62 replies to this topic

[nintendo1889]

FWIW, most payphone block 800-goog-411. I'm betting the FCC would be interested in knowing that.

Anyone know a good toll-free service which I can forward point at my Google Voice number? I use around 30 hours/1800 minutes a month on the phone in my business.

why would the FCC be interested in knowing that goog411 is blocked from payphones?

many toll free operators prevent access to there number from payphones, since they have to pay extra for calls made to them from payphones...

goog411 is an information service, NOT a telephone service, so it is not the same thing as google voice blocking access to many rural CLEC lines that have high termination costs... because google voice MIGHT be considered a telephone service.. that i believe has yet to be determined.. but i assume that since they do not provide SIP termination that they are not truly providing a telephone service, and merely acting in a similar fashion to a calling card on steroids, since you need phone service from another provider to use GV

ah okay, when I posted didn't know that the owner of a toll-free number could block calls from payphones. I have found that goog-411 very recently works on one payphone out of all the ones I've tried it on.

I've that when using the GV click-to-call widget the cid came up as the same 650 number that verifies your phones, and also the original voicemail you get from google (650 265-1193). With being able to setup any number as a temporary forwarding number (eg dial your gv number, menu 4, 4, 2) you could attempt to hide yourself by setting your forwarding number to the calling-card number or whatnot and dialing through the click-to-call widget. But this has the same effect as skunkworks method, eg they can still see that it's google.

[Skunkworks]

It's quite interesting that PennyTalk has decided to slap a 50c charge ontop of every call placed with google voice's "op diversion" feature. I learned this the hard way of course.

Anyway, what the heck is causing this? The ANI-II is still 00, which is POTS, and obviously a three digit ANI and CPN mean failure, but usually I'd only think they'd charge you when calling from a payphone, which this obviously isn't.

Possible they are doing this to try and get back at people who op-divert to get around payphone charges? Maybe I should call up their customer support and ask a few questions.

Edit: Verizon/MCI cards and Pingo cards don't do this, looks specific to PennyTalk out of these three cards.

Edited by Skunkworks, 01 February 2010 - 10:13 PM.

[nyphonejacks]

It's quite interesting that PennyTalk has decided to slap a 50c charge ontop of every call placed with google voice's "op diversion" feature. I learned this the hard way of course.

Anyway, what the heck is causing this? The ANI-II is still 00, which is POTS, and obviously a three digit ANI and CPN mean failure, but usually I'd only think they'd charge you when calling from a payphone, which this obviously isn't.

Possible they are doing this to try and get back at people who op-divert to get around payphone charges? Maybe I should call up their customer support and ask a few questions.

Edit: Verizon/MCI cards and Pingo cards don't do this, looks specific to PennyTalk out of these three cards.

i am curious.. can a toll free owner still be charged for incoming calls with a failed ANI?

i would assume, that they would... but if the ANI is passing as POTS, then they should not be incurring the surcharge that they would if the call was dialed from a payphone..

so... either there is a problem with there billing system getting messed up because of lack of ANI information... or they are just greedy, and trying to take advantage... either way i would like to know what happens when you call there customer service... i personally would play dumb about the ANI failure when talking to them...

Edited by nyphonejacks, 02 February 2010 - 02:35 AM.

[Skunkworks]

Now google voice has totally stopped handling privacy bits properly.

Dialing *67 before calling in now does nothing, your outbound Caller ID isn't even blocked.

I can see why google might want to stop ANI+CPN obfuscation/failure, but to not allow basic Caller ID blocking is pretty insane. My guess is this is probably a mistake and it will return to its previous state of either providing a false ANI+CPN or 585 for both within a week or two with the *67 trick.

After all, you don't need to be a phone phreak to use simple Caller ID blocking, a lot of people are gonna notice this.

[nyphonejacks]

Now google voice has totally stopped handling privacy bits properly.

Dialing *67 before calling in now does nothing, your outbound Caller ID isn't even blocked.

I can see why google might want to stop ANI+CPN obfuscation/failure, but to not allow basic Caller ID blocking is pretty insane. My guess is this is probably a mistake and it will return to its previous state of either providing a false ANI+CPN or 585 for both within a week or two with the *67 trick.

