Skyetel dashboard. I hadn’t yet set up an Endpoint Group in my Skyetel dash, so I entered “x” to do it from the script.

The script automatically installs itself into /usr/local/bin/ip-update-endpointgroup.sh and creates a cron to run it every twenty minutes at /etc/cron.d/ip-update-endpointgroup.cron

In the Skyetel dash I see there’s an endpoint group that was automatically created:

The last thing to do is change the local number that we ported from Google Voice to route to the new Endpoint Group.

Click Save, then give it a few minutes and try calling your number from your cell phone – it should ring and connect. If audio is good, you’re good to go!

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Dynamic DNS with OpenWrt 19.07 and nsupdate.info

I went to resurrect my dynamic DNS configuration on my OpenWrt router. The idea was sparked from a reader comment, so I wanted to follow-up on using nsupdate.info with OpenWrt for a DIY Dynamic DNS setup.

Before I began, I thought I should see if there’s a newer OpenWrt version my router can run. I always start on the Supported Devices page of the wiki, but on this visit I was treated to a warning:

If you read the 4/32 warning, the crux of the matter is that there may not be enough RAM to run OpenWrt without crashing. And the small flash area means possibly not having enough room to install LuCI, the web interface, and the packages to access LuCI via HTTPS. Also, there’s this:

Previous versions of OpenWrt (such as earlier versions of 17.01.x, 15.05.x “Chaos Calmer” and prior) contain now-known security vulnerabilities in the kernel, wireless implementation, and/or application code. […] In many cases, these known vulnerabilities are being actively targeted, potentially including by advanced, likely state-sponsored or state-affiliated actor or actors.

Ugh, I was using one of those older versions, and now I’m paranoid (as I should be) that my router could be used as a tool by nation-states to do their bidding. Nicely, there’s a link on the supported devices page titled “I want to buy a router which is supported by OpenWrt.” It links to their supported hardware table, pre-filtered by units that can run the latest stable version of OpenWrt – 19.07.4 at time of writing.

I spent some time browsing this list compared to what was available at my local Micro Center. I tried to find one that had the best OpenWrt support with the fewest known issues, and landed on the TP-Link C7 AC1750 for $70. If I like this one after a month or so, I’m going to buy another for better coverage.

OpenWrt ddns-scripts install

With the hardware choice out of the way, I installed OpenWrt 19.07.4. Then I needed to add support for Dynamic DNS. Go to System -> Software in the Web UI (LuCI). Click Update lists…, then type ddns in the filter input and press <Enter> to filter the list. The packages to install to use nsupdate.info are ddns-scripts_nsupdate and luci-i18n-ddns-en (or whatever language package you need):

Installing those will also install their dependencies, such as the base ddns-scripts and luci-app-ddns. Once they’re installed, reboot your router and you’ll have a Services -> Dynamic DNS menu.

You might see the menu before rebooting, but you’ll likely get this error if you try to visit it:

/usr/lib/lua/luci/controller/ddns.lua:116: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)

Rebooting should take care of it. Then on the new Dynamic DNS page, you may see a Hints notification like this:

Following it will lead you to a hints page and let you know you need to install a couple more packages: curl and bind-host. Follow the same installation process as above. After they’re installed, the Hints section will go away.

DNS Configuration

The only configuration you have to do at your DNS provider is add a CNAME record for the domain you want to use:

your.domain.com CNAME yourdomain.nsupdate.info

Then when you go to nsupdate.info, on the Overview page click Add Host and put in the subdomain (example: yourdomain from above) in the Name field, then select nsupdate.info under Domain:

Conveniently, after creating your new host entry, nsupdate.info will print your update secret and include specific configuration parameters for OpenWrt:

OpenWrt Configuration

You can use the configuration info from nsupdate.info, but it’s just as easy to paste the info into the LuCI panel. It’s worth noting that you only need to generate one host and host secret at nsupdate.info, but you’ll have two separate configurations in OpenWrt for IPv4 and IPv6.

In OpenWrt’s Dynamic DNS page, click Edit on the myddns_ipv4 row. The first thing you’ll want to do is update the DDNS Service provider to nsupdate.info and click Change provider:

Only then can you enter all of the information from nsupdate.info:

Enter your nsupdate.info FQDN in all of these fields:

Lookup Hostname
Domain
Username

Then put your secret in the Password field. Check both Enabled and Use HTTP Secure, then add /etc/ssl/certs to Path to CA-Certificate. Click Save & Apply, then repeat the same process with the same info for the other myddns_ipv6 entry.

