Cisco SPA Phones and Asterisk
From Asterisk Australia
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Cisco SPA Phones and Asterisk
The Cisco SPA series of phones have been available uner the Linksys banner for some time. They are robust and easy to deploy.
The SPA 942, 922, 962 are all currently supported by new firmware that can support additional Asterisk functions and even have an Asterisk mode of operation. The SPA921 and 941 have not had firmware developed for some time and cannot support a lot of these functions.
Mass Deployment
All SPA phones can be deployed using TFTP.
- Setup your TFTP server, Trixbox already has one built in.
- Create the config files. Place them in the directory /tftpboot
- spa942.cfg this is the first file the phone will load from the tftp server.
- spa_general.cfg the file with the general configuration for all spa files.
- spa-macaddress.xml the file with the phone specific information.
- Configure your DHCP server with option 066 to the IP address of your TFTP Server.
- Plug in your phone and watch it automatically configure.
If you cannot set the option 066 in the DHCP server scope (some entry level routers don't allow)
Log into the web interface of the phone, Click admin -> Advanced.
On the Provisioning tab.
- tftp://ip.address.server/spa_general.cfg in the Profile_Rule
- tftp://ip.address.server/SPA$PSN-$MA.xml in the Profile_Rule_B
Reboot your phone and it should start to get updates from the TFTP server.
Headsets
The SPA series (except the SPA941) accept a 2.5mm headset making headsets a cheap option. The SPA525G has built in Bluetooth.
Dial Plans
We get a lot of questions about configuring Dial Plans for Cisco Phones. The dial plan in Cisco phones can be used to manipulate numbers, eg add prefixes, remove prefixes, rewrite area codes. It is recommended that you use your Asterisk server for this function and the Outgoing Routes. The Dial plan on your phone can be used to match numbers, so you don't have to wait. Eg, 04xxxxxxxx the phone instantly knows is a mobile and will send the number without hesitation.
(xx.) Will work, but will have a delay before the number is dialed, unless you hit dial.
(000|0[236789][89]xxxxxxx|04xxxxxxxx|[98]xxxxxxx|xx.) Is Better.
SPA9XX Busy Lamp Field (Asterisk BLF)
Log into the web interface of the phone, Click Admin -> Advanced -> Click on the Phone tab, change which key you want to be a BLF key and enter Line 4 and extension 2000 used in the example.
- Change from line to shared.
- fnc=blf+sd+cp;sub=2000@$PROXY;ext=2000@$PROXY
- This is done in your tftp file by
<Share_Call_Appearance_4_ group="Phone/Line_Key_4">shared</Share_Call_Appearance_4_> <Extended_Function_4_ group="Phone/Line_Key_4">fnc=blf+sd+cp;sub=2000@$PROXY;ext=2000@$PROXY</Extended_Function_4_>