After all, you don't need to be a phone phreak to use simple Caller ID blocking, a lot of people are gonna notice this.

same thing happening here... i could also understand them not wanting to fail the ANI, but allowing the CID to pass? that's not right.. trying to dial a star code from google voice comes back as "this is not a valid number" (ex. after pressing 2 to make a call dialing *67-212-555-1212 gets the "this is not a valid number" recording)

i guess they assume if you want to call someone with your number blocked you can do it directly with your phone, and not place the call thru GV.. but what about those people who do not have domestic long distance included in there phone package (there have to still be some people who pay domestic long distance charges)

whatever is going on @ GV they need to pick up the pace with whatever they plan on doing with gizmo5.... i would love to have free in/outgoing SIP calling for my GV number, with out needing to use click to call...

[Skunkworks]

In addition, a huge pool of new numbers seem to have been blocked, including all IPKall numbers, a bunch of VoIP gateway access numbers, and a few free conferences that were previously unblocked. Oddly most free conferences are still unblocked. Also, calls are now randomly refusing to go through on numbers, and going through a few tries later.

I am starting to wonder if these changes are intentional or if someone has screwed up fairly badly in dev. I'm kinda leaning towards that, after all they had the better part of a year to "fix" the ANI+CPN thing and block all the numbers they want, I'd doubt they'd step it up at this point.

[nyphonejacks]

2 oddities...

1- i just dialed into my GV number with *67 but unlike in the past when i have done this i needed to press the * when it was ringing and enter my password - but my call waiting did not go off sending the call back to my phone (the only one active on GV right now) - in the past even with *67 GV knew the call was from me and went straight to the menu (normally i have the PW off on this phone)

2- i could not get thru to an ANI number (800-444-4444) it just continued to ring until it busied out.. when calling thru GV with out dialing *67 i was able to get thru.. so i called a number that verifies CID info (804-222-1111) and it read back my number as 000-0000 so i think that ANI fails are back...

any reason why i could not get thru to the ANI number? any one else test this recently?

it also appears that 1-866-my-ani-is is down now... could not get thru with GV or dialing direct... not sure if it is down for good or not... =( i liked having a back up ANI that was easy to remember..

[JmanA9]

2 oddities...

1- i just dialed into my GV number with *67 but unlike in the past when i have done this i needed to press the * when it was ringing and enter my password - but my call waiting did not go off sending the call back to my phone (the only one active on GV right now) - in the past even with *67 GV knew the call was from me and went straight to the menu (normally i have the PW off on this phone)

2- i could not get thru to an ANI number (800-444-4444) it just continued to ring until it busied out.. when calling thru GV with out dialing *67 i was able to get thru.. so i called a number that verifies CID info (804-222-1111) and it read back my number as 000-0000 so i think that ANI fails are back...

any reason why i could not get thru to the ANI number? any one else test this recently?

it also appears that 1-866-my-ani-is is down now... could not get thru with GV or dialing direct... not sure if it is down for good or not... =( i liked having a back up ANI that was easy to remember..

Damn, you're right. 866-myaniis is down. I hope it doesn't stay that way.

I also ran into this earlier today. Turns out, I can't call *any* toll-free numbers if I call GV with *67, regardless of its carrier. After many tries, I eventually got through to Tell-Me, but I couldn't get it to go through again. If I dial my GV number without blocking my caller id, toll-free calls go through just fine, and pass my GV as the ANI.

Knowing Google's track record with this sort of thing, this situation may not last very long. I hope it doesn't.

[Kayara]

It seems that if I block caller ID when calling GV, I can call many toll free numbers including 800-555-tell, but not MCI or 800 operator. When I call the ANAC (804) 222-1111 mentioned above, I get "000-0000". If I dial my GV without blocking caller ID, I can again call MCI's ANAC, and also dial 800 operator. the 804 ANAC then reads off the last seven digits of my GV number.

Also, if I instead dial the 804 ANAC directly, dialing *67 does not change the announcement of the seven-digit phone number.

[nyphonejacks]

It seems that if I block caller ID when calling GV, I can call many toll free numbers including 800-555-tell, but not MCI or 800 operator. When I call the ANAC (804) 222-1111 mentioned above, I get "000-0000". If I dial my GV without blocking caller ID, I can again call MCI's ANAC, and also dial 800 operator. the 804 ANAC then reads off the last seven digits of my GV number.

Also, if I instead dial the 804 ANAC directly, dialing *67 does not change the announcement of the seven-digit phone number.

shit i never called the 804 number with a blocked number directly... it is not supposed to be an ANAC it supposed to read back what is on the CID display also, it will do DMTF tests, if you press a key it will repeat back the digit you pressed...
i found that number at testcall.com i never thought to try it with a blocked number...

