Hi Everyone, I've been asked to determine which phones our organization should go with. And I've narrowed it down to the Polycom IP500 or the Cisco 7940. From my travels through google, it's hard to find a definitive comparison of the two phones. So I thought I would ask the people that have probably used both. From what I can tell, the only major benefit the Cisco has over the Polycom is * 24 ring tones * XML support * Help Button * Larger Screen (is this true? 2x24 vs the 160x80 on the polycom) Another question that came up while discussing the Cisco phones was if the 24 ring tones are 'assignable' (ie, user calls in with callerid saying 'sales' and it rings a certain way, if they call in with callerid saying 'tech support' it rings something else). I couldn't find any information on this on google, so if anyone has the answer to this that would be great. Other than that, the polycom seems to have all the features we want, and according to the wiki works quite well with asterisk and has many features enabled that seem pretty interesting (MWI, etc). The Cisco's on the other hand seem less straightforward to configure and not as much talk on the wiki, nor support. The price difference is quite significant and we don't want to make the wrong decision here. Could you guys help us out? Thanks, Matt @ Experthost.com
On Sep 9, 2004, at 9:53 AM, Matt G wrote:> > I've been asked to determine which phones our organization should go > with. And I've narrowed it down to the Polycom IP500 or the Cisco > 7940. > > From my travels through google, it's hard to find a definitive > comparison of the two phones. So I thought I would ask the people that > have probably used both. > > From what I can tell, the only major benefit the Cisco has over the > Polycom is > * 24 ring tones > * XML support > * Help Button > * Larger Screen (is this true? 2x24 vs the 160x80 on the polycom)The screen on the Cisco isn't very big, either--192x96 or so, if I remember correctly. I'm running 6.3 on my 7940, and I haven't seen the ability to do anything interesting with ringtones. In theory, you can feed new tones to it, but you can't use them for ALERT_INFO-driven distinctive ringing. The XML support is okay, but rumors suggest that the newest Polycom firmware supports something very close to XHTML, which would be a lot more powerful then Cisco's sparsely-documented XML dialect.> Another question that came up while discussing the Cisco phones was if > the 24 ring tones are 'assignable' (ie, user calls in with callerid > saying 'sales' and it rings a certain way, if they call in with > callerid saying 'tech support' it rings something else). I couldn't > find any information on this on google, so if anyone has the answer to > this that would be great.I don't think it can do that. You can set ALERT_INFO in Asterisk to Bellcore-drX, where X is 1..5, and the phone will ring slightly differently, but that may or may not be good enough for your purposes.> Other than that, the polycom seems to have all the features we want, > and according to the wiki works quite well with asterisk and has many > features enabled that seem pretty interesting (MWI, etc). The Cisco's > on the other hand seem less straightforward to configure and not as > much talk on the wiki, nor support.MWI works just fine on the 7940, so I'm not sure that I'd count that as an advantage for the Polycom. I haven't seen a Polycom in person, but I haven't heard anything bad about them. My 7940 works well, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, but for the money, the Polycom is quite likely a better phone. I didn't find the 7940 to be particularly difficult to configure, *EXCEPT* for the initial installation of the SIP firmware. It's a multi-step upgrade, because you can't directly upgrade from the SCCP image that it ships with to a modern SIP image. Once you get past that, it isn't too bad, particularly if you have multiple phones. Scott
In July I bought one from CDW for $280.75. Ty -----Original Message----- From: hank smith [mailto:hank@hanksmith.net] Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 2:04 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940 what is the price range in us dollars? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jody N. Rudolph" <jody@hcis.net> To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion" <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 11:32 AM Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940> The Polycom IP500s do support customized ringtones and can use a > customized > ALERT_INFO for all of them. One thing that is worth noting in this > comparison is that the IP500 doesn't support the XHTML microbrowser that > the > IP600 does. Since they both use the same SIP application I am hoping they > enable this in future but as of now it doesn't work. I actually had 30 of > these before I found this out but would still recommend these over any > phone > in the price range. > > Jody N. Rudolph > Heartland Communications Internet Services, Inc > 1301 Boadway > Paducah, KY 42001 > jody@hcis.net > > > -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of Scott Laird > Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 1:06 PM > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940 > > > On Sep 9, 2004, at 9:53 AM, Matt G wrote: >> >> I've been asked to determine which phones our organization should go >> with. And I've narrowed it down to the Polycom IP500 or the Cisco >> 7940. >> >> From my travels through google, it's hard to find a definitive >> comparison of the two phones. So I thought I would ask the people that >> have probably used both. >> >> From what I can tell, the only major benefit the Cisco has over the >> Polycom is >> * 24 ring tones >> * XML support >> * Help Button >> * Larger Screen (is this true? 2x24 vs the 160x80 on the polycom) > > The screen on the Cisco isn't very big, either--192x96 or so, if I > remember correctly. I'm running 6.3 on my 7940, and I haven't seen the > ability to do anything interesting with ringtones. In theory, you can > feed new tones to it, but you can't use them for ALERT_INFO-driven > distinctive ringing. The XML support is okay, but rumors suggest that > the newest Polycom firmware supports something very close to XHTML, > which would be a lot more powerful then Cisco's sparsely-documented XML > dialect. > >> Another question that came up while discussing the Cisco phones was if >> the 24 ring tones are 'assignable' (ie, user calls in with callerid >> saying 'sales' and it rings a certain way, if they call in with >> callerid saying 'tech support' it rings something else). I couldn't >> find any information on this on google, so if anyone has the answer to >> this that would be great. > > I don't think it can do that. You can set ALERT_INFO in Asterisk to > Bellcore-drX, where X is 1..5, and the phone will ring slightly > differently, but that may or may not be good enough for your purposes. > >> Other than that, the polycom seems to have all the features we want, >> and according to the wiki works quite well with asterisk and has many >> features enabled that seem pretty interesting (MWI, etc). The Cisco's >> on the other hand seem less straightforward to configure and not as >> much talk on the wiki, nor support. > > MWI works just fine on the 7940, so I'm not sure that I'd count that as > an advantage for the Polycom. > > I haven't seen a Polycom in person, but I haven't heard anything bad > about them. My 7940 works well, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend > it, but for the money, the Polycom is quite likely a better phone. I > didn't find the 7940 to be particularly difficult to configure, > *EXCEPT* for the initial installation of the SIP firmware. It's a > multi-step upgrade, because you can't directly upgrade from the SCCP > image that it ships with to a modern SIP image. Once you get past > that, it isn't too bad, particularly if you have multiple phones. > > > Scott > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users---------------------------------------- My Inbox is protected by SPAMfighter 1033 spam mails have been blocked so far. 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A local vendor here carries IP500s for sub $200. Right now they are out of stock, but he has more coming in. If you want his contact info msg me off list. -Tim -----Original Message----- From: Ty Purcell [mailto:tpurcell@statenb.com] Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 2:45 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940 In July I bought one from CDW for $280.75. Ty -----Original Message----- From: hank smith [mailto:hank@hanksmith.net] Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 2:04 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940 what is the price range in us dollars? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jody N. Rudolph" <jody@hcis.net> To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion" <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 11:32 AM Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940> The Polycom IP500s do support customized ringtones and can use a > customized > ALERT_INFO for all of them. One thing that is worth noting in this > comparison is that the IP500 doesn't support the XHTML microbrowserthat> the > IP600 does. Since they both use the same SIP application I am hopingthey> enable this in future but as of now it doesn't work. I actually had 30of> these before I found this out but would still recommend these over any> phone > in the price range. > > Jody N. Rudolph > Heartland Communications Internet Services, Inc > 1301 Boadway > Paducah, KY 42001 > jody@hcis.net > > > -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of ScottLaird> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 1:06 PM > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom IP500 vs Cisco 7940 > > > On Sep 9, 2004, at 9:53 AM, Matt G wrote: >> >> I've been asked to determine which phones our organization should go >> with. And I've narrowed it down to the Polycom IP500 or the Cisco >> 7940. >> >> From my travels through google, it's hard to find a definitive >> comparison of the two phones. So I thought I would ask the peoplethat>> have probably used both. >> >> From what I can tell, the only major benefit the Cisco has over the >> Polycom is >> * 24 ring tones >> * XML support >> * Help Button >> * Larger Screen (is this true? 2x24 vs the 160x80 on the polycom) > > The screen on the Cisco isn't very big, either--192x96 or so, if I > remember correctly. I'm running 6.3 on my 7940, and I haven't seenthe> ability to do anything interesting with ringtones. In theory, you can > feed new tones to it, but you can't use them for ALERT_INFO-driven > distinctive ringing. The XML support is okay, but rumors suggest that > the newest Polycom firmware supports something very close to XHTML, > which would be a lot more powerful then Cisco's sparsely-documentedXML> dialect. > >> Another question that came up while discussing the Cisco phones wasif>> the 24 ring tones are 'assignable' (ie, user calls in with callerid >> saying 'sales' and it rings a certain way, if they call in with >> callerid saying 'tech support' it rings something else). I couldn't >> find any information on this on google, so if anyone has the answerto>> this that would be great. > > I don't think it can do that. You can set ALERT_INFO in Asterisk to > Bellcore-drX, where X is 1..5, and the phone will ring slightly > differently, but that may or may not be good enough for your purposes. > >> Other than that, the polycom seems to have all the features we want, >> and according to the wiki works quite well with asterisk and has many >> features enabled that seem pretty interesting (MWI, etc). The Cisco's >> on the other hand seem less straightforward to configure and not as >> much talk on the wiki, nor support. > > MWI works just fine on the 7940, so I'm not sure that I'd count thatas> an advantage for the Polycom. > > I haven't seen a Polycom in person, but I haven't heard anything bad > about them. My 7940 works well, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend > it, but for the money, the Polycom is quite likely a better phone. I > didn't find the 7940 to be particularly difficult to configure, > *EXCEPT* for the initial installation of the SIP firmware. It's a > multi-step upgrade, because you can't directly upgrade from the SCCP > image that it ships with to a modern SIP image. Once you get past > that, it isn't too bad, particularly if you have multiple phones. > > > Scott > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users---------------------------------------- My Inbox is protected by SPAMfighter 1033 spam mails have been blocked so far. Download free www.spamfighter.com today! _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users