Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Nortel IP Phone 1200 Series

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Nortel 1220 IP PhoneWe recently purchased two Avaya/Nortel 1220 IP phones for testing in our environment as a possible replacement to the manufacture discontinued i2002/i2004 IP phones. We’re evaluating whether we should purchase the 1120e/1140e or the 1220/1230 as our standard IP phone going forward. An obvious concern going forward is that the phone support the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) so that it will be potentially capable of inter-operating with whatever soft switch or PBX we might have in the backend, be it the Avaya Aura or the legacy Avaya/Nortel Call Server 1000.

I should warn folks that the phone is sold with different SKUs depending if you want it running the UNIStim or SIP protocol. Upgrading the phone between the UNIStim and SIP firmwares is not supported by Avaya/Nortel. With that said I was successful in upgrading/converting a UNIStim SKU’d phone with the SIP firmware available from Avaya/Nortel’s Software Communication System (SCS). I did have some issues downgrading/converting the same set back to UNIStim, although I eventually found the workaround that was needed to trick the SIP firmware into believing I had newer firmware. I can share that with anyone that is interested or if anyone is stuck in a similar position.

The default configuration password is:

26567*738

Cheers!

Update: Monday February 22, 2010

It might be easier to remember the password as follows:

COLOR*SET

Avaya/Nortel Integrated Roadmap Keynote

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Well if you’re like a lot of us today you probably didn’t see much. I was unable to connect myself and know of three other people around the country that were also unable to connect.

Here’s the response from Avaya when I questioned them on it;

Were you aware that many Customers could not gain access to your presentation?
Please accept our apologies. Due to unprecedented demand, we experienced technical issues. The replay will be available today at 3:30pm ET, using the same link. You can also view the replay on-demand beginning 9:00am, Thursday, January 21, and will be available on demand for 6 months. It can be accessed using the same URL, user id and password that you received when you registered.

I’m in the process of trying to download the presentation and all the material. I’m hoping that I can sift through all the slides and marketing and get to the real meat, which I can then post here. In short the existing data product roadmap is getting adopted by Avaya – although I believe it’s fair to ask what is/was the data product roadmap? Let’s see it! It was obvious that the voice solutions were going to be the big issue. I heard/read that the CS1000 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon but I only heard about future support for the 1120e and 1140e IP phones, what about the millions of i2002/i2004 IP phones? I also did’t see much about the BCM/SRG other than a comment that it would continue to be manufactured into 2011.

If you’ve seen the keynote and had time to digest the information please go ahead and comment. I will update this post with additional thoughts and comments when I’ve had an opportunity to read through all the material. Hopefully I’ll be able to see the beginning of the keynote presentation today at 3:30PM.

Cheers!

Update: January 19, 2010 3:30PM

Looks like the presentation will now be available at 4:00PM as opposed to the previously announced 3:30PM.

Avaya/Nortel Enterprise Solutions Integrated Roadmap

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There was an email message sent out to Nortel customers today announcing an Avaya/Nortel Enterprise Solutions Integrated Roadmap event on Tuesday January 19th at 1PM (EST).

You can click on the image to the left for all the details as well as the option to register for the event.

I’m not sure how in-depth and technical this event is going to be but this is going to be Avaya’s first major step in retaining the existing Nortel customer base. The event is only scheduled to take one hour so I’m not sure how much can be covered in detail within 60 minutes.

Here’s the agenda of the event;

  • Announcement of Avaya’s Vision for the future of Business Communications, the Avaya Reference Architecture and the new Integrated Portfolio Roadmap. This session will be led by Avaya CEO, Kevin Kennedy, Dr. Alan Baratz, Joel Hackney, Chris Formant, and other Avaya leaders.
  • In-depth breakout sessions focused on key product and service areas
  • Q&A with product experts and sales leadership throughout the event

Here’s an additional blurb from the email message and registration page;

The virtual event will show you how the combination of Avaya and NES products, solutions and expertise will deliver the best of both companies—giving you more ways to improve your company’s productivity, cut costs, and differentiate your business in the competitive marketplace.

Are you going to register and attend the event?

Cheers!

Avaya closes acquisition of Nortel

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It’s now official – the Nortel/Avaya deal has closed. As of today, Avaya has expanded its portfolio, enlarged its customer base and broadened its global reach…

It would seem the deal is officially done. The words above appeared on the Nortel Enterprise Technology blog yesterday afternoon. I also know that the Nortel sales team responsible for Southern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey were essentially fired by Nortel as of Friday’s close of business. Those that have been offered positions will become Avaya employees on Monday.

With the acquisition complete the clock is now running for Avaya to produce a product roadmap to Nortel/Avaya customers. There’s been a lot of speculation as to which products will make the cut and how Avaya might integrate some of the Nortel products into their portfolio. I won’t add to that speculation other than to say there are a lot of eager Nortel customers waiting on Avaya to release their product roadmap.

You can find the official press release from Avaya here.

Cheers!

UNIStim Firmware Release 4.0 for Nortel IP Phones

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Nortel 1165e IP Phone
Nortel 1165e IP Phone

Nortel has released UNIStim firmware 4.0  for their IP phones;

  • 0621C7A for IP Phone 2007,
  • 0623C7F, 0624C7F, 0625C7F and 0627C7F for IP Phone 1110, 1120E, 1140E and 1150E respectively and
  • 062AC7F for IP Phone 1210, 1220, and 1230

No UNIStim software release 4.0 is being offered for the Phase II IP Phone 2001, Phase II IP Phone 2002, and Phase II IP Phone 2004.  The Nortel IP Phone 200x series (except the 2007) was manufacture discontinued as of November 29, 2009.

The enhancements available with UNIStim software release 4.0 for IP Phones include:

  • UNIStim VPN Client (UVC) in the IP Phone 1100 series
  • Feature and Application Licensing
  • Secure Signaling using DTLS
  • Secure Call Recording (SCR)
  • Designed for Operability (DfO)
  • Enhancements to Certificate Support

The product bulletin for the 4.0 release listed the same fixes (two of which were for the 2004 model) as the previous UNIStim 3.4 release. I’m going to guess that someone forgot to update that section of the product bulletin with some relevant information.

The big news with this release is the built in VPN client for the IP Phone 1100 series, the UNIStim VPN Client (UVC). Unfortunately this initial release doesn’t support encrypting/tunneling the traffic to/from the PC port, only the traffic to/from the Signaling Server and Voice Gateway Media Cards is encrypted with the VPN connection. The initial release is certified to work wtih Nortel VPN Router (NVR) family running software release 8.00 or greater. (NVR software release 8.00 has been qualified on the NVR 1010, 1050, 1100, 600, 1600, 17xx, 27×0, 4600 and 5000).

Please refer to the release notes and the product bulletin for complete details.

Cheers!

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