Polycom OBi202 integration with 3CX for faxing

[ITguy2021]

The company that I work for is replacing some old ATA devices that have stopped working. The device we decided to try out is the Polycom OBi202 ATA. We only use these devices for faxing purposes. My question is, what needs to be done in order to provision one of these with 3CX for faxing? I have found no good documentation anywhere that explains what settings need to be set to what for using this device with 3CX for faxing so I'm kind of flying blind here without any sort of manual.. I've spent some time in the online portal looking through all of the settings, and some of them I have changed to match the same settings on the old ATA's, such as the 3CX server information, auth ID's, passwords, port numbers and such, but when I test it, it of course doesn't work.. When I try to send a test fax, I am getting some sort of auto attendant that says something about a SIP 603 error. There are hundreds of settings on the config page for this device, and I am no expert with ATA's.. Does anyone know of any good documentation anywhere for setting this up? Who can I contact? Has anyone tried to use this device for faxing with 3CX? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SweetAction]

If you are still in the "try these" phase can I recommend you return them. The Grandstream HT802 is the same price/cheaper and fully support and provision able via 3CX templates. Works great for fax.

If you must use the Obi, start by plugging a regular phone in and testing calls to internal extensions, then external numbers, then start with the fax machine. Start with a blank config, enter sip creds and server, see the results, then adjust.

 

[ITguy2021]

We have actually tried using the Grandstream HT802 and have had issues with outbound faxes with them that we have been unable to figure out. Inbound faxing seems to work fine with the HT802 but inbound faxes fail.

 

[SweetAction]

Fax over SIP Trunks is always flaky, but if you can post about the 802 issues you will likely find more help here (as more people are using them = wider pool of experience) and you can also engage 3CX support.

 

[leejor]

I really haven't seen any Obi model mentioned on the forum previously, except when used in conjunction with a Google voice trunk. This means that there may not be a a ready solution (someone that can provide all of the correct settings) for using one with a standard set, let alone with a fax machine.

They are not my favourite device to work with, and unless you are familiar with them, which it doesn't sound like, I would recommend avoiding them. While they are a standard SIP device, I'm sure that they will work, when manually configured correctly. However, getting fax to work reliably on a ATA is hit and miss enough, when using a device that many others have also set up, and can offer advice on, using an unsupported device may be more trouble that it is worth.
My two cents.