Hi All,
I’m trying to deploy the current AsteriskNow into my org.
I’ve provisioned Polycom SoundIP 430 phones, but I missing something in trying to connect them to my AsteriskNow system.
I see references to sip.cfg, etc, but haven’t a clue where to find this stuff.
What books or on-line resources are avaiable to this experiences Windows Server dude, who is trying to find the true faith in open-source. 
Ideally I’d like something what will show me what files I need to configure.
I’d also like to segregate AsteriskNow on it’s own physical network, and activate dhcpd on the AsteriskNow box. Is this even possible?
I just need a point in the right direction.
Thanks,
Paul
In AsteriskNOW you probably want to use the GUI to configure the extensions. Many of the things they are telling you to add to sip.conf can be set in the GUI when you create an extension (the only specific I can think of for the IP430 is that you need is to force the dtmf mode).
You should be able to setup up the asterisk now box as a DHCP server but not sure how. The process name is dhchd and it probably installs with conary install dhcpd or something similar.
I know I’m missing something fundamental and probably obvious here.
I have set up extensions with the GUI.
What I seem to be missing is how to tie that extensions with a physical phone.
Do I need to put the MAC address of the phone in one of the extension/user fields?
I’ve downloaded O’Reilly’s book on Asterisk, and am looking through that, while sitting at the airport.
Any help in what info. goes in what fields is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul
The phone has its own configuration. You tell the phone to register to a specific extension. Each type of phone is configured differently so look in the wiki for some hints or let us know what type of phone you have and we can help you out.
Do you have the firmware? Ask your seller if you don’t have, there will have a set of sample configuration files.
There are two ways to configure the Polycom phones.
Either you set up an FTP server on the Asterisk box and use centralised provisioning (where basically each phone initially reads a [macaddress].cfg file to get its configuration),
or configure each phone individually via either it’s menus or via web browser.
Each phone needs the basic IP stuff like server and gateway, plus it’s ‘name’ which is usually it’s extension number, plus a password.
It then registers with the Asterisk box via SIP, using the name & password (which is the ‘secret’ field in the extension setup).
The central server method is more complex to set up initially, but in the long run it’s far simpler to administer and update if you have a lot of phones.
The polycom guide on voip-info is the best starting point:
voip-info.org/wiki/view/Aste … lBootServe
If you go for this setup, there are a couple of tricks to make it far, far easier to customise than shown above, I’ll provide details if you need them.
On a matter of personal preference, I’d use Asterisk with FreePBX for configuration rather than the AsteriskNow interface.
Thanks everyone for the replies!
I think I’ve got enough info. to get started on the handsets.
It is starting to make sense to me. ( Don’t know if that is a scary thing! )
I’ll check out the Polycom link, but if anyone has any short-cuts for these phones, I’d appreciate it.
I did check the BIOS on the phones against the current BIOS from Polycom, and they match, so that’s one less thing I have to do.
I’m Looking forward to becoming a contributor.
Been learning alot about Linux the past few days.
Luckily I had some Solaris training about 10 years ago, so I’m not starting completely from scratch!
Thanks again to everyone.
Paul