How to get free phone service using your existing Internet provider

Goal

To stop paying $50/month for overpriced landline phone service by switching to an OBi100 device with free Google Voice support AND keep my original landline number.

Background

For years I've been dutifully paying over $50/month for my standard home phone service knowing full well that there were cheaper alternatives out there. The main reason I hadn't switched is because my ADT home alarm system was tied into the home phone wiring and not compatible with many of the alternative phone services.

Solution


A cool device I'd stumbled upon was the OBi100 made by a company named Obihai. With it, you can use a free Google Voice number and configure it as your primary home phone. The OBi100 plugs into your existing home wiring and rings your home phones just like before. You also get free long distance, voicemail, caller ID (phone numbers only), and other cool features.

I've been using GV for years with my cell phone. The big benefit was free SMS messaging which avoided the 20 cent per message charge that Verizon imposed on me (what a ripoff!) It also allowed me to have incoming calls routed to my cell, work, and home numbers as I saw fit. For this application I had to create a new Google account to get another GV number since you can't have two GV numbers associated with the same Google account, which is unfortunate.

In order to use this solution I needed to resolve the ADT issue. Turns out they now offer a more secure cellular option that only costs an extra $15/month after a $100 installation fee, so I got that. Problem solved. I was now one step closer to dumping the landline service.

The last challenge was figuring out how to keep my original landline phone number. Google allows you to port a cellular number to GV, but not a landline number. So a trick people had been doing was to buy a no-contract cell phone and have their home number ported to that, then from the cell to GV. A headache, but it works. I bought a cheap Tracfone off Amazon (under $10) and had my landline number ported to it for free, which took several days. Once completed, I verified I could receive and place calls on the cell using my original number (the cell came with a free 10 minutes of airtime). Now I had to port the number again, this time from the cell to GV. Google charges $20 for this, which I gladly paid. About 24 hours later, my GV number changed to my original landline number and all was good! I configured and plugged in the OBi100 device and tested. It worked! I now had home phone service back up and running with my original number and no monthly fees.

One warning: GV does not provide 911 service. I'm not too worried about this since I have at least two cell phones in the house, but there are ways to get 911 service on the OBi if you so desire (see Obihai's website).

End result

I now have FREE home phone service with my original phone number thanks to the OBi100 device. Once again, Google provides a free service that blows away the competition and makes life better for all. I'm glad I own stock in this company! Bye-bye $50/month phone bill!

PS: I actually bought the OBi110 device which has an extra line jack because I mistakenly thought that it was needed to activate the other phone jacks in the house. Turns out it's used when you have another service you want the device to have access to (i.e. second line). Otherwise just plug the "phone out" jack into your wall jack and all other phones in the house will now receive a dial tone. Just make sure to unplug your old phone service connection from the outside telco box so that you're not feeding voltage back down the street!

Saving webcam MP4 video using VLC

Goal: To simultaneously capture/save video from USB webcam and audio from computer line-in.
Video hardware: Microsoft Lifecam HD-6000.
Audio hardware: Shure microphone plugged into audio mixer which in turn is plugged into computer line-in.
Software: VLC v2.0.5

Start VLC.
Select Media, Convert / Save.
Go to Capture Device tab.
Select Capture mode: DirectShow, Microsoft Lifecam HD-6000, Line In, 640x480 (see picture).

Capture Device

Click Convert/Save.
Click Browse and navigate to a folder where you want to save your video file and give it a name (e.g. "test.mp4"). Make sure it ends with a .mp4 file extension.

File Destination and Video Settings

Click the tool/edit button next to the selected profile.
Make appropriate changes to the video and audio settings, as shown below (this only needs to be done once):

Video Settings

Audio Settings

Click Save.
Click Start. Blue light should illuminate on camera.

YOU ARE NOW RECORDING!

To finish recording select Media, Quit.
You should now be able to play back the file using VLC.