I’m wondering if anyone can help me getting the polycoms to work. I have a polycom 500 that I would just like to use them manually (no auto prov via tftp)
Currently, evertime it boots up, it will have th error of "Error loading .cfg!"
Please see screenshot aplusnetwork.net/polycom/7.jpg
I read some threads on the forum and decided to setup a TFTP server. I downloaded the latest bootrom and sip software and put them on the tftp root. I configured the server setting on the polycom to point to my tftp server.
Once reboot, the polycom detected the TFTP server and grab config files. It finally boot up to this screen aplusnetwork.net/polycom/4.jpg
I then went in and configure my sip settings/extensions/ect and reboot.
(I now turn of the tftp server)
During reboot, it’s formating the file system again and I"m back to square one where it does not find the .cfg file error aplusnetwork.net/polycom/2.jpg
If anyone know how to address this issue, please help me.
All I want to do is setup the sip account manually on the polycom.
You need to create a config file with the mac address of the phone. The config file will have all of the data about the stations lines, sip accounts, the Asterisk system, voicemail extension, etc…
You will have to maintain a constant TFTP server for your phone. When you make changes to your phone (for example, you save a speed dial entry) the files on the TFTP server are updated. If you don’t have your TFTP server online, the phone will be back to a basic setup when you reboot.
You said the phone should go back to the basic setup. but when I disabled the TFTP server and reboot, it reformated the file system and are unable to boot (error unable to load .cfg)
It seems to me that the flash does not retain the information?
You will ALWAYS need the TFTP server running when you reboot the phone. The phone does not retain anything more than the bootrom when it shuts down.
However, if you choose to startup the TFTP server only when you boot your phone, you will lose any information you have tried to store. (Such as speed dial lists) The TFTP server must be running at all times to update the files stored there when you save anything on the phone.
Because of the low memory of the 500, in order to add features to the phone they had to devote pretty much all of it’s memory to running the SIP application. There was no room left for storage of configuration files, the firmware, and still have memory available to run the application.
To get around the memory limitation, they simply opted to have the phone download it’s configuration and firmware from an external storage area, (TFTP server) instead of loading from internal memory storage.
Don’t try to downgrade the phone to the older firmware. You’ll turn your phone into an expensive paperweight.
go to the polycom site and you can download the official SIP releases (they are not the most current but they are one release old). If you want the most current version you need to contact your reseller.
In that download is the firmware and all the config files you need. All you need to do is change a few settings to make it work in your environment (i.e server name etc).
