Nortel IP Phones – UNIStim release v2.3

Comments

1. LGonsalves says

   July 22, 2008 at 6:20 pm

   Too bad that, unlike other vendors, Nortel does not have a full line of coloured IP phones. This may constitute a major drawback when comparing with other vendor’s solutions, if the guys deciding go for the looks instead of the functionalities and service quality.

   Another thing that is a con is the fact that the IP Phone i2007 does not have a built-in Gigabit switch , on the contrary of other models. Imagine that you want to have the phone connected to the switch and the desktop to the phone: no Gigabit for the Desktop with i2007 models.

2. Michael McNamara says

   July 22, 2008 at 6:49 pm

   Hi LGonsalves,

   I honestly don’t think a lot of enterprises are looking for “bling” when it comes to an IP phone set. I’m currently deploying i2002/i2004 phones in vast numbers because they are very stable, very affordable and fit with the needs of the organization. With that said we are also replacing the traditional digital phones in our call centers with 1150Es so we can go to an IP based call recording solution. While you’re correct about the built-in Gigabit switch I think you’d be hard pressed to find a user (outside of the research circles – and please don’t flame me) that could fill a 100Mbps from a desktop or laptop computer.

   Having said all that Nortel is partnering with LG and has released a new line of phones that offer some of that “bling”. Have a look at the Nortel IP Phone Portfolio.

   Thanks for the comment!

3. LGonsalves says

   July 23, 2008 at 10:03 am

   Hi Michael,
   Couldn’t agree more with you. One major difference between US and EU enterprises is that, unfortunately, some Europeans still go for the “bling” instead of the features and quality. And we both know who’s got the “bling” in IP Phones and who’s got the features and quality ;)
   Deploying a complete VoIP solution is very costly and one has to justify the best he can the investment. For some, the easiest way to do it is to go for the solution with the “looks” instead of others with phones less appealing. This way no unwanted questions will be raised. IMO, one should choose based on stability and quality of the solution. As I always say, I prefer not to have a colored phone but the certainty of good calls and service quality instead of having a nice “flashy” colored phone and bad overall service and quality and that does not integrate well with the access switching.

   Anyway, let me congratulate you on the blog. Very complete and very interesting. I’m reading through all the posts … I have a very, very, very similar network environment to yours: same vendors, same appliances, almost the same core ;)

4. Jeff Johns says

   March 2, 2009 at 12:58 pm

   Hi Michael,

   We are using the i2004-B DHCP scope options (MS Win2003 DHCP server). We are using a mix of i2004P2 and 1230 phones. On the 1230 phones you can see in the local diagnostics that it is not getting the entire text string that we are adding (Nortel-i2004-B,s1ip=xx.xxx.xxx.xx;p1=4100;a1=1;r1=5;s2ip=xx.xxx.xxx.xx;p2=4100;a2=1;r2=5;menulock=u;vq=y;vlanf=y;pc=y;pcs=a;dq=n;lldp=n;cachedip=y;igarp=n;srtp=n;prov=;bt=y;). What the phone is showing stops after the “menulock=u;”. I remember reading somewhere that this is because there is a limit to how much information the phone can absorb from one DHCP option and that the text string can be split amongst multiple options. Do you know that proper options to use and format to split this string up so that the phone will get the entire amount of text? Thanks.

5. Michael McNamara says

   March 2, 2009 at 4:46 pm

   Hi Jeff,

   I believe you are making reference to a known issue that was documented in one of the UNIStim releases where an IP phone can have issues if its not running the proper firmware version and returned the very long DHCP string.

   I would advise that you make sure you have the latest and greatest firmware versions before going to far, the problem might have already been resolved in the latest release. I believe Nortel has just released their UNIStim v3.2 firmware;

   – 0604DCJ for Phase II IP Phones (2001, 2002 & 2004),
   – 0621C6M for IP Phone 2007,
   – 0623C6N, 0624C6N, 0625C6N and 0627C6N for IP Phone 1110, 1120E, 1140E and 1150E respectively and
   – 062AC6N for IP Phone 1210, 1220, and 1230

   If you’ve already done that you might want to setup a port mirror and use WireShark or any other packet sniffer to confirm that the DHCP server is sending the correct number of DHCP options.

   Thanks for the comment!
   Cheers!

6. Michael McNamara says

   March 3, 2009 at 1:09 am

   Hi Jeff,

   I found the following reference concerning the display of the Nortel-i2004-B string from the local diagnostics menu;

   “DHCP Response String information in IP Phone’s local diagnostic screen does not yet support the Nortel-i2004-B option string (applies to IP Phone 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007,1110, 1120E, 1140E, 1150E, 1210, 1220 and 1230)

   The new Nortel specific DHCP option type (“Nortel-i2004-B”) that was introduced in UNIStim firmware release 2.2 on the IP Phone 2007, 1100 series IP Phones and 1200 series IP Phones and in UNIStim firmware release 2.3 for the Phase II IP Phones (2001, 2002, and 2004). However, support for the new option type, did not include support within the local diagnostics menu. The “DHCP Response String” under the Local Diagnostics’ “IP Set and DHCP Information” menu does not display information if the Nortel-i2004-B option type is received.
   Of special note, although it is recommended to either remain with the existing option type of Nortel-i2004-A or move to the new option type of Nortel-i2004-B, but not both, the firmware will accept both option types. In the event that the IP Phone receives both option types, values provisioned with the new option type of Nortel-i2004-B will have a higher priority than
   values provisioned with the old option type Nortel-i2004-A. But since the DHCP Response String does not yet support the Nortel-i2004-B option type, if the IP Phone receives both option types it will wrongly display the Nortel-i2004-A option type even though the Norteli2004-B has higher priority.”

