Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Nortel IP Softphone 2050 Release 3.4

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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!

Voice Pulse – IP Phone Service

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blog-voicepulse2With AT&T CallVantage soon to be canceled I had to go searching for an alternate solution for my home phone service. I contemplated going with Verizon’s Triple Play since I already have Verizon FiOS Internet and Verizon FiOS TV but in the end I decided to go with Voice Pulse.

I ordered the service online and it took about a 11 days for the Linksys PAP2 to arrive. I had to call four days after I placed the order to find out the status since there was no email message informing me that the equipment was back ordered).

The installation of the Linksys PAP2 was quite easy. I just connected it to the Verizon Actiontec router and plugged the RJ11 jack into my phone. Within seconds I had dial tone from the Linksys PAP2. I didn’t need to make any changes to the Verizon Actiontec router although it might be necessary later to apply some QoS settings.blog-voicepulse1

It took 7 days to port my original AT&T CallVantage phone number to Voice Pulse. Prior to porting my phone number I just setup CallVantage to forward all calls to the temporary number assigned by Voice Pulse.

There are an amazing number of call routing and call filtering features including telemarketer block which promises to block automated and computerized dialing services used by a vast number of telemarketing companies.

So far the service has been great and very reliable. And would you know that I actually received a phone call from Voice Pulse confirming the port of my home phone number. And I even spoke to an actual human being that I could clearly understand. Did I mention that they called me?

If you have reliable Internet broadband and your looking for a good Internet phone provider you won’t go wrong with Voice Pulse. Voice Pulse will also provide you with SIP trunks for your Asterisk deployment.

Cheers!

Nortel 6100 Series WLAN Handset I2C Battery Issue

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Nortel has released a technical bulletin notifying customers of an issue with the Nortel 6100 Series Wireless LAN handsets running software release 2.x (build 115.019 or earlier) when the phones are paired with battery packs that are manufactured around or after January 2009.

The phone will hang up displaying an I2C error when it first boots up. You can read all the details in the Nortel technical bulletin;
Nortel WLAN Handset 6100 Series Battery Error: “I2C” Battery Issue (Software Rls 2.x Fix – Build 115.021)

While I’m at it I should probably mention that Nortel has released software 115_021 and 115_022 for the Nortel 6100 series WLAN handsets. I personally had an issue with 115_021 after I upgraded a 6140 handset. The ear speaker wouldn’t work at all, not after resetting it, not after switching batteries, not after praying over it. I could place and receive calls and the speaker phone worked fine but I couldn’t even get dial tone out of the ear speaker in the handset. After upgrading to software release 115_022 the problem has not re-occurred.
In addition Nortel has also released v2.4 of the Handset Administration Tool (HAT). This tool allows you to configure the 6100 series phones through the cradle from a USB port. This tool is a godsend for those of us that remember configuring every phone by hand through the dial pad (you trying entering a 128bit WEP/WPA key through a dial pad and not get it wrong).

You can download the new software and the new version of HAT from Nortel;
http://support.nortel.com/go/main.jsp?cscat=SOFTWARE&poid=18281

Cheers!

Update: September 4, 2009
I went back and tested 115_021 software with another 6140 handset and had no problems. I also went back and downgraded the original 6140 handset I tested with from 115_022 to 115_021 and had no problems. I’m guessing it was a fluke of some kind.

References;

P-2007-0150-Global_WLAN_Handset_6100_May_2008.pdf

Asterisk with Nortel i2002 IP Phones

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asterisk-logo I was feeling under the weather this weekend and found myself confined to my bedroom and basement. With all the idle time I spent a few hours setting up Asterisk. I was looking at two goals, first examining the basic functionality that Asterisk provides and the second was testing the integration between Asterisk and a Nortel i2002 IP phone using the UNIStim (chan_unistim) protocol driver.

For anyone that isn’t familiar with Asterisk; Asterisk is the world’s leading open source PBXi, telephony engine, and telephony applications toolkit. Offering flexibility unheard of in the world of proprietary communications, Asterisk empowers developers and integrators to create advanced communication solutions…for free.

I started by building a CentOS 5.2 server within a VMware environment which was easy enough. I then downloaded the latest Asterisk release (1.6.1-rc1) and compiled the source files. Within no time I had the basic Asterisk installation up and running. I hacked away at the unistim.conf, and extensions.conf file and before long I was making test calls across my private branch exchange between two softphones (X-Lite) and two Nortel i2002 IP phones.