From the Dynamic DNS overview page in OpenWrt, click the Start buttons for each row under Process ID Start / Stop. This only needs to be done once when you’re done configuring Dynamic DNS.

Test

Starting the Dynamic DNS process in OpenWrt should trigger your first update at nsupdate.info. You can see it easily on the Overview page:

If it all worked, your IPv4 and IPv6 address should be updated, hopefully with a green TLS indicator noting that it was done securely. If there are any problems, the numbers under Faults will increase – C for Client, S for Server.

If there are problems, you can see API messages on nsupdate.info by clicking on your hostname to get further details. You can also view detailed logs in OpenWrt by clicking Edit on the myddns_ipv4 or myddns_ipv6 rows. Then click the Log File Viewer tab and click the Read / Reread Log File button.

I was able to configure this in under an hour, hopefully you find it useful. Let me know if you have any troubles getting things to work.

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Porting your Google Voice number to Skyetel to use with IncrediblePBX

Once upon a time you could hook your Asterisk-based PBX to your Google Voice account to make and receive calls. How you hooked it up over the years changed (annoyingly). And at the end of 2018, support for accessing Google Voice via XMPP was dropped. Remember when we trusted Google to be the “for the better good” company? Oh, how times have changed.

With the tech giant under increased scrutiny for it’s advertising practices, I’m not at all sad about leaving one of their products behind. The only thing I wanted to keep was my cool Google Voice phone number: 29-FOELL.

I did it with the help of Nerdvittles and included several screenshots here for easy reference. I also used his advice when it came to picking a new VOIP provider. After looking at a few options, I’m going with Skyetel. Not because it’s the cheapest (it’s not), but because it has an important feature for our home phone: E911.

Skyetel Account

To start my Skyetel account, I went through Nerdvittles’ referral program. He’s negotiated a $10 initial credit, and a buy-one get-one (BOGO) on your first pre-paid amount. It’s not automatic, likely to prevent fraud. You have to submit a support ticket to request a $10 credit after your initial sign-up. Then submit another support ticket after you’ve pre-paid into your account. So I started with $10 (added for free). Then I pre-paid $50 and with another simple support request they matched it with another $50.

Pro-tip: don’t port your number over to Skyetel until you’ve made your first deposit into you Skyetel account. Once you make your first actual payment, they offer a 60-day free port-in service (normally $10).

Back when I had a land line from the local telephone company, it would cost at least $20/month. I expect the Skyetel monthly charges for a local number ($1) and E911 service ($1.50), plus call time, to be less than $5/mo. It’s worth it to me if I can reliably call the house and anyone can dial 911 in an emergency.

My initial deposit of $50, doubled to $100 should last me over 2 years.

Porting your number out of Google Voice

Follow the instructions for porting your Google Voice number out to a mobile phone service. I realize you’re not porting it to a mobile phone, but the instructions are the same. You need to unlock your number so the new provider can claim it.

It will cost $3 to unlock – worth it to me because it’s a cool number.

Once your purchase has been confirmed you’ll be emailed a receipt.

And now your number is unlocked!

Porting your number into Skyetel

From your Skyetel dash, go to Port Orders and click Submit New Order.

The process is fairly simple, but here are some key settings:

Port Type: Local
Assign to Endpoint Group: Out of Service Message – This is so we don’t need to do any SIP configuration up-front. I’m going to cover Skyetel setup in IncrediblePBX in a future post.
Current Provider: Google Voice
Account number with the losing provider: Your 10-digit Google Voice Number.
Port Out Pin: The PIN you use to access your Google Voice voicemail.
Phone Bill: I provided a screenshot of my Google Voice settings page.

Select the first available date for porting to happen, then submit. A support ticket will be automatically generated from your port-in request and you’ll get email updates during the process until it’s complete.

Stay tuned and we’ll go over tying all of the services and equipment together for a reliable VOIP-based home phone:

RaspberryPi w/ IncrediblePBX
RTP-300 Analog Telephone Adapter
This guide to porting numbers
Skyetel Service Configuration (up next!)

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