[Asterisk-Users] Which IP phone to use in Australia

[Shaun Ewing]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:23:21 +0800, Stuart Elvish <stuart at rage.com.au> wrote:
> Definitely agree - don't even try using the Grandstream for a
> receptionist (among other things the phone probably won't hold out
> physically for more than a few weeks if it makes it that far).

:-)

> They have recently been ticked as well, plus the firmware has become
> some what stable.... that having been said I am not sure when the last
> update came out and it does have a couple of "quirks". We have the
> system "time out" (or send the dialed digit string) after 4 seconds of
> no dialing which works well - but that depends on the user environment
> and what they expect from the phone system. The other problem is that
> Grandstream don't display any type of alpha caller id - they are purely
> a digit based caller ID presentation (it tries to present an alpha
> sequence but it doesn't work at all).

The lack of alpha caller ID is a downside. We're using the alpha
string for all sorts of things, eg: to display the trunk a call came
in on "Private Line", a queue "QUEUE: Sales", in addition to the name
of the caller where supported.

It's certainly noticeable when absent.

> Don't get me wrong - they are still the bottom of the range / basic
> phone IMHO and Cisco do seem to work a lot better, but are also more
> expensive and my boss won't pay for one.

They are more expensive, which is a downside to the Cisco phones. I
bit the bullet and bought a few varying models, but it was a bit of a
financial hit.

I have the final say on company purchases, so there is no boss to contend with.

> What sort of setup is involved for the Cisco as far as config files
> etc? I am used to plug and play phones (Zyxel, Grandstream, HOP etc)
> which require minimal configuration and have no licensing issues with
> them. I know for the Polycom you need to get a TFTP server for XML
> config files running, and I believe you need something similar for
> Cisco phones.

You'll need a TFTP server to get the SIP firmware on the phone.

For small deployments you can configure the options on the phone
itself, but for anything more than 2 phones, I'd recommend a TFTP
server.

> Stuart

-Shaun