Penguin
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http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/index.html

Nifty idea, mostly pushed by Cisco. The idea is that instead of wiring your buildings with Ethernet and phone, you just wire them with Ethernet and you use VoiceOverIP. So you have very nifty phones that plug into Ethernet and use DHCP, H.323 etc. Very nifty.

Cisco IP Phone 7912 Series

Sorry for messing up this page - busy :)

First Looks:

Pros

  • Looks cool!
  • Appears to be able to access a basic HTML webpage for phone directory lists/etc that is served on the local LAN
  • Appears to support PoE.
  • Has extra Ethernet port on the back - this means you plug your Ethernet cable into the phone, then plug the 2m Ethernet cable supplied with the phone into the phone, then into your computer. This means only one UTP (Ethernet) cable is required.

Cons

  • The Ethernet cord(s) attached at the back interfere with the phone sitting down on the desk, e.g. the phone has a bracket that sits the phone at a 45 degree angle to desk - Ethernet plugs into the back between the desk and bottom of this bracket - would be better to have no rubber-boot/plug-doo-dad-wotsit on the UTP plug... on second thoughts, I think Cisco' book mentioned that you should use no jackets on the UTP plugs...
  • Does not come with SIP image pre-loaded (only Cisco' Skinny? image)... you need to get a Cisco SMARTNet support contract, then when you have that, create an account on their website, then upgrade your Cisco account with the SMARTNet details, which let you access the SIP images for the phone!
  • Requires a 48V DC @ 200mA power supply - somewhat hard to come by... cheaply.
  • Once the SIP image was loaded, and (very) basic setup sorted, phone had a 60ms ping time to it when not even being used...

Network Config Deployment Notes:

Configuration - Central, via DHCP, and config files/images via TFTP.

Note for configuring a TFTP Server - the file/RPM to get (FC2) is 'tftp-server', NOT simply 'tftp'. That is a client...

If the TFTP server is NOT running on the DHCP server:

On the DHCP server, in dhcpd.conf (/etc/dhcpd.conf (FC2)), add
'option tftp-server-name "<your-tftp-server-name";'.

The phone will grab this address, and hopefully get all of its SIPDefault.cnf/images/etc from here.

For specifying the hardware address, use:

' host { hostname <your-phones-hostname> { hardware-ethernet <phones-MAC-address-here> } } '

To be completed...

More dhcpd.conf tomfoolery...

Apparently you need to use 'custom' dhcp options to let the phone get the tftp-servers location from dhcp server...

Like
'option 66 .....???????....... ' 'option 150 ..........?????????...........'