[WM: CentOS is what CentOS is. We boot from the same kernel as the original CentOS ISO. If it won’t boot, then you either have a damaged download (checksums match?) or your (ancient) hardware is no longer supported by CentOS.]

The snippet above about enabling GV Voicemail is about as close to any of my to-do items as I’ve been able to find in any forums or blog posts. That’s why I commented here as a starting point. BTW, would you mind explaining how it changes PBXiaF’s behavior? I’m now wary of words like "enables" "works" and "easy to" without further qualification. 😛

I’m grateful that PBXiaF provides a web GUI through which I can make changes instead of editing config files directly. IMHO, like webmin/usermin/ctlpanel and other web GUIs, it still doesn’t organize things intuitively, or describe them such that a newbie recognizes what much of it is used for. I’m not asking for setup wizards (but wouldn’t complain if they materialized), but, for instance, there’s no clue as to which settings are simply optional.

I have a background in network installation and ISP support. I worked in a NOC with Nagios, Solar Winds, and plenty of other web-based tools. I’m comfortable with enterprise-level servers. It seems fairer to me to say that PBXiaF is a time saver for folks who already learned how to do everything from the command line. If there are "just a few clicks" to do "anything I want" then heaven help me: What Are Those Clicks? The pop-up descriptions usually just echo the title of the item, "Blivit Threshold – This facilitates adjustment of the threshold of the blivit", thanks a bunch.

"Just delete them" Uh, no. If I don’t take screen shots I’ll probably have to reinstall the server to get those configurations back later, when i’m ready to play with them. How about "Just add a prominent [x]Enable checkbox and have it off by default? I don’t like to crush and burn that which I can just unplug and save for later.

"PBX is… for businesses". Ok, then consider that it violates GV TOS to use it for business. With that in mind, should GV trunks really be installed in a corporate call-center sort of configuration by default? Anyway, I’m not overwhelmed or frightened by PBX’s dangerous, raw power. It plays nice enough with my other VMs. But as long as the "stealth auto-attendant" does not play nice with GV, it has to go. Oh look, someone thought it was so useful that they didn’t provide an off button for it.

Custom Contexts: for each extension, mine says "Allow All" and offers no other choices. And this is really in reference to the ATA device. The Outbound Routes for each GV trunk already has a single "Trunk Sequence for Matched Routes" entry that lists the specific GV account which also rings in to that extension. Yet, PBX still treats all of the GV trunks like a pool, and calls made from anybody’s extensions still dial out on one particular person’s private number, complete with his CID.

The Obihai device is certainly very cool, but I’m not going to replace all my perfectly good SIP ATAs with still-expensive proprietary devices. SIP isn’t obsolete yet. We just need a simple GV-to-SIP bridge just like Gizmo5 provided, so we can continue to use GV services. PBXiaF+IPBX does exactly that. Except that it does additional undesired things to my GV calls *by design* and not by accident. My obstacle isn’t IPBX’s lack of ability, it’s the lack of OFF button for some unwanted features.

[WM: Just to be clear, we write our columns and our apps for hobbyists, not businesses! Hate to say it, but you’re like a lot of us. You prefer to explore rather than read. If you had read the article above, you would know that Google Voice is an integral part of PBX in a Flash as well as Incredible PBX. Menu items in FreePBX aren’t placeholders. They’re all "LIVE." As for an OFF button, that’s a great idea. It’s now been implemented together with support for 12 ITHPs. For existing installs, if you click on each of your offending Trunks, you’ll find a Disable Trunk checkbox. Finally, as I recommended previously, come join the PIAF Forum. You’ll learn a lot, and some of your suggestions are worth further exploration. Most of the Dev Teams don’t read blog comments regularly. They do read the forums. :HINT: ]

Not that I’m complaining. I love the idea of having the stealth auto-attendant and being able to get DID access to my home phone lines, but with cell phone carriers going more and more to unlimited time plans, the point of IP telephony is kind of moot.

I need PBXiaF to NOT immediately answer incoming calls and play it’s fake ring to callers. It should ring its associated extension and grab the call only if the extension is picked up. Currently, folks get charged for their call whether we’re answering or not. It also prevents our other GV-associated phones from ringing, since PBXiaF answers the line so fast. Furthermore, we’d rather use GV Vmail and transcription. It’s better, and easier to access.

Another problem is in setting up GV trunks. IPBX sets up a bunch of extensions for us to pick from; thanks for that. But when setting up a GV trunk, the GV module should also create an inbound route to an extension of our choice. The last thing I want is to have every caller put on hold while every PBXiaF extension rings at the same time.

Another problem is that no matter which GV extension a call is initiated from, PBXiaF always uses the same GV account to make that call. Each GV extension seems to have it’s own outgoing GV trunk selected. It just ignores the setting. That’s not going to be okay, since we don’t want to share our phone lines with each other, or send any CID other than our own to our callees.

Dialing other GV extensions doesn’t work. Part of this may be due to an invalid dial plan installed on our Innomedia MTA6328-2Re ATAs (which worked beautifully with GV+Gizmo5 until recently) (Any idea why Gizmo5 is still a choice in GV’s config?). Sometimes we get a fast busy, sometimes we hear PBXiaF telling us the extension is busy. It works only if we dial the whole 10-digit DID.

Finally, it looks like the modules for every kind of SIP host are turned on by default, endlessly trying to log into the remote servers using invalid credentials. The log, it grows and grows and grows. It’s not really polite to harass those hosts with all that zombie traffic. These modules should be mute until someone sets up valid credentials.

Am I really the only one who wants to use PBXiaF to bridge GV the way Gizmo5 used to do? I can’t find any discussions or tutorials that resolve this issue.

[WM: You mistakenly posted this under the wrong article, I think. It appears you are using Incredible PBX 2.0 rather than just PBX in a Flash. We obviously have to make certain assumptions in setting up a default system for end-users. The beauty of PBX in a Flash and Incredible PBX is that you can adjust things in any way you like with just a few keystrokes. From some of your comments, it sounds like you’re just getting started with this so head over to the forums and post some of your questions individually. Everything you want to do is simple. You just don’t quite have your arms around all of it yet… which is expected.

It’s easy to remove trunks you don’t need. Just delete them. We send these providers lots of customers. They’re not complaining about zombie traffic. It’s easy to alter the dial strings to accomodate any dialing preference your users might have in Outbound Routes. It’s easy to route outbound calls from a particular extension to a particular Google Voice trunk. Just use Custom Contexts. It’s easy to route incoming Google Voice calls directly to particular extensions. Just alter the Inbound Route for each DID. The fake ring you hear supports a feature called the Stealth AutoAttendant. It allows you or someone that knows the codes to access particular PBX features before a call is actually passed to a ring group. Google it! And good luck.]