HELLO & WELCOME

[WelshPaul]

I was lucky enough to be sent an OBiLine for free to set-up, test and review. These are available via the Obihai store over on Amazon.co.uk for £19 including delivery! See here. What is an OBiLine? Its a small add-on accessory that connects your OBi2 Series and OBi3 Series Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) to a fixed PSTN phone line allowing you to make and receive calls via your traditional PTSN phone line through any telephone connected via your Obihai ATA.

There appears to be mixed reviews on these, most being positive however going by what I have read it appears some people don't know how to properly configure the devices correctly for use with a PSTN line in their country and assume you simply plug the OBiLine in to the ATA's USB port and away you go. Not necessarily so! :?

Lets be fair though, the documentation supplied is rather limited. All you get is a quick set-up guide measuring 5x5 inches so if your not a geek like me you could run into problems.

OBiLine Quick Set-Up Guide

As you can see from the above image there isn't much information other than how to physically set-up the device. Anyway moving on...

This is what greets me when I open the box:

OBiLine Contents

Take everything out and you have a Quick set-up guide as mentioned above, an RJ11 to RJ11 cable and the OBiLine device itself:

OBiLine Contents Unpacked

The OBiLine device itself does have a good quality feel to it. As you can see from the pictures below there is a Status led on the side of the device, a Telco PSTN RJ11 connector at one end and a 6 inch USB cable hard wired the other end.

OBiLINE

One minor issue for me was that the cable supplied with my test device was an RJ11 to RJ11 which is ok I guess if you live state side but here in the UK a PSTN line uses a different plug altogether so I purchased an RJ11 to BT adaptor off ebay for 99p including delivery. I couldn't plug the OBiLine into my Virgin Media PSTN line without the adaptor! :?

RJ11 Cable and BT Plug

Ok so now we know what's in the box lets move on and install the device... Click here for Part 2!