SPA504G Firmware Version

[joebocop]

Hi again,

I am attempting to automatically provision a Cisco SPA504G IP phone using this guide:
http://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/cisco-spa/

For some reason my phone is not taking the configuration. I'm wondering if my firmware version is perhaps incompatible. I have v 7.5.5. The guide states:

"We have tested this guide with the latest firmware versions supported by 3CX Phone System 11 & 12"

Is there somewhere where there is a list of the latest firmware versions supported by 3CX Phone System 12?

Thank again for the help.

 

[lneblett]

I am not aware of a single listing of the latest firmware supported versions. 7.5.5 is the latest Cisco release; hence why you are unlikely to be able to download anything later......there is nothing later.

It would certainly be nice to have such a listing, but I doubt that 3CX could keep pace given the number of handsets and the variability and frequency that manufacturers release new models as well as revised firmware versions.

If I run across an issue, I will look at the release notes and see if perhaps the new firmware addresses the issue. If it does, then I download and run some basic testing to ensure that the functionality enjoyed previously is not compromised or if so, how and whether it is a show stopper. Obviously, I am not into full scale regression testing of all possible features that might be employed by 3CX, but more so only the ones that the customer of interest is using at the time.

I may then download into a couple of customer phones and see how it goes for a week or so and if all is well, I may then update the site such that all are running the same.

There is always the risk that I may miss something, but I try and minimize it with my own testing and given the SIP and other standards that allow me to use other non-supported, not recommended and noy even mentioned phones, I don't worry about it too much.

 

[sigma1]

Are you using option 66?

In any event, in VERSION 12 the provisioning path is NOT what is listed on the page you mentioned. You need to open the 3CX management interface, go to SETTINGS---> Phone provisioning
Look at the LINK for INTERNAL PROVISIONING... It will look line http://YOUR LAN IP:5000/provisioning/randomstring

You will either put in option 66 the above followed by: $MA.xml as in http://yourlanip:5000/provisioning/randomstring/$MA.xml
Or in the phone web interface the above followed by the same

 

[lneblett]

Charles:

What is wrong with what is shown in the guide:
http://10.0.0.11:5000/provisioning/$MA.xml (for V11)
http://10.0.0.11:5000/provisioning/%%ProvSubDir%%/$MA.xml (for V12)

The guide indicates that the 10.0.0.11 is the local IP of the 3CX instance and the SPA does support more than one rule for provisioning. You could insert both rules and If V12, the phone will not find the expected file in the first slot, but will in the second. The (for V1X) above is my insertion for clarity).

Just curious. Maybe I missed something.

 

[sigma1]

Good one!

Try and put
http://10.0.0.11:5000/provisioning/%%ProvSubDir%%/$MA.xm

In option 66 or the phone web interface and tell me how good it works!

That is perfect in a TEMPLATE certainly not 66 or web... They don't know what %%ProvSubDir%% is.... ONLY the 3CX server can fill in that variable.

 

[lneblett]

OK, I get what you mean...now.

I am so used to the variable conventions that I immediately understand that /%%ProvSubDir%%/ is indicative that there is another subdirectory after "provisioning" that you have to go and see what it is and then fill in the variable accordingly as each system will have a different folder name in V12.

So fundamentally, it is merely a matter of making the instructions a little more clear about what the variable represents and where it can be found.

 

[sigma1]

Ineblett, you are 100% correct because you know the meaning of that. Most OPs ask because they do not know that. I agree that adding an explanation would help greatly. Especially when they use Option66 (the best option in my opinion) but this is limited by the DHCP server used. Many use their router and few support Option 66, even fewer support anything more than the IP address as option 66.

I am wondering why he did not use the standard 3CX plug n' play... Plug clean phone on network, click phones. assign and that's it

 

[lneblett]

Don't know why he did not use unless he was already connected.

I took his original message to be a little different. While it indicated Provisioning, I assumed he was really concerned more so with the firmware aspect in that he was trying to upgrade the firmware and inquiring about the latest approved firmware listings and such and couldn't find any; hence my response about already being at the latest.

I did not think to consider the provisioning aspects relative to and its affect on the path to firmware upgrading.

I guess he should be covered now.

 

[sigma1]

Honestly we never encountered much of an issue with FW on the SPA5XX phones other than a while back when it liked to reboot every 24 hours (resolved). All worked very well. As I recall the only other issue was that a FACTORY DEFAULTS also did not restore certain fields... I wonder if it has been resolved.

 

[joebocop]

Thank you both very much for the expertise.

Indeed, my question was with regards to provisioning. I had had no luck in getting the SPA504G using the guide, but this is my first week evaluating 3CX Phone System for a client and was assuming that the problem was my own, and not the software's.

For starters, yes, I was using the literal “http://MY_3CX_SERVER_ADDY:5000/provisioning/%%ProvSubDir%%/$MA.xml” string, rather than substituting the the random string pointed out to me by Sigma1 in Network --> Settings for the variable denoted by the %%. My mistake; chalk it up to being brand new with 3CX.

Next, I am not having nay luck in getting newly plugged-in phones to "appear" in the "Phones" node in my installation. Mostly. Sometimes they appear. The SPA504G did not (was it supposed to?). Had it appeared, I most definitely would have done the right-click Assign Extension trick. I didn't know the SPA504G was one of the auto-provisionable phones.

I also bought a Yealink T46G which arrived today. I plugged it into the network this afternoon and it has not year "appeared" in the Phones node. A packet capture operation on the 3CX server machine reveals only DHCP inform requests received from the Yealink phone's IP address, but no other type of traffic. This seems odd, does it not? That Phone, all else being equal, should just magically be detected by 3cx, right?

Again, my thanks for your help as I get my expectations in-line with the capabilities of this very intriguing product.

Happy holidays.

 

[lneblett]

Firmware does play a part in the Discovery process. Further, the network configuration may as well if you have, for instance, VLANs in play. You might also check to see if the Windows or other 3rd party firewall on the 3CX machine might be getting in the way and hopefully you ran the firewall checker.

 

[sigma1]

I agree with Ineblett, however I would also like to suggest that you double check that the Windows Firewall is OFF on your 3CX server. If yopu use VLANs, as pointed out, the discovery broadcast will not make it to 3CX. You ceryainly have something odd going on.

 

[joebocop]

Thanks again guys, good to know that the behaviour I had expected was legitimate. I suspect there is an issue with trunking broadcast packets between two of the switches. VLANs are not the issue, and there is no firewall enabled on the 3CX server machine. All phones function properly when provisioned manually, it's just this "plug and play" functionality that I seem to be lacking, which is, as I understand it, related to the server not receiving broadcasts from SIP phones such as the Yealink or Cisco models I have connected.

I will work more on the network config (any known issues with Juniper EX series switches?).

Again, my thanks.

 

[ian.watts]

I'm not certain the SPA5xx sets are "discovered" at all.
We leverage Option 66.. but while a Yealink handset without a provisioning profile "showed up" on Phones, a new Cisco SPA504g did not.

Worse, my client never leveraged 66.. I had to scan his network and find them with the RAdmin tool.. not as much fun to drop in the provisioning URL after the fact that they finally cut over the jacks to PoE...

7.5.2 on the new ones, I don't tend to bother with FW updates all that much.. last one mucked up my config and I had to thusly muck with the provisioning template to demuck the mucking muck.