2050 | Michael McNamara

Nortel IP Softphone 2050 Release 3.4

Posted by Michael McNamara in Nortel, VoiceOverIP on November 1, 2009

Nortel has released the IP Softphone 2050 Release 3.4 (Build 3.4.003) for Windows PC.

The following enhancements are available;

Support for Microsoft Windows 7
Log file improvements

The following issues have been resolved;

(090304-89596) IP Softphone 2050 freezes when calls are answered on Nortel USB Headset
(081009-83319) IP Softphone 2050/3.3 One-way speech path
(090903-09977) IP Softphone 2050 getting double DTMF tones on CS2100
(090317-99855) New Call Voice Notification fails to say the CLID properly
(090526-47034) Translation error in GUI – correct word “Release” in French, German and Spanish
(090515-40414) Agent voice is recorded on IPCR after Mute key is activated
(090510-36664) IP Softphone 2050 Logs have no limit in size

There were some qualifications that should be mentioned. The release notes specifically indicate that 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are not supported although it doesn’t mention that they don’t work. The release notes also make mention that while the IP Softphone 2050 may run in VDI (Virtual Desktop Interface) from both VM Ware and Citrix Xen Desktop, neither are supported. I couldn’t imaging the potential issues of running a softphone in a VDI configuration but I guess someone has been toying with the idea.

We have about ten Contact Center users utilizing the IP Softphone 2050 v3.x with Contact Center 6 on a Nortel Succession 1000 4.5 Call Server. These users work out of their home and are connected across a Juniper SSL VPN SA4000 appliance utilizing Juniper’s Network Connect client software. We provide them an HP NC6900 laptop with all the software and they connect to their home network and Internet broadband. It’s been very successful so long as the Internet broadband connection remains stable.

You can find the complete release notes here and here.

Cheers!

2050, IP TELEPHONY, SOFTPHONE, VOIP

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Nortel IP 2050 Softphone and Windows Vista

Posted by Michael McNamara in VoiceOverIP on August 11, 2008

Nortel has just released a support bulletin documenting a problem (CR Q1863946) between the Nortel IP 2050 v2 (and v1.4) and Windows Vista that can affect the audio quality. Nortel is advising users to modify the audio quality within the IP 2050 Softphone application (File -> Settings -> Audio) to a setting of 4 or higher. Nortel IP 2050 v1.4 users must also use the Vista Service Manager to disable QoS on the desktop/laptop. There is no mention of the IP 2050 v3 Softphone in the bulletin so I would guess that version is not affected.

We’ve been using the IP 2050 v2 for connecting to our Nortel Succession 1000M Call Servers with very good success. It’s very reliable and the audio quality has been excellent. I should point out that we lease our corporate laptops with a 24 month refresh so we always have decent hardware to work with. And it doesn’t hurt when you have a Gigabit network backbone from Nortel of course.

We’ve held off deploying the IP 2050 v3 because of the new licensing server that is required although we can’t fault Nortel for moving towards such a solution. While we’ve been very honest in our purchasing and deploying of the IP 2050 softphone I can only guess how many others out there haven’t been so honest. If you’re interested in the Nortel IP 2050 just don’t forget that you’ll need to purchase a copy of the Nortel IP 2050 software along with an Internet IP User ISM (license) for each user.

You may also want to evaluate Microsoft Office Communications Server before you deploy the IP 2050 in any large numbers. We’ve started testing OCS in our lab and we’re hoping to start evaluating it’s voice and video conferencing capabilities in the next few months. You’ll probably still want to use the Nortel IP 2050 Softphone for any Nortel Contact Center (Symposium) agents but for basic voice, instant messaging and video conferencing OCS looks very promising.

Cheers!

2050, Nortel, OCS, SOFTPHONE, VISTA, WINDOWS

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