[Asterisk-Users] Cisco 7960 SIP images

[Glenn Powers]

Sorry for the late followup, but I want to share my lovely Cisco experience.

First, after placing orders for the $8 contracts with both CDW and INSIGHT
and having both orders cancelled a week later (for some "supplier
problem"), I went with the $74 contract from INSIGHT (CDW wanted $84,
IIRC). I actually got that contract.

Then, I tried to "register" the phone, only to find that the
factory-applied serial number wasn't even in Cisco's database. (Another
phone's serial number from the same purchase worked fine.) I actually had
a Cisco customer support person tell me "once you give us a valid serial
number for the phone, we can open a case for the invalid serial number on
the phone." I was speechless.

I never had an issue with who owned the phone. I told Cisco it belonged to
a client (true) and I didn't know who purchased it. They seemed fine with
that.

Upgrading old (Circa 2000) Cisco 7960 phones is a joy in itself. They
don't actually follow any documented self-update procedure AND the
procedure they do follow changes significantly by current firmware
version. Plus, you can't upgrade directly from an old (<v6) firmware
version to a new version.

tcpdump is your friend. Watch closely for the first file the phone wants.
Edit that file. Keep in mind the phone may choose to ignore that file and
look in SIPDefault.cnf or MCGDeulft.cnf instead.

Having said all that, I firmly believe that the Cisco 7960s are BY FAR the
BEST IP phones available.

It's a real credit to Cisco's engineers, product designers, etc. that a
product's setup/upgrade can be so completely horrific and people will
still demand their product.

cheers,
glenn



On Mon, March 28, 2005 12:54 pm, Rich Adamson said:

> As a side note to the above (in the US), the contract reseller is suppose
>  to obtain the phone's serial number. If that serial number is not
> registered to the individual requesting the contract, the contract
> supposedly will not be issued. That process is apparently used to identify
> when used phones are sold via eBay (etc), and essentially says one does
> not have a valid software license therefore it cannot be placed on
> maintenance. (A software license cannot be transferred with the sale of a
> used phone or any of cisco's equipment.) That same process is used for all
> Cisco equipment,
> however some used equipment resellers have been able to find ways around it
> (one way or another).
>
>
> Once a maintenance contract number has been issued (regardless of whether
>  its on a piece of paper or email), that contract number has to be
> entered into a cisco system that tracks the number against a customer
> account. If you don't have a customer account, that process can't be
> completed either. Some resellers will create your account for you and
> others won't.
>
> Once the account has been created and the contract recorded, then the
> customer is granted access to the download sections of their site via their
> login/authentication process.
>
> So the bottom line is the process requires a fair amount of manual labor
> and for $8 (in the US), few resellers have any interest in the sales
> commission resulting from an $8 sale. (Guess that says if you're buying
> 500 contracts, one might receive a different level of reseller interest.)
>
>
> Regardless of whether we like it or not, cisco wrote the license terms
> and asterisk users are not going to change their "machine". It's obviously
>  written to discourage reselling used equipment without paying a
> re-certification fee, and that re-certification re-license process can get
> to be far more costly then simply purchasing their new equipment. Surprise
> surprise!
>
> I don't work for cisco or any of their resellers.
>