technobabblera successful Polycom IP 501 deployment model
Those who have embraced asterisk or other VoIP systems have a large choice of phones to deploy on the desks throughout their organization. I’ve personally ordered quite a few phones, and I’ve seen some that are very very bad from a user’s perspective. One particular model was horrible, to the extent of needing to be reset regularly. But one of the models I tested was actually recommended by a user on the asterisk IRC channel… the Polycom IP 501. It’s a multi-line SIP phone with all of the features you would expect to find in a solid desktop phone meant for business. They have a large screen, a very good full-duplex speakerphone, and a built-in switch… so you don’t have to run extra cabling.
One place they do fall short, however, is in the configuration. Many people actually shun Polycom because they refuse to provide reliable support unless you are an actual dealer. The configuration files aren’t well documented, and the firmware is fairly hard to find. That, my friend, is the reason I’m writing this post. I’m going to detail everything you need in order to get a quick deployment model setup in your company. By the end of this, you should be able to add a new phone to your network within about 15 minutes.
By the way, some of those who read this may question why I’m not even glancing in the direction of configuring the phones via the built-in webserver. I’ve taken this route for a few reasons… 1) the built-in webserver is hideously slow, 2) when you change the configuration enough, you have to wait for the phone to reboot (which takes a short eternity) before you can continue configuration, 3) it doesn’t make sense to do all of your configuration manually on every phone, especially if you have more than 2-3 users.
So now that we’ve made our decision, let’s start with the firmware. You can find the latest firmware and bootrom files right here. I suggest you get:
- SoundPointIP_BootROM_2_6_2.zip
- SoundPoint_IP_SIP_1_6_2.zip
Just unzip those files onto your local drive, and try to keep from editing anything in that directory… just so you have clean files to reference.
Now is the time to install an FTP server. Unfortunately, as much as I hate these words, the details are beyond the scope of this article. The main point is that you’ll need a working FTP server that is accessible from your local network. Whether you decide to install it on a local Linux server following my instructions here, or you just install Filezilla Server on a Windows machine, you should be fine. On your FTP server, create a new user by the name of ‘PlcmSpIp’, case IS sensitive. One suggestion, when setting your password you should remember that you’ll be entering the password several times on a telephone keypad, so sticking to a fairly short numeric password might be a good idea. ;)
At this point, revisit the directory of files you unzipped. You’re going to need to copy the following files to your FTP user’s home directory:
- bootrom.ld
- bootrom.ver
- sip.cfg
- sip.ld
- sip.ver
- SoundPointIPWelcome.wav
- The entire SoundPointIPLocalization directory
Also, you’ll need to create a directory called ‘logs’ in the user’s home directory. We’ll configure the phones to upload their log files to this location so that things are fairly tidy.
February 4th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Thanks alot for the info. I have a 60 handset install coming up and was dreading creating the config files! I’m not a programming at heart but within a couple of hours had python and MySQL going. The only thing you might add that I got stuck on was you have to remove the line numbers in your code for Python to digest it. unless there is some setting somewhere I missed.
thanks again!!
Andrew
February 4th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
That’s great to hear! Thanks for letting me know!
Someday I’m going to build a python-based server that’ll make the whole process even easier. When I do, I’ll post it here.
And thanks for the mention of the line numbers… I’ll make a note about it in the article.
March 20th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Thanks for the tutorial. It makes sense but I am not clear on a couple of things.
Are you running the Python script on a Windows box? If so, what package do you recommend?
I guess the database is created on a Linux box?
Couldn’t this whole thing be done on the Linux box with no Windows included?
Thanks,
Steve Totaro
http://www.asteriskhelpdesk.com
KB3OPB
March 20th, 2007 at 8:13 am
@Steve
Absolutely, you don’t need to run the script on Windows at all. In fact, the only reason it was done that way before was to make it easy for other people to make the changes without me.
In fact, this was all meant to be a sort of framework, just to show a possible way of doing it and letting others build on it.
The python-based server I mentioned in the comment above would actually be entirely on the Linux server, with no real user interaction. If you’re really (really!) interested, and you convince me of that, I’ll see if I can write that software in the next week or so. Otherwise, I might take another few months. ;)
December 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
i opened the file “000000000000.cfg” from the folder “SoundPoint_IP_SIP_1_6_2.zip”
but it does not have the {Attributes} in them.
i am trying to create a configuration file for Polycom IP 501
the python script replaces all those variables that are not in the cnf file.
is there another file i need to be looking at?
Thanks
December 20th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Jack,
Those were inserted by me… Just replace those attributes that you want to replace with the {} markers, and then modify the script accordingly. Everyone’s template could be different. :)
December 20th, 2007 at 11:36 am
that is not getting displayed here for some reason. let me remove the comments in that
Default Master SIP Configuration File
Edit and rename this file to .cfg for each phone.
$Revision: 1.13 $ $Date: 2004/11/26 23:30:44 $
APPLICATION APP_FILE_PATH=”sip.ld” CONFIG_FILES=”phone1.cfg, sip.cfg” MISC_FILES=”" LOG_FILE_DIRECTORY=”"/
December 20th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Jack, that’s correct… you need to add those bracketed areas as you see fit. In my case, in the file you mentioned, I decided to replace the filenames with {} place holders.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Hi, i,m testing a polycom 501, but in the booting, the system hangs about 5 min in to load, is that normal in polycom phones? or i´m doing some wrong?, before that the sistem is perfectly, i can make and recive calls, but for my costumers is a problem to wait, about 5 minutes for to wait until the phone is ready. some advices?
March 20th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Eric:
The polycom phones can take up to 5 minutes to program their initial software (most ship with older software, as they were sitting in vendor warehouses and such.)
While its programming, it will take awhile. After that program load, any future reboots are a two minute or so process.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
This web site does a good job showing the web side of configuration for the Polycom voip phones. –>
http://sipx-wiki.calivia.com/index.php/Troubleshooting_Polycom_SoundPoint_Phone
I have used to for an IP430.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:08 am
gsrmc
July 15th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
How does one go about editing the 00000000000.cfg files? I cannot find a program…or just change it to .txt then change back after edit?