[Asterisk-Users] Aastra/Sayson 480i eval

[Rich Adamson]

Just a quick FYI for the Aastra/Sayson 480i SIP phone....

Just received one and now have it running with *.

- Basic phone functions work very well, but have not attempted 
  anything greater then basic functions.
- If no power over ethernet, then will need their brick (about the
  size of two packs of cigarettes that is installed inline with the
  cat 5 cable.
- Unit came with SIP v1.0.0.34 Release code 0035-00-00 installed. No
  CDROM shipped with the unit, and a quick look at www.aastra.com
  and www.sayson.com sites didn't appear as though one can download
  firmware upgrades. Not sure where one is supposed to get them.
- Hand coding configuration data from the keypad was a small problem.
  It would not register with asterisk (eg, registration failed). Placing
  the appropriate entries in the aastra.cfg and <mac addr>.cfg files
  on a tftp server worked fine (eg, registration was successfull).
- Our tests initially had the phone set up to use DHCP, however the
  entries for tftp server and domain name were not actually used by
  the phone. (Verified with a sniffer the dhcp response did in fact
  supply the appropriate parameters; phone didn't use them.)
  Configuring the network settings via the keypad (not using dhcp)
  allowed the phone to read the appropriate config files from the
  tftp server.
- There are six on-screen softkeys that are user configurable, including
  using them for speed dialing specific numbers.
- Audio was good, no noticable echo, voicemail soft key worked as
  expected, hold functions (including * MOH), blind and consultive
  transfer function correctly using the Xfer key, the Redial and
  Goodbye keys function correctly. The manual indicates the BLF
  function and the Icom (intercom) key have not yet been implemented 
  in the firmware.
- The phone does not appear to have any support for displaying a
  shared phone directory directly. That's probably something that
  could be implemented using its "Services" key. The use of the 
  Services key is not documented anywhere in the Admin guide, but
  does hint that it uses xml.
- The administrators guide is very basic; only 25 pages. Multiple
  references in the guide to see your "system administrator"; since
  the guide was intended for the administrator, not sure where the
  system administrator is supposed to go to find answers.
- The display appears to be rather low resolution; not a lot different
  then the resolution of the Cisco 7960 display. The display is not
  backlighted.
- The handset and phone 'feels' like a real analog phone. It doesn't 
  slide across your desk like the Snom phones do, etc.
- The speakerphone function worked very well.
- Was equipped with two cat 5 jacks; one for the uplink and a second
  port for a local PC connection.
- It has four "Line" buttons (with an LED for each to indicate which
  of the four lines are ringing/in-use. If a call is in progress on
  Line #1, pressing the button for Line #2 automatically places the
  call on Line #1 on hold.
- No apparent support for distinctive ringing or even setting 
  different ring types.
- The phone has a web interface to allow it to be remotely accessed.
  The interface is very basic and does not include all options that
  are available via tftp'ing config files.
- There is an rj11 headphone jack, however to use it one must navigate
  the screen menu to activate it. (I did not have an rj11 headset to 
  try its use.) There is no front panel button for activating a
  headset.
- No apparent support for NAT or VLANs, or for pushing dynamic data
  to the screen.
- Appears to be running some sort of Linux kernel.

Overall (as a Cisco 7960 SIP user for over a year), the non-technical
usability of the phone is very similar to the Cisco.

Rich