License expired, V16, can I still swap 2 IP phones?

[PBX_Programmer]

One of our customers has an on--premises system which is still running V16 with an expired license. They have asked if they can swap over 2 of their IP phones, so for example currently phone A is associated with user A, and phone B is associated with user B, and they want to swap them over so phone B is associated with user A and phone A is associated with user B.

I seem to recall seeing somewhere that if I factory reset the handsets and try to provision them to their new extensions (which I believe is the procedure for swapping them) then I will not be able to reprovision them because of the expired system license. Is that actually the case or have I somehow dreamed it up? If anybody knows either way, please let me know as I don't want to remove the 2 phones only to find I can't add them again.

We're in the process of getting them to agree to rebuilding the system from scratch on V20, but until that happens we've got to work with what they've got.

By the way, when raising this thread I was forced to select a system from a dropdown list, for some reason the specific system I'm referring to is not on that list (presumably because it's on V16?) so I have had to select another totally unconnected system instead. Please ignore any reference to the random system I have selected from the list, therefore.

Thanks!

 

[VoIPTools]

I know you already understand what I'm about to say, so this is not for you, but for anyone else that reads this post. Your customer is at significant risk. If for any reason they had to reregister their key (moving to another server for example) they would have a bricked PBX. The V16 activation servers were turned off ages ago, so anyone thinking -- "hey these guys are still running on v16, so my v16 server must be OK"... that is completely wrong. You are NOT OK.

Let me offer a suggestion that comes from over 40 years as a IT consultant and business owner. You NEVER want your PBX to dictate when the upgrade is performed, rather, YOU want to plan for an orderly scheduled process.

There are few things worse than coming into the office on a Monday morning only to discover your PBX is dead due to a hardware failure. I do not think there is a functional way to upgrade from v16 at this point, so you are looking at building everything from scratch. I do not know how big a customer this is, but you could be looking at a couple of days.

Sure, you could get some basic trunks up, and simple routing to a few phones quickly, but to truly be up and running as a business --that could take days. How much is that going to cost in lost business? What kind of impression does that leave with your customers? Why are they still on v16. This is irresponsible. I'm not calling you irresponsible, but I am calling the customer irresponsible.

This is not the way to run a business. It is so far past the drop-dead date of moving this customer to v20. It's your job to paint the bleakest possible picture and convince them that they need to migrate today. Not tomorrow.

 

[leejor]

What you might try, while you are convincing them to move quickly onto version 20...try creating a new extension. Does it allow that? If so, then, in theory, I suspect that you could delete and re-create each of the extensions onto a new device.

If possible, try this with something (a set/device) that you don't mind being unusable, until you have version 20 up and running.

 

[paulodagraca]

Hello,

Forget provisioning in this case (just as a on time deal), edit the accounts on the IP phone. Meaning local edit of phone. If you can not go to the office, try using VPN or something like teamviewer to get local to the phones. All the phone web login datails can be found in the 3CX, as well as the SIP account details, you will need to edit/swap.
This will get them running quickly.

PLEASE, do keep in mind what @VoIPTools did mention, update TODAY.

Paulo

 

[AlexanderJHanna]

I know you already understand what I'm about to say, so this is not for you, but for anyone else that reads this post. Your customer is at significant risk. If for any reason they had to reregister their key (moving to another server for example) they would have a bricked PBX. The V16 activation servers were turned off ages ago, so anyone thinking -- "hey these guys are still running on v16, so my v16 server must be OK"... that is completely wrong. You are NOT OK.

Let me offer a suggestion that comes from over 40 years as a IT consultant and business owner. You NEVER want your PBX to dictate when the upgrade is performed, rather, YOU want to plan for an orderly scheduled process.

There are few things worse than coming into the office on a Monday morning only to discover your PBX is dead due to a hardware failure. I do not think there is a functional way to upgrade from v16 at this point, so you are looking at building everything from scratch. I do not know how big a customer this is, but you could be looking at a couple of days.

Sure, you could get some basic trunks up, and simple routing to a few phones quickly, but to truly be up and running as a business --that could take days. How much is that going to cost in lost business? What kind of impression does that leave with your customers? Why are they still on v16. This is irresponsible. I'm not calling you irresponsible, but I am calling the customer irresponsible.

This is not the way to run a business. It is so far past the drop-dead date of moving this customer to v20. It's your job to paint the bleakest possible picture and convince them that they need to migrate today. Not tomorrow.

I fully agree with this! There is no way a customer can persuade me to work on a v16 install - not happening.

 

[PBX_Programmer]

I know you already understand what I'm about to say, so this is not for you, but for anyone else that reads this post. Your customer is at significant risk. If for any reason they had to reregister their key (moving to another server for example) they would have a bricked PBX. The V16 activation servers were turned off ages ago, so anyone thinking -- "hey these guys are still running on v16, so my v16 server must be OK"... that is completely wrong. You are NOT OK.

Let me offer a suggestion that comes from over 40 years as a IT consultant and business owner. You NEVER want your PBX to dictate when the upgrade is performed, rather, YOU want to plan for an orderly scheduled process.

There are few things worse than coming into the office on a Monday morning only to discover your PBX is dead due to a hardware failure. I do not think there is a functional way to upgrade from v16 at this point, so you are looking at building everything from scratch. I do not know how big a customer this is, but you could be looking at a couple of days.

Sure, you could get some basic trunks up, and simple routing to a few phones quickly, but to truly be up and running as a business --that could take days. How much is that going to cost in lost business? What kind of impression does that leave with your customers? Why are they still on v16. This is irresponsible. I'm not calling you irresponsible, but I am calling the customer irresponsible.

This is not the way to run a business. It is so far past the drop-dead date of moving this customer to v20. It's your job to paint the bleakest possible picture and convince them that they need to migrate today. Not tomorrow.

Thanks for your response @VoIPTools , I agree 100% with all of the points you raised.