Thanks to Red Badger for the ping!
Posted on 02/28/2025 7:14:03 AM PST by Red Badger
I have...Teams sucks.... really most all MS product suck these days
ICQ, lol, forgot about that one.. (little flower icon)
mIRC is still being used today, as far as I know..
Working in sales... my customers often wanted to set-up video conferences to monitor projects. Every company was standardized on their ‘favorite’ system.
For me, Zoom was the easiest to work with. But customers that were heavily oriented toward Microsoft products would require us to use Teams. My impression was that Teams was a bit too complex, but I’m sure that had I used it more I might have felt otherwise.
It does seem that to get the most out of Teams you have to have the entire Microsoft suite of products.
Far more popular with software developers and product development teams. Microsoft Teams sucks.
This is slightly off subject but I have used various VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services for the last 25 years. My initial interest was to save money on local long distance. We moved out of town about 30 years ago and we could not call people who were 25 miles away without paying local long distance to the phone company. Plus, our monthly rate kept going up, and if anyone can remember what dealing with local phone companies used to be like... Our big break came when a trench was dug and cable TV was made available to our home, something that we were told a month or two before, would “never happen”. This eventually enabled us to get “cable internet” and use VOIP service providers.
In the beginning we used Vonage but ended up switching various other VOIP providers who offered us better deals such as 8x8 and Magic Jack. Then in 2012 we discovered Google Voice using Obihai devices, this provided the same home landline telephone service for free once you purchased the device for around $40. There were a few minor glitches... in the beginning setup was fairly complicated.
The original OBi100 adapter lost its connectivity within a couple of years because of changes made to Google Voice. We had to switch to superior OBi202 adapters with 2 lines and better FAX capabilities and easier setup which cost around $70 in 2014. I helped my parents and others port their landlines to Google Voice. I ended up purchasing around half a dozen OBi202 adapters.
With the massive Covid scam, we started using Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and whatever other video calling software our friends and associates insisted on using for various needs and events. Even Google Voice can be used for Video calls when using the app on your cell phone or computer.
Unfortunately, the ownership of OBihai has been passed from one company to another over the past several years. The OBiTALK Consumer Portal was shut down on October 31, 2024, which will eventually be cause all remaining devices to stop working. HP, the current owner will not guarantee continued operation with Google Voice. While most OBiHAI devices are currently still functioning, the eventual expiration of security certificates will end their ability to use Google Voice sometime soon. Google has no plans that I know of to make similar devices to the OBihai 200 series to be used with their service... It looks like the free ride is about over.
MS tried to make SKYPE something like WEBEX or other online meeting software. DISASTER!!!! I can’t explain how bad that turned out. Unusable.
So, they squeezed all the juice they could out of it. Now they t’row it in the trash can. Disgusting.
Teams is another bloated crappy MS monstrosity.
I remember now that the second VOIP service that we subscribed to after Vonage was called “Packet 8”. It was considerably cheaper than Vonage. They were purchased by “8x8”. In the VOIP business there have always been constant buyouts and takeovers.
Anyway... I found the most recent directions to use Google Voice with an Internet Telephone Service Provider (ITSP) and a VoIP device... So, there are workarounds if you still want a free landline that uses Google Voice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/18inqwk/use_google_voice_with_an_internet_telephone/
I like to keep things simple. Give me Windows 7, Office 2010, Adobe Acrobat 10 and Photoshop CS5 and I'm fine. Skype was also simple to operate. Zoom, yes, I have that installed on my PCs now and I love it's simplicity.
Thanks to Red Badger for the ping!
Embrace the suck.
Knew nothing about Skype until I went to Panama and no cell coverage. Skype worked fine from my laptop to call home.
“The original OBi100 adapter lost its connectivity within a couple of years because of changes made to Google Voice.”
I used both until 5 years ago. Was a great free landline until.....
Now I have google voice on my smart phone. So now have 2 telephone numbers that I use. The real smart phone number plus the google voice number.
I have google voice on my desktop computer so that I can easily type and text people/ You can install google voice on a laptop or tablet and use it as a telephone. With a headset w microphone I can do same w my desktop...
