Graves On SOHO VoIP

Hereabouts we do love our Gigaset cordless phones. Actually, that’s overstating the case a bit. Recent firmware releases, notably the November & December issues, have proven to be troublesome for some users. It’s tempered our enthusiasm just a little. An earlier post about Gigaset firmware developed a most impressive comment trail.

Not long ago Tony Stankus, Product Manager for Developing Technologies at Gigaset Communications, passed me a note about a new beta firmware release.

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Since first posting about availability of the new Aastra MBU-400 SIP/DECT system I’ve seen considerable interest in the device, but no-one stepping up with any first hand experience with its use.  The device is in fact vaguely related to the snom m3 SIP/DECT systems that I own and enjoy using. Both are based upon reference designs from RTX Telecom.

As an OEM product from RTX Telecom the hardware design is largely fixed, but Aastra has a lot of control over the firmware. I know that snom has made considerable progress with firmware enhancements for the m3 since it was introduced to the US about a year ago.

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I’ll be upgrading a small herd of IP phones over the holiday break, which had me looking for new Polycom firmware. There once was a time when Polycom directed all end-users to obtain firmware from a reseller. These days the folks at Polycom are a lot more open with respect to firmware for their phones. You can now download most things from their web site directly. They even provide a nice clear matrix display describing which firmware release is most appropriate for each of their products. KUDOS for the move to greater openness.

A recent beta firmware for the snom m3 cordless system introduced a most annoying bug. The handset could be turned off with a simple press of the end call button if the phone was not actually on a call. This made it way too easy to accidentally turn the handset off.

Happily, since I have my phone set to automatically load firmware updates it recently loaded v1.20 beta, and that problem has been resolved. The handset now required an extended press of the end call button to turn it off, just like any cell phone.

Snom tells me that a major firmware release for the m3 is forthcomming.

As of firmware v1.19 beta (and onward) you can upload the contact directory to the snom m3 cordless SIP/DECT phones using the web GUI. The process requires a comma delimited text file (.csv) where each field is enclosed in quotes. For example;

“Alistair Parr”,”666″
“Amanda Blundell”,”684″
“Chris Hopkin”,”667″
“Chris Leonard”,”674″

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About a week ago I loaded the v1.19 beta firmware into my m3 system. No obvious problems but I’ve been traveling since then so I haven’t used it a lot. The snom wiki now has instructions on loading the beta from their provisioning server. It’s easy. I’ve set my phone to check for updates once a week. I see that it loaded v1.20 on its own while I was away. The wiki also has release notes on the v1.19 Beta.

I’m still waiting to get an example of the CSV file used for uploading the contact details. I tried a simple one but it was rejected by the phone. There’s obviously more than just the name and number in the file. Snom needs to provide an example so that I can format my contact details appropriately.

This past Sunday I just happened to see that snom had released firmware v1.16 for the m3 SIP/DECT phone. I took some time to have the phone update itself from snom’s provisioning server. The process appeared to stall for quite some time and I was forced to attend to other matters. When I returned I found that both handsets had eventually been updated successfully, although it did take longer than I would have expected.

I contacted snom to inquire about the v1.17 release which is rumored to have the uploadable contact list feature that I seek. They tell me that it is presently in beta, and offered directions on where to point my phone to load the beta version. I think I’ll try this next later in the week when I’m back in my office.

If that feature proves out usable then I’ll be ordering one of their DECT range extenders to fill in some coverage gaps in the forward portion of the house, and perhaps finally decomissioning the ages old Panasonic KX-TG4000 KSU.

I must admit that in the chaos around my office lately I’ve had the Siemens S685IP DECT system powered off.  Today I took some time to get the base installed where I really want it, which is way up high along with the antenna from the Portech GSM gateway. When I powered it back up the handset reported that there was a new firmware update.

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