UKVoIPTalk.com

Something silly, I've just bought a Cisco IP phone off Ebay (hey it was
very cheap) and am now wondering what I need to use it, I've seen the
Asterisk setup pages but wonder if I really need another machine? Is it
possible to just use it connected directly to a router for making
Internet only calls (no dial out to POTS and no geographic number needed
unless it's necessary) Plenty of spare late night time to play...
--
Clint Sharp

Clint Sharp <clint@clintsmc.demon.co.uk> wrote in <qDByE3HH6mVHFwrj@clintsmc.demon.co.uk>:[color=blue]
> Something silly, I've just bought a Cisco IP phone off Ebay (hey it was
> very cheap) and am now wondering what I need to use it, I've seen the
> Asterisk setup pages but wonder if I really need another machine? Is it
> possible to just use it connected directly to a router for making
> Internet only calls (no dial out to POTS and no geographic number needed
> unless it's necessary) Plenty of spare late night time to play...[/color]

Cisco phones come in two types of firmware: CCP (or CCCP, I forgot)
which is known as skinny in Asterisk and SIP.

With SIP you can make it use a voipserver like any SIP-based voip server.

With (C)CCP you are limited to Cisco pbx or Asterisk (and Asterisk really
prefers SIP anyway).

You can only download firmware from cisco with a valid CCO account with
telephony in the linked cisco contract(s). You will also need documentation
from cisco on how to set it up in SIP.

Koos van den Hout

--
Koos van den Hout Homepage: [url]http://idefix.net/~koos/[/url]
Fax: +31-30-2817051 PGP keyid DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 or RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5
Webprojects: Camp Wireless [url]http://www.camp-wireless.org/[/url]
The Virtual Bookcase [url]http://www.virtualbookcase.com/[/url]

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 09:25:27 +0000, Clint Sharp
<clint@clintsmc.demon.co.uk> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Something silly, I've just bought a Cisco IP phone off Ebay (hey it was
>very cheap) and am now wondering what I need to use it, I've seen the
>Asterisk setup pages but wonder if I really need another machine? Is it
>possible to just use it connected directly to a router for making
>Internet only calls (no dial out to POTS and no geographic number needed
>unless it's necessary) Plenty of spare late night time to play...[/color]

you need to upgrade it to SIP then you should be able route calls via
a VOIP provider Sipdiscount, Voipcheap etc

Chris

In message <fj5vkj$rhk$31@gosper.koos.koffie.dot>, Koos van den Hout
<koos+newsposting@kzdoos.xs4all.nl> writes[color=blue]
>With SIP you can make it use a voipserver like any SIP-based voip server.[/color]
Hmm, don't know what firmware it's got yet, I read a little about skinny
and SIP so I knew about the firmware thing.[color=blue]
>
>With (C)CCP you are limited to Cisco pbx or Asterisk (and Asterisk really
>prefers SIP anyway).
>
>You can only download firmware from cisco with a valid CCO account with
>telephony in the linked cisco contract(s). You will also need documentation
>from cisco on how to set it up in SIP.[/color]
I believe I can take out a contract on just the 'phone though?[color=blue]
>
> Koos van den Hout
>[/color]

--
Clint Sharp

Koos van den Hout wrote:[color=blue]
> Clint Sharp <clint@clintsmc.demon.co.uk> wrote in <qDByE3HH6mVHFwrj@clintsmc.demon.co.uk>:[color=green]
>> Something silly, I've just bought a Cisco IP phone off Ebay (hey it was
>> very cheap) and am now wondering what I need to use it, I've seen the
>> Asterisk setup pages but wonder if I really need another machine? Is it
>> possible to just use it connected directly to a router for making
>> Internet only calls (no dial out to POTS and no geographic number needed
>> unless it's necessary) Plenty of spare late night time to play...[/color]
>
> Cisco phones come in two types of firmware: CCP (or CCCP, I forgot)
> which is known as skinny in Asterisk and SIP.
>
> With SIP you can make it use a voipserver like any SIP-based voip server.
>
> With (C)CCP you are limited to Cisco pbx or Asterisk (and Asterisk really
> prefers SIP anyway).
>
> You can only download firmware from cisco with a valid CCO account with
> telephony in the linked cisco contract(s).[/color]

Not quite. The 7960/7940 8.2 firmware is freely downloadable, assuming
that's what you've bought.
[url]http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/sip-ip-phone7960[/url]

>> You can only download firmware from cisco with a valid CCO account with[color=blue][color=green]
>> telephony in the linked cisco contract(s).[/color]
>
> Not quite. The 7960/7940 8.2 firmware is freely downloadable, assuming
> that's what you've bought.
> [url]http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/sip-ip-phone7960[/url][/color]


Later versions ( up to the current 8.8 ) are available for the asking.
You just got to know who to ask :-)

Upgrading these phones can be tricky, and requires a degree of networking
expertise. You need to be able to set up a TFTP server, and be able to
point the phones to it. You also need to learn the syntax of the various
files the phone uses, since you need to edit these to perform the update.

Also, there can be issues depending on which version of SCCP is on the
phone.
Older versions may require an incremetal update before loading the most
recent.

It's not beyond the competence of most tecchy people, but there is a
learning curve.

There are people who will perform the upgrade for you FOC, if you ask nicely
and pay the return postage.

--
Ron

Clint Sharp wrote:
[color=blue]
> Is it
> possible to just use it connected directly to a router for making
> Internet only calls (no dial out to POTS and no geographic number needed
> unless it's necessary) Plenty of spare late night time to play...[/color]

I would have thought checking it can dial SIP addresses would be something
you would do /before/ buying the handset, not after :-)

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
21:55:45 up 24 days, 10:35, 2 users, load average: 0.20, 0.25, 0.18
Convergence, n: The act of using separate DSL circuits for voice and data

In message <fj5vkj$rhk$31@gosper.koos.koffie.dot>
Koos van den Hout <koos+newsposting@kzdoos.xs4all.nl> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Cisco phones come in two types of firmware: CCP (or CCCP, I forgot)
> which is known as skinny[/color]

SCCP: Skinny Client Control Protocol.

Dave

TheMgt <themgt@morningstar.eu.org> wrote in <9xC5j.58298$c_1.35522@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk>:[color=blue]
> Koos van den Hout wrote:[color=green]
> > You can only download firmware from cisco with a valid CCO account with
> > telephony in the linked cisco contract(s).[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> Not quite. The 7960/7940 8.2 firmware is freely downloadable, assuming
> that's what you've bought.
> [url]http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/sip-ip-phone7960[/url][/color]

Woah, cisco letting people access their software just like that. That is
unexpected to me.

I sit corrected!

(now to find out from the original poster what exact model he bought)

Koos

--
Koos van den Hout, PGP keyid DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 via keyservers
[email]koos@kzdoos.xs4all.nl[/email] or RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5
Fax +31-30-2817051 Snowcam: webcams for your wintersport holiday
[url]http://idefix.net/~koos/[/url] [url]http://www.snowcam.org/[/url]

In message <2344220.h03EHWHdSV@ale.cx>, alexd <troffasky@hotmail.com>
writes[color=blue]
>Clint Sharp wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Is it
>> possible to just use it connected directly to a router for making
>> Internet only calls (no dial out to POTS and no geographic number needed
>> unless it's necessary) Plenty of spare late night time to play...[/color]
>
>I would have thought checking it can dial SIP addresses would be something
>you would do /before/ buying the handset, not after :-)
>[/color]
LOL, of course, but it was a shade under 4UKP so I thought I'd take a
chance on it.
--
Clint Sharp