With smart phone I am on google voice anywhere via phones data plan. With all the others above I must be on a Wi-Fi. Mainly on my home Wi-Fi.... But It might be Home Depots Wi-Fi or at Starbucks Wi-Fi
That is great to hear. In our case we can hook up on old android phone to our wireless handsets and answering machine using blue tooth. I just haven't had to do this. I also haven't bothered to use the Google Voice App on my primary cell phone because it has unlimited voice, data, and texts for a very low price anyway. But I have used it out and about on my tablets which work just like they are a giant handset or a speaker phone.
Google Voice has saved me and my extended family a lot of money over the years. Google has said that they have no intentions to cancel the service or even cut off the service to ObiHai devices that use the service; it supposedly was security issues that ended the OBi100. I can see that as being an issue sometime in the future with OBi200 series devices.
But there is supposedly a workaround for continued free home phone service using Callcentric... https://www.callcentric.com/
According to the link that I put in my last post this will work with Google Voice using a little configuration wizardry.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/18inqwk/use_google_voice_with_an_internet_telephone/
Comcast is constantly trying to sign us up for their voice service. I am always baffled as to why people would do this... other than the convenience and maybe a little better reliability they are basically paying for something that they could get for free with just a little bit of research and a very small investment in hardware...
“Comcast is constantly trying to sign us up for their voice service....”
I actually like Xfinity..... low rates for internet only and they even (last year) tossed in a free Xfinity router that I use...... I have my own router too so I don’t need their freebie.. But what the hecks!
All I can say is that I like having two phone numbers on my smartphone. My take is that few people use free Google Voice on their phones. That goog is busy pimping it for business use and charging for this service
I have an el cheepo 10 inch tablet that I must put google voice on! It is Wi-Fi only.
The el cheepo Chinese 10 inch tablet, a ZONKO D106 from an Amazon Black Friday sale. It cost less than a hundred dollars and has a sim card slot. I purchased it to use with DJI Drone controllers that I have that do not have displays built into the controller. But that is another story.
I have an Ultra Mobile (T-Mobile MVNO) card installed in the laptop that costs me $3 for 100 MB, 100 calls, and 100 texts per month. You can purchase additional data, texts and calls on the fly. It is handy to have the card installed if you are in a place with no wi-fi, but I typically just use PDAnet with my cell phone with unlimited services to create a “free” hotspot if I am using the tablet where there is no Wifi. Ultra-Mobile is just kind of a cheap backup. The screen is a little low resolution (1280x800) but the speakers and microphone work well for calls. It works very well in tandem with Google Voice.
I don't know what Google's original intent was with Google Voice, but it is something that fell under the law of unintended consequences... only in a positive way. I am glad that this discussion about Skype came up because I needed a review of my VOIP dependance and usage. I am sorry to see Skype go because it was the first video phone app that I used long before Zoom and all of these other applications became popular.
I had not realized that the OBiHai services that made it so easy to set up standard land lines with Google Voice and a fairly inexpensive adapter had been phased out. It sounded pretty bad, but then I found there are fairly easy work arounds. I have a cordless phone system with 4 handsets that can use an Android cell phone to place and receive calls using Bluetooth. I haven't tried it, but I am pretty sure that this would work fine with Google Voice with some minor limitations.
ZONKO D106...... I have this D106 by a different Amazon seller. Now there is an upgrade version that takes a sim card......I have only Wi-Fi.
Chinese are churning these out by the tens of millions. Clue me in. Mine came with android 14. My understanding is no android updates by the seller or anyone?
Yes, mine came with Android 14 as well. Enough were sold that I wouldn’t be surprised to find a user group with someone who knows how to root and update the firmware at some point. In the meantime, the included version of Android is pretty new. So far everything that I have installed worked without complications.
The GPS on mine is a little weak but my guess is that it is some type of antenna related issue. Costco had a far superior Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 11.0” on sale around Christmas for $159 with a couple accessories. This would have been a better deal by far even without the sim card holder.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.