Michael McNamara » SOFTPHONE

Avaya IP Softphone 2050 Release 4.0

Michael McNamara — Tue, 25 May 2010 03:00:50 +0000

Avaya has released the IP Softphone 2050 Release 4.0 (Build 008) for the Microsoft Windows PC.

The following enhancements are now available;

Support for BCM 50, 450
Rebranding
Node-Locked Licensing
Secure Signaling using DTLS
Secure Call Recording
Incoming Call Pop-up Enhancements

The following issues have been resolved;

(091210-67218/091216-70624) 2050 is not marking QoS values in packets (see Technical Advisory Section)
(091030-43866) IP Call Recording stops working after retrieve call from Hold
(091203-63291) Unable to configure annotation feature keys in Expansion Module.
(091008-30561) i2050.exe process does not release GDI Objects
(100224-05132) 2050 IP Softphone on CICM: Delay when hanging up from a call
(100310-13208) Configuration tool does not support customized skins
(100312-14320) Configuration tool errors when applying Node/TN info. The configuration tool will now allow empty values for any parameter in the config.ini file and will not overwrite the registry entry if it is blank. This allows customers to upgrade to new configuration settings without changing selected values such as the Node/TN information that may already be set in the registry.
(100405-25547) Inconsistent behavior of IP 2050 Settings for first launch if ConfigurationTool
(090812-96650) GN Netcom 8110 USB adaptor does not work on the docking station

I would suggest anyone interested review the release notes and the product bulletin.

Cheers!

Nortel IP Softphone 2050 Release 3.4

Michael McNamara — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:00:19 +0000

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!

Nortel IP Softphone 2050 Licensing Server

Michael McNamara — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:00:28 +0000

We recently started deploying the Nortel IP 2050 Softphone v3.x for our work-from-home Contact Center agent pilot. With software release v3.x or higher you need a licensing server somewhere in your network. That means that yes you need to purchase licenses for all your concurrent 2050 users. It’s my understanding that Nortel has licensed various technologies in the 2050 that required it to deploy a licensing server as set forth in the licensing agreements with the various third parties.

We chose to deploy the Nortel IP Softphone 2050 Licensing Server on the same server that where we had the Nortel Enterprise Management System (NMS) application and the Nortel Enterprise Switch Manager (ESM) application already installed.

If your testing out the solution there’s no need to worry about needing a licensing server on day one as each installation of the 2050 comes with a 30 day demo/evaluation license.

After you have installed the License Server you’ll need to replace the file “couted.lic” in C:\Program Files\Nortel\IP Softphone 2050 Licensing Server (or where ever you’ve installed the software) with the license file you received from your reseller.

You can issue a “lmstat -a” from the installation director and it will output the number of total licenses installed and the number of available licenses. When you add licenses you just need to replace the file “counted.lic” and then restart the “Nortel IP Softphone 2050 Licensing Server Service” service.

Cheers!

Home Telecommuting

Michael McNamara — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:00:12 +0000

I’ve talked about telecommuting myself from time to time and it seems like a lot of people are talking about it these days. And while gas prices have come down considerably from the records set during the 2008 summer the economic woes are really massing to drive both companies and workers to seriously look at home telecommuting.

Within my organization we’ve been testing different technologies and solutions over the past 6 months. We broke the all the options down into two basic classes. The first was an all hardware solution while the second was an all software solution. A standard leased laptop was necessary to provide the end user (call center agent) access to the back-end applications necessary to-do his/her work. We also didn’t want to involve any home personal computers for the purpose of security and regulatory compliance.

All Hardware

Nortel Business Secure Router 222
Nortel 1150e IP Phone
Standard leased laptop

All Software

Standard leased laptop
Nortel i2050 IP Softphone
Juniper SSL VPN Client (Network Connect)

When you factor in all the ISM licensing costs the all hardware solution starts to get very pricey but will provide the best possible quality and stability. On the flip side the all software solution will be more cost effective but could provide less quality and depending on the applications being run could by less stable over an 8 to 12 hour shift (call center agent).

We’ve had about 5 users (2 all hardware, 3 all software) deployed over the past few months with great success. We’ve had a number of issues with the local cable provider (Comcast Cable) going up and down occasionally but those problems were resolved when a cable technician replaced a splitter at the pole.

The other issue we needed to tackle was how to provide remote control support for our Help Desk and Engineers over the Internet. We turned to Ultra VNC and are using it’s Single Click solution in conjunction with it’s repeater add-on. It provides a great cost effective solution to using a commercial solution such as WebEx or GoToMyPC.

Cheers!

Nortel IP 2050 Softphone and Windows Vista

Michael McNamara — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:00:18 +0000

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!

Nortel i2050 Softphone

Michael McNamara — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:00:00 +0000

I’ve received a few comments about the Nortel i2050 Softphone and thought I would make a post about the software application.

The Nortel IP Software 2050 is a Windows-based application that runs on Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional. This software solution is designed to work with Nortel IP-based phone systems providing Voice Over IP (VoIP) services. The application has gone through quite a few revisions and upgrades over the past few years. This software based application works best with a dedicated USB based headset such as Nortel Mobile USB Headset.

I’ve used the i2050 on and off for the past two years. I found that version 1.x was prone to crashing especially after the laptop/desktop had been up for sometime and the application had been running for a few hours. Nortel just recently (within the last year) released version 2.x which is a giant leap forward in terms of stability.

When used on a fairly modern PC with a 100Mbps switched Ethernet network the call quality is indistinguishable from Nortel’s hardwired Internet Telephones (i2002/i2004/1120e/1140e/1150e). I should comment that it’s my general opinion that a Nortel Internet Telephone sounds clearer than a traditional digital or analog TDM set. The i2050 supports all the features that the hardwired Internet Telephones support including multiple line appearances, hold, transfer, conference, intercom, etc.

I have used the i2050 in a telecommuter role in conjunction with a branch to branch IPSec tunnel using a Nortel VPN 1100 Router (branch office) and a Nortel VPN 1740 Router (main office). I’ve had the opportunity to test that specific telecommuter solution over Verizon xDSL, Comcast Internet Cable and Verizon FiOS. All three mediums worked fine, however, I did need to be conscious of what I was doing on the laptop/desktop to avoid any call quality issues on the i2050.

In July of 2006 Nortel and Microsoft announced that they would be entering into an alliance to develop unified communications solutions. This has left a few of us wondering about the future of the i2050 softphone since it looks like it might be directly competing with Microsoft Office Communications Server (formerly Microsoft Live Communications Server). Obviously the OCS client will have quite a few more features (presence information, file transfer, instant messaging as well as voice and voice communications) than the i2050 but it won’t be able to support the wide array of voice features available in the i2050.

In summary I really like the Nortel i2050 phone and believe it is a worthwhile business tool. I would caution anyone that is looking to deploy a large number to make sure they do their homework and perform adequate testing to ensure that the i2050 software will work fine on their desktop image and with whatever software applications are required.

Cheers!