Hi Gang,

            I'm starting to poke around in the IP phone world and have purchased a Cisco 7940 SIP phone. My question is this, do I have to have a local PBX or can I contact the ops of an existing PBX I see on my MESH status page (via tunnels) and use theirs with their permission? Any info would be appreciated..

           Thanks!

            Gene N9MXQ

Yes! Take a look at the 5th bulletpoint from the bottom here and the videos that accompany it here and here.

Getting frustrated. Followed the videos.. Phone won't load. I get the Configuring VLAN, Configuring IP, it flashes a TFTP line, says downgrading application, then says Verifying load, Copying to Bank 1, then starts over. I'm stuck in a loop...

The Cisco 7940 is one of the phones we developed a process for. Paul, KF5JIM did the legwork and put together a package of files in the zip mentioned in http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/documentation/182-cisco-7940-with-asterisk-raspberry-pi   That package of files contains all of the upgraded boot loaders, firmware and applications you will need to upgrade a old 7940.

Several things appear by way of experience. First, the WRT54x series is sometimes slow to grant a DHCP and to accept a connect request. This can happen when the phone expires it's listen delay before the IP address is granted. You can get past this by using your wired home network (and a faster/later model router) to react a bit quicker.

As a general rule of thumb, you should always upgrade/configure IP phones on a wired only network. The large number of reboots needed and the short time windows for some activities to occur has less issues in a really snappy wired network. Once the phone gets upgraded (a one time forever process) you can use the phone on nearly all SIP networks.

Last, the boot loader, base firmware and application itself all must be compatible. The zip file mentioned above should be unpacked at the root level of the TFTP folder you create. Setting the Asterisk address for the 7940 to the computer IP offering the TFTP files should do it. I have seen these phones boot, change something, reboot, change something else.... as many as 7 times. If something locks up, power down the phone for 10 seconds and then boot it again. The process will continue starting from the last successful step. The nice part about Paul's file set is that it does all the thinking for you. Just point the phone at the TFTP server and boot it.

You should also make sure that your TFTP host has the correct IP listed after you attach it to your wired network. That is likely a different number than the configured Asterisk setup you are using. It is also necessary to withhold the final MAC specific config file until all of the upgrades are complete. Normally, the application will start and the phone will look ready to use after all of the upgrades are done. At this point, move the phone back to you mesh network and place the MAC specific config file in the TFTP folder, pointing that phone to your Asterisk server. Remember to reset the internal server address in the 7940 after you move it and the TFTP server back to your mesh network.

The cool thing about IP phones is that you can mod the config file and telnet into the phone to request a reboot. It gets/loads/changes features based on whatever your new config file said.

Keep the faith. Remember that both the WRT54x series and the Cisco 7940 are pretty long in the tooth. Newer IP phones are better in many regards but the price is right and these phones really work after you get the settings done.

Note to all:  If you are the "IP Phone Guy" for your area, consider doing all of the boot/firmware/app upgrades mentioned above BEFORE you give users the phone to put into service. It is much easier for one person to become very familiar and process an number of them that it is for someone to learn TFTP, IP updating of phones and develop all of the needed changes in the MAC config file.

Without ":" and all uppercase. So it would become something like SIP00112233FFDDEE.cnf. That's for Cisco Phones. Polycom is the same way but all lowercase for the macaddress. If this still fails, let me know and we'll try some other things out.

I do understand how frustrating it can be. I'm looking into possible solutions for you. From doing a quick google search for "cisco 7940 copying to bank 1", it seems like there are others with the same problem. Maybe one of their solutions could help us solve the problem. From the looks of it, it seems like the phone isn't taking the load. Files are in /tftpboot/ directory and you did not create that folder (pre-existed), right?