Configure Network Caller ID (NCID) to work with an OBi202
If you have an OBi202 (or other ObiHai/Polycom device), you do not need a modem to get Network Caller ID to work with your phone system, at least for reporting purposes, though for automatic hangup, you will still need to attach a modem. In most circumstances, this is not of much use, but if you want to measure the effectiveness of a service like NoMoRoBo, you will need to do this. Because NoMoRoBo hangs up before NCID registers the call via the modem, you will need to capture the call via the Polycom (previously ObiHai) device if you want to identify calls that NoMoRoBo kills before NCID recognizes the call and hangs up.
The obi2ncid gateway provided with NCID can read and parse the syslog from the Polycom device and report the calls that are killed before NCID can recognize the call.
The discussion that follows assumes that you have already installed NCID.
Set up obi2ncid.conf
To set this up, configure the /etc/ncid/obi2ncid.conf file. In most cases you can keep the defaults but in almost all cases you will want to update the identifiers for each line on the ObiHai device to match the extension or number that you are using:
# Defaults: SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4
linesp1 = "Home"
linesp2 = "Work"
linesp3 = "Fax1"
linesp4 = "Fax2"
Configure ObiHai Device for Syslog
Next, you will need to log in to the Polycom device to and change the destination IP address and port for the syslog to match the IP address of your NCID server and the port that the obi2ncid program listens:
Start the obi2ncid Service
Finally, you will need to start the obi2ncid service:
sudo service obi2ncid start
Interpreting the Results
Once you have this set up, you will get additional call information in the NCID client displays if your provider has been blocking calls before NCID registers them:
- For calls that NoMoRoBo hangs up, you will get one entry from the ObiTalk device.
- For calls that NoMoRoBo does not block, you will get one entry from ObiTalk and one from the NCID modem (ncidd).