Asterisk is an incredibly powerful solution and can really empower SOHO and small Enterprise networks. The feature support within Asterisk is very impressive and includes voice mail and conferencing. Digium actually manufacturers a number of telephony products based on Asterisk and are very appealing to some businesses. There are also a number of growing service providers which can be used to connect Asterisk over the Internet to the PSTN network without the need for dedicated hardware. I was very impressed with the solution.

Cheers!

SRG50 – Applying Software Patches

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bcm50_angle_lo1We have a number of Survivable Remote Gateways (SRG) across our network providing local PSTN and E-911 access for our smaller IP telephony deployments. We recently went about applying a number of cumulative updates and ran into a few different problems.

Thankfully both of the issues we experienced had already been documented by Nortel as a known issue.

We had an SRG50 that had been upgraded from 1.0 to 3.0 and had the December 2008 Desktop update (BCM050.R300.SU.Desktop-140.200812-1.zip) applied but when we would try to apply the December 2008 System update (BCM050.R300.SU.System-139.200812-1.zip) through Nortel’s Business Element Manager the software would tell us that the update we were trying to apply was obsolete (see figure below). In the past Nortel would release dozens of different patches for the different components in the SRG/BCM platform. Thankfully they started releasing cumulative updates which greatly simplifies the management and patching of the SRGs and BCMs.

srg50-patchingissue11

Thankfully this problem had been documented by Nortel and was listed in a support document entitled Business Communication Manager (BCM) / Survivable Remote Gateway (SRG) /BCM50 / BCM450 Top Issues. Here’s an excerpt of the document that concerns this specific problem;

ISSUE: Inability to apply any update numbered over 1xx, shows Obsolete. Issue will manifest on BCM50 R3 systems with any of the following SU System Updates applied as last update:
– BCM050.R300.SU.System-21.200801
– BCM050.R300.SU.System-25.200802
– BCM050.R300.SU.System-28.200802
RELEASE: BCM50 R3 or any BCM50 hardware loaded with R3 software (6.x)
CR: NONE
SYMPTOMS: Inability to apply any update numbered over 1xx, shows Obsolete.
WORKAROUND: Apply required update BCM050.R300.SOFTWARE-MANAGEMENT-63 or greater.
STATUS: Update BCM050.R300.SOFTWARE-MANAGEMENT-63 is now bound into BCM50 R3 System SU 200901 for application. Details regarding this dependency are imbedded into SU Update Release Notes. BCM050.R300.SOFTWARE-MANAGEMENT-63 is also generally available and can be downloaded as a stand alone update from Nortel.com.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Apply required update BCM050.R300.SOFTWARE-MANAGEMENT-63 or greater to any systems that match this particular profile. **

Once we loaded BCM050.R300.SOFTWARE-MANAGEMENT-63 into the SRG50 we were able to load and apply the cumulative system update for December 2008.

srg50-patchingissue3

We also had a second problem where a brand new SRG50 that wouldn’t accept any new software updates after we installed the December 2008 System update (BCM050.R300.SU.System-139.200812-1.zip). Nothing would happen when you clicked on the “Get New Updates” button within Business Element Manager. We tried running Nortel’s Business Element Manager from multiple desktops and laptops but got the same symptom which left us stumped. Again thankfully this problem already been documented by Nortel.

ISSUE: Unable to apply further patches after applying BCM050.R300.SU.System-139.2008012. This is found on new
BCM50 R3 installations and might not surface if there are patches already installed on the system.
RELEASE: BCM50 R3
CR: Q01975339
SYMPTOMS: Unable to apply any more patches.
WORKAROUND: Download the latest Element Manager from www.nortel.com and install.
STATUS: Design is discussing best option to resolve/avoid this issue on future SUs .
RECOMMENDATIONS: Please install the BCM50 R3 SUs just released in January:
BCM050.R300.SU.Desktop-152.200901
BCM050.R300.SU.System-151.200901

We downloaded Business Element Manager v2.0.300-0 from Nortel’s website and upgraded our current installation after which we were able to apply the remaining patches. I’m not sure how the version numbers work with Element Manager but after installing v2.0.300-0 the Help -> About screen showed it was v1.05.0.

Cheers!

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