[Asterisk-Users] help w/ basics

[Jerry]

On Mar 29, 2005, at 5:34 PM, Rod Bacon wrote:

> Unfortunately, the polycom phone was a bad choice from a beginner's 
> perspective, as it loads it's firmware/config from a boot server every 
> time it's powered up, and won't work without it.
>  
> Get a softphone (firefly, xten) running on a PC first (to ensure that 
> your asterisk is OK).
>  
> Take your Polycom back to the shop, and get a cheap-ass Grandstream 
> Budgetone.
>  

Uhhh - which Polycoms are you talking about? All the ones I have work 
great without a boot server. Just manually enter network info and let 
it boot. then point your web browser at it and set your config info. 
All info is saved in internal memory and upon reboot will behave as 
before.

A boot server is great if you have many telephones to support, but for 
just a few don't worry about one. Except you will need to have either 
an FTP or tftp available to upgrade the firmware or the bootrom code.

Yes a Grandstream is an OK beginners phone. In fact it is the one I 
started expeimenting with. However since I was investigating using for 
enterprise class applications I soon found it was not a good fit.

Enjoy your Polycom!!!