Wireless phones in Stores 3

[ACooperman]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum (as a member that is) I have been using this forum as a full nortel training guide with bells on. Now on to my question.

I am in the head office of a company and we use a CS 1000 with Digital and IP telephones. We have a VPN Connection to all our stores so we can just set up an IP set and then plug it in store side and it works a treat. What we want in stores is a cordless phone, we need something that goes over ethernet and uses an IP licence (an example would be a 2004i with a cordless handset (if there was one)).
We looked at the WLAN Phone solutions but that would require a 2245 which is an expensive bit of kit for 250 stores, even if we centralised it we would still have to have a wireless access point in all stores which we don't really want.
The only light at the end of the tunnel was the Aastra 480i CT which would be perfect if it is compatible with our phone switch, we do not need a feature rich phone it needs to be able to make and receive calls, conference and transfer.

So basically has anyone ever got one working on a CS1000 and secondly is there another solution that I have completely overlooked in my inexperience.

Any help on this subject would be much appreciated.

 

[steve64]

Have you considered using the i2050 soft phone. This will allow you to connect to your network and then connect various types of analog devices such as cordless phones, fax, etc to the PC the soft phone is running on. If you have the available VOIP licenses the should be an inexpensive way to solve your problem. When you got your system you probabbly got a disk with the i2050 software, if not you should be able to get a copy for free or nearly so.

 

[ACooperman]

how would the analogue devices connect to the PC please ?

 

[allenmac]

ACooperman,

Have you considered a SIP or H.323 analog terminal adapter. They do not require a user license, but they do use a trunk license on active calls.

You could then purchase any off the shelf analog cordless phone, install a relatively inexpensive ATA in each store, configure your NRS, and be up and running.

 

[ACooperman]

Right i can administer the phones but when it comes to setting these up i am clueless could someone guide me through it i had a brief look at that solution but my technical knowledge is not extensive enough.

Can i also have some hints on which ones to buy ?

 

[pronei]

Check out the AudioCodes MP112 FXS or the Quintum Tenor boxes. Both offer Analog over IP media Gateways.

These are not easy to configure and will require your CS1000 to have either H323 or SIP trunks licensed and configured.

 

[pronei]

I run an audio codes box to a smaller building on campus here. On that audio codes box I have a fax machine, the alarm system, a cordless phone and a valcom station level paging adapter (wired to a paging amp)connected.

So in essence, over my SIP trunks I am faxing, making calls using a generic cordless, keeping the alarm system running, and paging a building all through that 1 audio codes box.

Very cool setup.

 

[ACooperman]

is there an easy way to find out if i have sip or h323 licensed and configured ? thanks in advance

 

[pronei]

Login to your CS1000

LD 22
SLT

Check for H323 Access Ports and SIP Access Ports.

They are cheap if you don't have them already. Like $100-$130 per port.

 

[pronei]

You probably will want to bring your vendor in on this project.

You will need to have extensive knowledge of how to configure ESN, CDP, NRS, RDB, H323/SIP Trunking, DCH's and H323/SIP Protocols. I wouldn't recommend you attempt this on your own unless you possess that knowledge.

 

[ACooperman]

My work are happy to pay for training if there is a course that would cover the above i know it would not be as valuble as hands on knowledge but it may help, unless it is a case of configuring the switch to take the traffic and then just configuring the phones one by one or will i need to bring the vendor in on the whole project because we are talking 250 stores dotted around the UK. Thanks muchly for your assistance BTW.

 

[NARSBARS]

In order to competently oversee the work and then maintain the infrastructure you would be spending about ten weeks at Global Knowledge courses followed by six months of CBT training.
That would give you a good managerial overview but only hands on hands on will allow you to actually make changes and do configuration.

NARSBARS

 

[ACooperman]

So can i get the vendor in to do the switch configuration and then do the phone configuration myself or is this just unrealistic ?

 

[pronei]

On the CS1000 you will need the following tasks performed once:

1. 250 Stores, so approximately 75 - 125 SIP Access Ports (depending on estimated simultaneous usage)
2. The SIP Route, DChannel and Trunks configured
3. RLI Entry that points to SIP Route

For each Individual location you will have to perform each of the following tasks 250 times:

1. Program CDP entry
2. Program Gateway Endpoint and Routing Entries in NRS
3. Purchase Analog Media Gateway
4. Configure Analog Media Gateway
5. Purchase Cordless phone

The most difficult portion of this install would be the first successful config of an Analog Media Gateway. After you get one of those working, you should be able to mass duplicate the config, changing only the DN numbers accordingly.

 

[ACooperman]

Thats awesome thanks, basically BT are gonna charge us a fortune if they have to configure each one whereas if they can configure the switch and then i can configure each media gateway seperately it would save a huge amount of money, as well as that we open a new store every week for most of this year so having BT out everytime would be a nightmare.

Thanks again.

 

[pronei]

I would have them do 1 of the Media Gateway to make sure it works properly. Then after that, duplicate what they did, but just change the DN's used.

 

[steve64]

with the i2050 the analog device, small external box interfaces through the USB port on the PC. I don't know the cost but it is made by ALGO specifically for the i2050 soft phone. There is no tricky installation. You would implement this solution by installing the i2050 software on a pc and setting up the configuration like any stand alone IP set. connect the ALGO 4900 USB ATA to a USB port on the PC and connect any standard phone to it. This is a far simpular solution than messing with the H.323 or SIP ports. You also won't need the expense of contracting someone to come in and setting it up for you. Don't try and complicate the thing! You can go to

http://www.algosolutions.com/products/usbata/index.html

they have their manual on there and you can download it. I've used the Algo products before and they are reliable. They also have vendor information on their web site. Take a serious look at this solution. It is simple and reliable. You could get 1 or 2 units and test them out. If you don't have the i2050 software I'd be happy to supply you with one.

Simple is better!!!!

 

[ACooperman]

Steve64 That sounds really good but is there a way to make the softphone invisible to the user or a way to stop them from doing almost anything with it ?

 

[steve64]

Any I've done they just minimize it and leave it running. I suppose you could also install it on an old PC and stick it it your wire closet with the routers and switches. I've never had anyone ask that before. The worst they could do would be to shut the program down and if you restrictions permissions set up on your PC I would guess you could even prevent that if it's an admin thing. I'll check with our IT gurus and find out and post it.

 

[ACooperman]

Thanks again, our we will be seriously looking at a solution like this, just a couple more questions i promise, one I am in england are there any considerations i need to make or can i just use a RJ11 to BT connector ? our only worry is that if a store PC dies they cant call us to tell us, i am afraid using old PC's is not really an option with 250 stores many of the stores are very cramped for space. Do you know if there is a course anywhere that would cover the analogue to SIP/H323 converter configuration ? or even something that would give me enough understanding to copy and paste some configs with a very small number of changes ? thanks again for all your help guys