   Cheers!

7. Jeff Johns says

   March 6, 2009 at 4:23 pm

   Thanks Michael. Can you tell me…
   A. What is the document you are getting these references from? Maybe something I can’t access on Nortel’s site? Would be helpful to know.
   B. Has the issue of the i2004-B string not showing properly in the local diagnostics display on the 1200 series phones been resolved with newer firmware under UNIStim 3.x?

   It sounds like we ought to just use the i2004-B DHCP scope options which is fine for our purposes.

   Thanks.

8. Gord says

   March 7, 2009 at 2:14 pm

   Go to http://www.nortel.com/ip2004 then “Technical Bulletins”. Use the “UNIStim Firmware Release 3.2 for IP Phones” link and then the link on the next page to download the “Software Upgrade Bulletin” for 3.2. Within that PDF is a link to an attachment which gives you the full 3.2 Product Bulletin. Michael was providing extracts from the full Product Bulletin.

9. Chandru says

   June 28, 2009 at 1:15 pm

   Hi Michael,

   Thanks!! i found all the information on your site are very useful

   I would like to know more about auto provisioning and can i use i2004-B DHCP option for the phones with firmware 0640DCD

   Do i need to LLDP on the switch for auto provisioning?

   Chandru

   • Michael McNamara says

     June 29, 2009 at 5:42 pm

     Hi Chandru,

     You don’t need LLDP but it’s advisable for the cleanest integration with large scale deployments.

     What phone are you talking about? I’m not familar with 0640DCD (perhaps you meant 0604DCD?). The Nortel i2004-B DHCP option is supported on firmware release 0604DBP and later for the i2001, i2002 and i2004 (Phase II only) phones.. I would strongly suggest that you upgrade you phone firmware to that latest release before you get too far.

     Good Luck!

10. Chandru says

    June 29, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    Thanks Michael!!

    Yes i was referring to 0604DCD

    Can you give me any documentation which will help me setup this?

    Chandru

    • Michael McNamara says

      July 1, 2009 at 9:38 pm

      Hi Chandru,

      Nortel has put together a great document which should help get you going. Here’s the link;

      2008_02_15_Nortel_IP_Phone_Set_InterWorking_With_Nortel_ES_and_ERS_Switches_TCG_NN48500517_J.pdf

      If you are already using the Nortel-i2004-A then you shouldn’t need to-do to much.

      Just as a point of discussion I’m not using the Nortel-i2004-B option. I’m still using the older Nortel-i2004-A option in conjunction with LLDP/ADAC on the ERS 5520 switches. I recently deployed over 425 i2002/i2004 phones with this configuration. I would strongly suggest that you upgrade the phone firmware to 0604DCJ before you get too far.

      Good Luck!

11. Chandru says

    September 15, 2009 at 9:24 am

    Hi Michael,

    We have around 500 phones that has been configured with manual vlan and other information

    Can you please let me know what is the best possibility to get what is currently setup on the phone and use LLDP and DHCP to get the phone configured with auto settings to avoid lots of manual work?

    Is there a way that we can factory reset I2004 phones remotely or locally?

    I think you are the best one to get this info

    We have complete CISCO switches with Nortel phones deployed

    Thanks
    Chandru

    • Michael McNamara says

      September 15, 2009 at 8:13 pm

      Hi Chandru,

      There are a few different options available but I’m afraid all of them are going to require some leg work. There’s no magic bullet to reconfiguring 500+ IP phones.

      This might be a case of just leaving your existing IP phones alone the way they are currently configured and then moving forward making sure to develop a standard configuration process. You can certainly use LLDP-MED with the Cisco 3750 and 3650 switches and the Nortel IP phones. I’ll refer you to another post I made sometime back (LLDP with Cisco 3750) for the Cisco configuration details.

      If you have the IP phones upgraded to the latest and greatest software/firmware you might want to try the Nortel-i2004-B DHCP option.

      I standardized sometime ago using ADAC/LLDP-MED with DHCP (Nortel-i2004-A) because I have dozens of sites to support. I needed to have the ability for a technician to take a spare i2002/i2004, with a standard configuration, to any site, plug it in and have it work. That’s where we are today… ADAC/LLDP-MED provides separation of the voice and data VLANs and automatically configures the VLAN and QoS settings on the Nortel Ethernet Routing Switches and provides the voice VLAN ID to the IP phones via LLDP-MED. The technician only needs to configure the node and TN information.

12. Bob says

    September 2, 2013 at 12:44 pm

    Have you heard of a batch of Avaya 1210 sets with bad firmware, I’ve got a MAC range (FC:A8:41 etc. ) that will not take a firmware update they all fail. I am using TFTP server the other MAC address range I’ve got works just fine. There was a post that I ran into speaking of this problem and a special cable from Avaya was needed to fix the problem.
    Thank you

    • Michael McNamara says

      September 5, 2013 at 11:26 pm

      Hi Bob,

      I don’t recall that specific problem, but I do recall that depending on the firmware release currently running you may need to perform interim upgrades.

      If you upgrade the firmware on the CS1000 you can use the

      usmUpgradeAll

      command from either the Signaling Server console or Element Manager.

      Good Luck!