Snom A210 Wifi USB adapter and compatibility with 3CX

[lucasco]

I have a Snom A210 Wifi USB adapter for my Snom D345 and discovered a problem that indicated 3CX do not support Wifi adapters officially. If I plug the adapter into my Snom handset before the handset is added and provisioned with 3CX, I have a network configuration option from the Snom handset’s settings menu. I’m able to join the Wifi with this. But once the phone is part of 3CX, the whole Wifi management option disappears, with network configure taken out of the root menu. Even though I couldn't access the settings anymore, the Wifi carried on working regardless for a while, then started having problems after a few hours. It’s unclear whether this was because of 3CX blocking something, or whether it’s just not very reliable within itself.

I've posed the question to 3CX sales, and they have confirmed that it's not tested and therefore not officially supported, but agreed it would be good to ask on the forum to see if anyone has found a way to enable support for this. I have reasoned it may be possible using a custom phone template, and would welcome anyone else who has dabbled in getting this working

Thanks all!

 

[cobaltit]

So technically WiFi doesn't have to be supported. That's kinda like saying 3CX doesn't support XYZ internet provider or this brand of switch. 3CX doesn't care how packets get from point A to point B, just that they do. We've absolutely provisioned phones before (primarily Yealink) via LAN and then plugged in the WiFi dongle, input the SSID and everything just works for the aforementioned reason. As long as the 3CX configuration doesn't overwrite anything related to the WiFi configuration then what you did is basically the process. I would try accessing the web interface to confirm the wireless settings there. It could simply be that the 3CX template secures the phone so it can't be changed anymore via the phone directly, or at least requires a password. Configurations don't degrade over time so if it started out working and then you started out having issues then it's either the WiFi that's the problem, or the phone is low on resources and the extra work from the WiFi adapter is the problem. The D345 is an older model so the latter wouldn't surprise me.

 

[lucasco]

Hi there.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I agree that the Wifi degradation problems (with it seamingly detaching in some way after a few hours) could simply be something up with the Wifi adapter (it doesn't get great reviews) or my Wifi network. Or perhaps the phone model. So let's put that one totally aside for the moment.

The core issue I'm posting for is because once the phone has been added to the 3CX system and provisioned, ALL settings and controls for the Wifi system then totally disappear. As well as this being absent on the phone's menu itself (the 6 available options at root drop down to 5 after provisioning, totally ditching the ability to alter the wifi) if I look into the web server side of the phone there are no options for Wifi there either. It would seem 3CX is hiding these in both places.

Having already played around with custom templates for phones, and knowing that all Wifi options are there both on phone and web server out of the box, but disappear once provisioned with the default Snom D345 template, it makes sense to me to start trying to create a custom D345 template. My hope was someone on here may have hit this before and have a suggestion on what variables to look for and alter to get 3CX to not negate the Wifi options. I'll get searching in Notepad++ with the default template and see what I can find! (if anyone else has thoughts on what variables might alter this, I welcome them)

On your mention of the D345 being older, do you happen to know if the D785 and D385 are newer models? I have these both on the way for testing so will see if this is better on the general performance issue with Wifi.

Cheers

 

[cobaltit]

The D7xx series is the newest line. For the templates you are better off asking Snom, either directly or on the forums as the templates are created by Snom for 3CX. Other than some formatting and some variables the templates are Snom so their manuals on the configuration would be the best source of info.

 

[lucasco]

That's extremely useful, thank you. I didn't appreciate that Snom were entirely responsible in making the templates for 3CX - adds weight to the curiosity of why they would omit the Wifi controls from the default 3CX template. I've just become a registered partner with them, so I'll open a dialogue with my sales manager later today to try and get to the bottom of it. I'll also see if the same issue occurs with the D785, as I'm starting to wonder if this is just a bad luck glitch in the in the D345's default template. I'll report back here when I have any kind of news.

Cheers for taking the time to reply to me, appreciated