> Thanks for your repsonse, perhaps I mis-stated my situation. I have > asterisk up and running with a TDM22B and have two analog phones working > with two analog phone lines. What I can't seem to get started on is the > setup of a SIP phone. I have looked at all the info on voip-info.org > and it is somewhat helpful, but not enough to get it going. So any help > would be appreciated.
The basic requirements for most sip phones is simply a userid, password, and an IP address of the asterisk box. That's generally enough to get a sip phone to "register" with asterisk. However, each sip phone can have a multitude of features that "might" require additional configuration parameters to be defined on the phone. The Grandstream BT-100 will only have a few basic config parameters while the Polycom has roughly fifty different configurable items (many of which stay at default values). The voip-info.org site is a very good reference for lots of different things, but it really isn't the place to start when first learning the terminology, asterisk, etc. There is also a list of references at: http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support There is also books available (and some soon to be published) to help understand this stuff. > Also, is it generally accecpted that the Polycom phones are a good > choice? Yes, very good business quality phone. > Why might I choose something else? If you're a home user, cost might be an issue. The softphone located at wwww.xten.com is free, Grandstream phones are roughly $75 but don't have the same features or quality of a Cisco or Polycom phone. If callerid name and number is important to you, the cheap Grandstream wouldn't cut it as it doesn't display alpha characters. Etc, etc. > Can the Polycom phones be setup to work against a propritary phone > system like the Nortel or Avaya? In some cases, yes. But, the majority of commercial systems have something that is "always" proprietary to their system. Most have announced some form of sip support, but the functionality will generally be limited to basic telephony (eg, placing and taking calls). Features like Message Waiting Indicator may or may not work with a sip phone, transfer key may not work, sip phone display of callerid may not work, etc. Each of the major vendors will have some "value-add" functions or features that requires the use of their phones. If you want those features, then you're forced to buy their phones. I don't know of any list or web site that addresses which sip phones might work with different commercial systems. (Same in reverse; most commercial voip system phones won't work with asterisk because of their proprietary stuff.) _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
