[Asterisk-Users] Getting Polycom IP500 to talk to Asterisk - um... Newbie question :)

[Don Murray]

Hmmm... I have this aweful feeling that I'm choosing the exact wrong 
time to ask a "newbie question" :)  Oh well, here it goes.  

The quick question is : "How do I dial an extension?"  (answer is 
probably - "you don't" in which case:)
"How do I dial my asterisk box?" - I have no outside line, I just want 
to start testing things like voicemail internally.

The details:  I am not connected to the outside world yet, I have a 
couple of phones in-house and I'm trying to set up an Asterisk internal 
office phone network just to get my head wrapped around the system.  I have
- my linux box set up
- the phones ftp'ing their latest firmware and config files
- I can call one phone from the other using the IP address (no asterisk 
required)
- I have installed zaptel, libpri, asterisk, asterisk samples
- I have added my 2 phones to the sip.conf file (see below)
- I see the two phones if I do a "sip show peers" with the correct IP 
addresses
- I've tried to set up the phones as described at 
"http://www.csh.rit.edu/~adamf/IP500.html"

In the QuickStart guide it says that the way to test things are working 
is to call extension 1000 to get an automated message.  Clearly the 
phones can talk to each other, I just want to take the next step to see 
if they can talk to Asterisk.  Yet I can find nothing about extensions 
in any of the Polycom documentation, phone buttons and menus, etc, and I 
am beginning to think that the concept of an "extension" is an analogue  
phone thing and just doesn't make sense for IP phones.

Anyway, I would really appreciate someone stopping on the shoulder, 
here, and helping me drag myself out of the ditch so I can careen down 
the highway, obstructing other people's progress as a newbie should... 
any help would be much appreciated.  I feel like I am suffering from a 
fundamental disconnect.  I can read and somewhat understand the details 
of the documentation regarding  dialplan etc, I just don't know where 
the "on ramp" is, i.e. how to even talk to Asterisk with a phone, with 
my current set up.

The only modifications I did were to added my asterisk server IP into 
the sip.cfg for the Polycom ftp account and to add the below into my 
/etc/asterisk/sip.conf file.  Aside from that I'm working with a 
"straight out of the box" asterisk "make; make install; make samples".

Thanks in advance,
Don

*CLI> sip show peers
Name/username    Host            Dyn Nat ACL Mask             Port     
Status
176polycom       192.168.0.176               255.255.255.255  5060     
Unmonitored
175polycom       192.168.0.175               255.255.255.255  5060     
Unmonitored


Added to sip.conf:

[175polycom]
type=friend
host=192.168.0.175
defaultip=192.168.0.175
dtmfmode=inband
mailbox=175
context=sip
callerid="I am Don"
progressinband=no ;polycom's seem to have trouble with the default 
progressinband=never

[176polycom]
type=friend
host=192.168.0.176
defaultip=192.168.0.176
dtmfmode=inband
mailbox=176
context=sip
callerid="I am a jerk"
progressinband=no ;polycom's seem to have trouble with the default 
progressinband=never