asterisk users - Dec 2004 - Polycom 500, asterisk user opinions?

Hi all, I'm researching IP phones for a new office setup.  We will need 
30 phones.  I have read the wiki and the polycom site for the phones, 
but I still had some questions about real world experience with these 
phones.

-According to the documentation, the 500 series ( and 600, according to 
a polycom rep ) have built in hubs.  Has anybody noticed performance 
issues in this setup, when running a computer off of the built in second 
port?

-The 500 series has an indicator light, which is implied to work as a 
voice mail indicator.  Is this true?  What extra setup is needed?  Or do 
I just need to add `mailbox` to the sip config entry and be done with it?

-Do these phones still have issues where one side hears the conversation 
while the other hears nothing or rining?  Do they still need special sip 
file entries ( 2 per phone )?

I apprecaite any and all note/advise/rants/raves/information that the 
asterisk crowd can volunteer about this phone. 

Thank you.

Sean

The voicemail indicator works well (on the 500) I have mine working. The
only thing is you cant use ###@vmcontext in the sip.conf file. You can
only use ### for the voicemail indicated. I also have it setup to use
CID for all internal calls and this is working well for me so far. I am
not using dual sip entries and have not had any issues with only 1 side
hearing things. One other item of note is that with this phone I can not
use callprogress=yes if I do this I can hear the called party but I can
not speak.

Jared Armstrong

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Kennedy [mailto:skennedy@tpno.org] 
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 10:22 AM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom 500, asterisk user opinions?

Hi all, I'm researching IP phones for a new office setup.  We will need 
30 phones.  I have read the wiki and the polycom site for the phones, 
but I still had some questions about real world experience with these 
phones.

-According to the documentation, the 500 series ( and 600, according to 
a polycom rep ) have built in hubs.  Has anybody noticed performance 
issues in this setup, when running a computer off of the built in second

port?

-The 500 series has an indicator light, which is implied to work as a 
voice mail indicator.  Is this true?  What extra setup is needed?  Or do

I just need to add `mailbox` to the sip config entry and be done with
it?

-Do these phones still have issues where one side hears the conversation

while the other hears nothing or rining?  Do they still need special sip

file entries ( 2 per phone )?

I apprecaite any and all note/advise/rants/raves/information that the 
asterisk crowd can volunteer about this phone. 

Thank you.

Sean

Sean Kennedy wrote:
> Hi all, I'm researching IP phones for a new office setup.  We will need
> 30 phones.  I have read the wiki and the polycom site for the phones, 
> but I still had some questions about real world experience with these 
> phones.
> 
> -According to the documentation, the 500 series ( and 600, according to 
> a polycom rep ) have built in hubs.  Has anybody noticed performance 
> issues in this setup, when running a computer off of the built in second 
> port?
> 
> -The 500 series has an indicator light, which is implied to work as a 
> voice mail indicator.  Is this true?  What extra setup is needed?  Or do 
> I just need to add `mailbox` to the sip config entry and be done with it?
> 
> -Do these phones still have issues where one side hears the conversation 
> while the other hears nothing or rining?  Do they still need special sip 
> file entries ( 2 per phone )?
> 
> I apprecaite any and all note/advise/rants/raves/information that the 
> asterisk crowd can volunteer about this phone.
> Thank you.
> 
> Sean
Sean,

	I have been using IP 600's with great success.  I have never 
experienced any of the one way audio problems.  These phones have a 
built in switch with QoS capabilities (and PoE).  It is fairly easy to 
configure the MWI.  Let me know if you need specific polycom config 
info.  I will be adding it to the Wiki one of these days...

	Essentially, you can just add mailbox=, but for one touch voicemail you 
need to do more.  I just recently got Polycom "Buddies"
to work, and I am experimenting with the call park softkey.

	By the way, if you are getting Polycom 500's, you might as well get 
600's for less money, they have built in PoE and a XHTML browser, plus 
more...  I have managed to find a great reseller that has them for the 
lowest price I have seen.  I will post the location to the biz list so 
not to ruffle any feathers.  If you are not subscribed, I will get it to 
you off-list.

	Let me know if you need any help with them!

--
Kristian Kielhofner

They aren't dumb hubs, they are dot1q capable switches. I do not
understand why people are saying they need special POE cables for the
IP500. Mine came with a cable that injected power into the cable, and
from what I read, its Cisco and 802.3af compatible out of the box. My
IP500s were $174/piece shipped. Maybe you will have better luck than I
with them. I could be wrong on some of this info.

-Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Sean
Kennedy
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 11:43 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Polycom 500, asterisk user opinions?

Hi Kristian,

What extra configuration is needed for the one touch voicemail?  I have 
an extension setup on my dialplan to automatically jump to the calling 
phones' voicemail box and prompt for a password ( exten => 
1000,1,VoiceMailMain(${CHANNEL}:4:3}) ), so I'm thinking all i need that

button to do is call that extension.  Does that sound about right?

The best I've been able to find the for the IP 500 is $190.00, with the 
PoE adapter being an extra $35.00.  Have you found the IP600 for less?  
If so, I'd be more than willing to go that route.  I'm not on the biz 
list...yet.  But if you could send a copy to my personal email, that'd 
be great.