[Skunkworks]

It seems that if I block caller ID when calling GV, I can call many toll free numbers including 800-555-tell, but not MCI or 800 operator. When I call the ANAC (804) 222-1111 mentioned above, I get "000-0000". If I dial my GV without blocking caller ID, I can again call MCI's ANAC, and also dial 800 operator. the 804 ANAC then reads off the last seven digits of my GV number.

Also, if I instead dial the 804 ANAC directly, dialing *67 does not change the announcement of the seven-digit phone number.

All of MCI's toll frees recently started rejecting calls with failed ANI.

Try an inactive patlife toll free number like 888-253-8239 for ANI readback, it will say the realtime ANI was not transmitted when dialing through GV with CID block.

Most toll free calls besides MCI should still connect fine with a failed ANI.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

All of MCI's toll frees recently started rejecting calls with failed ANI.

Funny you should say that...

http://thoughtphreak...io/mci_fail.mp3

Here's a call to two ANACs over MCI's calling card platform after op diverting. I included the second call in here just because it's reaction was a little amusing.

I'm a little confused about how Patlife comes into the equation here. They get toll-free service from Global Crossing, and I had no trouble completing a call to them with a fail either. Could it be Google Voice is sending absolutely nothing? Most real ANI fails send the NPA of your call just to ensure the call routes properly.

[Kayara]

Damn, you dial so fast that I'll actually have to use the computer to figure out what the heck you dialed, maybe throw it into soundforge or something :)
"more than 99" lol is that a joke? I recognize that voice from the Laser Voicemail platform, mainly because they've had issues with creating boxes and I kept hearing that recording.

[Skunkworks]

All of MCI's toll frees recently started rejecting calls with failed ANI.

Funny you should say that...

http://thoughtphreak...io/mci_fail.mp3

Here's a call to two ANACs over MCI's calling card platform after op diverting. I included the second call in here just because it's reaction was a little amusing.

I'm a little confused about how Patlife comes into the equation here. They get toll-free service from Global Crossing, and I had no trouble completing a call to them with a fail either. Could it be Google Voice is sending absolutely nothing? Most real ANI fails send the NPA of your call just to ensure the call routes properly.

Heh weird the two I was trying (800-444-4444 and 800-437-7950) having been refusing to connect with ANI fails over GV for the last several weeks. I know GV *was* sending 585 as the ANI and same plus privacy bit as the CPN.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

Damn, you dial so fast that I'll actually have to use the computer to figure out what the heck you dialed, maybe throw it into soundforge or something
"more than 99" lol is that a joke? I recognize that voice from the Laser Voicemail platform, mainly because they've had issues with creating boxes and I kept hearing that recording.

hahaha, yes! I'm glad someone got the more than 99 joke. Extra hugs and/or gold stars for you, sir. Good to see someone still takes pride in decoding DTMF by ear. If you haven't decoded the numbers already, they're 712-296-1206 and 515-382-1206.

[Rpm]

My guess is that different results mean different providers. It seems more plausible that Google is changing things, and not their provider changing things. But then again, who knows?

I have to agree with this,seeing as how in the last few days my main menu has been very buggy..(hitting star once disconnects instead of taking me to the option to place a call has been the main issue lately)

[nyphonejacks]

ANI fail seems to be back with google voice... i can not dial any toll free ANAC numbers when *67 into my GV number.. get a busy signal for all toll free numbers that i have tried so far...

[resistor X]

ANI fail seems to be back with google voice... i can not dial any toll free ANAC numbers when *67 into my GV number.. get a busy signal for all toll free numbers that i have tried so far...

It's not just you - I'm in NPA 303/720 and get the same thing.

[nyphonejacks]

ANI fail seems to be back with google voice... i can not dial any toll free ANAC numbers when *67 into my GV number.. get a busy signal for all toll free numbers that i have tried so far...

It's not just you - I'm in NPA 303/720 and get the same thing.

where have you been?

[resistor X]

ANI fail seems to be back with google voice... i can not dial any toll free ANAC numbers when *67 into my GV number.. get a busy signal for all toll free numbers that i have tried so far...

It's not just you - I'm in NPA 303/720 and get the same thing.

where have you been?

Well..... personal/family stuff. Kinda long... I can PM you with it if you'd like.

............. that's the 2nd time I had a feeling about you and it came out. That first was when I had a feeling you'd friend me and then today I posted the above and had a feeling you'd say "where have you been?"

As I said, I don't believe in psychic stuff but why is someone trying to make me believe in it?, lol.

lol.