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I have found some goodies online for those with the 79XX models, take a peek at the bottom of this post for ringtones, firmware and additional resources.

The guys at Cisco are good for one thing: making administration a nightmare.  A friend left me his Cisco 7940 last year and I was finally able to track down a cheap power adapter for it ($17 CDN w/shipping from Hong Kong).  So I get super excited to play with my now usable toy and it turns out the SIP IOS for this device does not include a web interface!

I have a some experience with TFTP from my Grandstream GXP2000 and Trixbox makes it easy with its endpoint manager however I like Elastix better for faxing so I decided to configure TFTP on my NAS box.  I tried a few different TFTP daemons including tftpd-hpa and tftpd via xinetd though the easiest to use was atftpd.  The reason for this is (in Debian) you can just run dpkg-reconfigure atftpd and it gives you a nice “wizard” to configure the daemon, so no file editing.

Once I hunted down the latest IOS (no thanks to Cisco) I got the phone booted up with P0S3-08-8-00 and I was happy.  Next was configuring an extension, this part sucked ass.  I am not going to explain how to do it, if you can’t figure it out yourself just use the Trixbox Endpoint Manager, though I will give you a hint : disable nat for the extension in your extensions.conf.

On to the review

The phone is huge, nice big screen and the tilt is awesome.  The handset feels solid and rests on the shoulder quite nicely, by far my favourite handset.  Audio quality is no better than my Grandstream however surpasses my SPA2102 hands down.  The buttons are quite satisfying to the touch though the navigation button (up / down) feels cheap (it is a rocker type).  I absolutely love the Message / Ringing lamp built right into the handset and the extension selection is simple to use.

Geekery - Customization

Though the provisioning is stupid to set up, once it is done configuration is a breeze.  This phone supports XML menus using the little globe button, these services are super awesome to play with.  With a bit of PHP / XML knowledge it is easy to write a simple RSS feed reader (useless but fun) as well as email reader (using php-imap) and phone directory services.

There are a ton of good ringtones for this thing, I am currently using the infamous “24″ ringtone (the one mocked in South Park) and I smile every time I get a call.  The background is also customizable, I cureently am using the one below and I love it (supports BMP).

Overall I give this phone an 8 / 10, only because for the price I would expect either an LCD screen or at least better font selection.  If you are looking for a good enterprise ready IP Phone the Cisco 7940 is a great choice.

Here are your promised Links (I may mirror these, this stuff is precious)

Wicked firmware mirror - no stupid Cisco registration or $$$

Where I found my 24 ringtone (other great ringtones too!)

Product Reviews Cisco, Firmware, IOS, IP Phones, Product Reviews, Ringtones, SIP

Last night while reading through some interesting articles at nerdvittles.com I stumbled upon a wicked little Asterisk PHPAGI script for web initialized inbound calling with Callback and DISA.

I added a form to the code because it was basic and only accepted phone numbers from the GET  string however it pretty much works perfectly out of the box.  What it does is allow you to enter a phone number in a input box and passes it to a custom extension that calls the number with a dial tone.

With any free incoming cell phone plan, you can imagine how much money you can save - especially with long distance!

Link to original code. 

Very cool!

Hacks, How-To Asterisk, SIP, VoIP

Impulse buying is a bad thing, but I had no choice because no one has yet written an in depth review on this device and I really REALLY wanted it. I bought it from voipsupply because I have done a lot of business with them in the past and they always make me a happy camper.

The Phone

$164.99

Remember, this is only my opinion…

So we will start with the Cons

• Horrible wireless range, 60 feet indoor max!
• Outdoor quality suffers greatly, I have yet to be able to terminate a clear enough connection outdoors to even check my voicemails.
• Battery life is puss, 4 hours maximum talk time, 60 hour standby (without roaming)
• Wireless roaming takes FOREVER and usually fails to connect to AP… in TORONTO!
• GUI looks like the first full colour Nokia back in 1988…
• Intermittent restart, maybe new firmware fix soon?
• No Radius (web authentication) support == no Cogeco WIFI, this is a bad thing!

Enough negative stuff, here are the Pros

• When you actually can connect to a solid AP, voice quality is PERFECT.
• Integrates beautifully with any asterisk powered appliance / server.
• Great call features support including three transfer modes and voicemail notification.
• Great PDF documentation and very easy to configure.
• Web interface for simplified configuration and TFTP provisioning!
• Decent Email and Asterisk command texting, emails are somewhat difficult to read on that little screen.
• Save $$$ monthly on telecommunications.

The Verdict

Great for any geek who is generally stationary for several hours at a time and doesn’t mind configuring a new AP everywhere he / she goes. Also OK in big cities where AP’s and Starbucks are a plenty. Also fun to show off to your friends when you call a California number from New York on your “cell phone”.

This device is not for the non-tech-savvy, it’s just not yet polished enough. Grandma wouldn’t know whether to bury it in the garden or feed it to the squirrels. But that doesn’t mean people can’t learn to use it, simply put : most people are just too lazy to learn something new.

Product Reviews SIP, VoIP, Wireless