I have a school that just had their 3comm phone system crap out on them. They dont want to buy new phones today, so they are wondering if we can reuse their 3com IP phones on IPO.
has anybody done this and what were the results?

lee

Won't work, let them sell them on E-bay.. They are very rare to find.

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It works! Now if only I could remember what I did...

Dain Bramaged (Avaya Search tool http://tinyurl.com/bas1234 )
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I agree with you on that.  I did find this on a search....


"(TechnicalUser) 16 Mar 12 9:47  
From my own experience, these phones have standard SIP support only when you have it connected to a VCX server. The phones have no way of retaining firmware settings like your typical endpoints, so, once you power the phone off it kind of forgets where it is. After some enterprising tweaking at my company with the B model phones we got them to register, albeit lamely in Asterisk . I say lamely because you couldn't adjust button mapping.

So for the TL;DR answer: no, no such luck in my case (yet)"
   
Its not worth the labor to fight these phones.

Most 3Com phones are H.323 and not SIP so indeed in depends on the hardware, for SIP you might get it to work but just the very basics. Make/Receive calls, and hopefully transfer them and thats about it.

So don't wste you time on this.

___________________________________________
It works! Now if only I could remember what I did...

Dain Bramaged (Avaya Search tool http://tinyurl.com/bas1234 )
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WARNING DO NOT DO THIS FOLLOW THE ABOVE ADVICE.

tried this with the 3com`s set up as SIP firware Extns, as bas states basic is an understatement and then they failed if they recived a mw indication.

Bad horribble please dont do it

APSS (SME)
ACSS (SME)

Good to know. This scenario would probably happen with any other vendor as well i bet.

I would agree not to retro fit other IP phones.  

I see a bunch of 1603s in their future, which includes their own wall mounts.  Very good fit for schools.  

Given the extra expense of the 3rd party license and the cummulative cost of your pain and suffering, the 1603 is the way to go.