What are the "buddies"?  I saw the xml phone directory, and I was 
planning implementing that.  Is that the same thing? 

It's good to know that the phones have QoS built into them.  From what 
the polycom rep said, they were just dumb hubs, which was a bit odd to 
have in a voip phone I thought.

Thank you for your help and information.  It's greatly appreciated!

Sean
Kristian Kielhofner wrote:
> Sean,
>
>     I have been using IP 600's with great success.  I have never 
> experienced any of the one way audio problems.  These phones have a 
> built in switch with QoS capabilities (and PoE).  It is fairly easy to
> configure the MWI.  Let me know if you need specific polycom config 
> info.  I will be adding it to the Wiki one of these days...
>
>     Essentially, you can just add mailbox=, but for one touch 
> voicemail you need to do more.  I just recently got Polycom
"Buddies"
> to work, and I am experimenting with the call park softkey.
>
>     By the way, if you are getting Polycom 500's, you might as well 
> get 600's for less money, they have built in PoE and a XHTML browser, 
> plus more...  I have managed to find a great reseller that has them 
> for the lowest price I have seen.  I will post the location to the biz
> list so not to ruffle any feathers.  If you are not subscribed, I will
> get it to you off-list.
>
>     Let me know if you need any help with them!
>
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> Tim Jackson wrote:
>> They aren't dumb hubs, they are dot1q capable switches. I do not
>> understand why people are saying they need special POE cables for the
>> IP500. Mine came with a cable that injected power into the cable, and
>> from what I read, its Cisco and 802.3af compatible out of the box. My
>> IP500s were $174/piece shipped. Maybe you will have better luck than I
>> with them. I could be wrong on some of this info.
>
> The IP500 will not draw power from either an 802.3af or a Cisco powered
> Ethernet link without a special adapter cable from Polycom. Same goes
> for the IP300. Rumor has it that current phones are starting to ship
> with the 802.3af adapter cable included.
This is correct - the IP 600 has a built-in PoE chip to do 802.3af with 
any vanilla ethernet cable.  The IP 300 and 500 models do not have this 
chip, so they require special cables (the chip is built into the 
cable).  I just got a shipment of 19 (18 IP500's and 1 IP300) of them 
drop-shipped directly from Polycom, and they did not come with 802.3af 
cables.  They only came with a special ethernet injector cable for 
using an AC adaptor wall plug.

On Fri, 2004-12-03 at 02:21, Sean Kennedy wrote:
> Hi all, I'm researching IP phones for a new office setup.  We will need
> 30 phones.  I have read the wiki and the polycom site for the phones, 
> but I still had some questions about real world experience with these 
> phones.
> 
> -According to the documentation, the 500 series ( and 600, according to 
> a polycom rep ) have built in hubs.  Has anybody noticed performance 
> issues in this setup, when running a computer off of the built in second 
> port?
As discussed, these are 100MB 2 port switches, my desktop runs through
it, and I've not noticed anything specific, but I *DO* notice when my
traffic crosses the damn 10MB ethernet ports in my cisco router... damn!
> -The 500 series has an indicator light, which is implied to work as a 
> voice mail indicator.  Is this true?  What extra setup is needed?  Or do 
> I just need to add `mailbox` to the sip config entry and be done with it?
Yep, in fact, this light is on the 300 and 600 as well. It works fine
for me....
> -Do these phones still have issues where one side hears the conversation 
> while the other hears nothing or ringing?
I've never seen this issue... Although I've only ever used the 1.3.x
software since I've only been using them for about 3 months...
>   Do they still need special sip 
> file entries ( 2 per phone )?
I configure one sip entry per line...
> I apprecaite any and all note/advise/rants/raves/information that the 
> asterisk crowd can volunteer about this phone. 
I would say that the polycom + asterisk is an ideal solution for any
business PBX. They are reliable, sturdy, and have plenty of features.
The sound quality works well, and they are also very configurable. I've
not yet worked out all the config options....

While some people would suggest that they are pricey, I would strongly
suggest that you "get what you pay for" in these phones. Though
I've
only used the grandstream phones and the polycom phones, I would very
highly suggest the polycom phones as preferable. If you *really* want
low budget, and are willing to not have a 'business class' phone, then
go the grandstreams. 

I have noticed some echo when using the handset/headset, but I will take
another look at the config files today. I noticed that 'ec' which I
assume is "echo cancellation" is disabled by default on both the
handset
and the headset. I also noticed the nearby text which said "Don't touch
these settings". So, I'm not sure exactly what they all do, nor what
will happen when I play with them, but.... perhaps it will improve
things a bit...

Just my 0.03c worth... (inflation)

Regards,
Adam

Richard Scobie wrote:
> Rich Adamson wrote:
>
>> The tdm card does have some unusual issues that appear to be driver
>> oriented, but there are lots of folks using the card in production.
>
>
> Usually in situations where the client knows how to and tolerates 
> having to reload drivers and/or reboot his PBX periodically...
Even if the client knows that, even if he/she would build a cron with 
asterisk -rx stop; rmmod wctdm etc.. Imagine if that would be happening 
in the middle of the day.. breaking all phone conversations...