End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

The Gigaset A580IP, Gizmo5 & Google Voice

siemens-a580ip-160This is just too handy to remain hidden away in a comment so I thought I’d make it a proper post on it’s own. Gigaset Communication‘s Tony Stankus responded to a question asked in a comment on my A580IP review. The question was, how to setup the A580IP for use with Gizmo5 and Google Voice?

Three things you need to set up to have Google Voice on the Gigaset.

1) enter Gizmo5 info into the Gigaset
2) enter your Google Voice number on your Gizmo5 profile page
3) add your Gizmo5 phone number on your Google Voice page (under Settings, Add Phone)

Here is 1)

On the handset, go to:

Menu (right softkey)
Settings
Base
Telephony
Connection Wizard [enter system PIN = 0000]

Do you have a code for auto-configuration? [select “no”]

Select VoIP Provider? [select “yes”]

scroll to USA and select “ok”

scroll to Gizmo5 and select “ok”

for Authentication Name, enter your Gizmo5 telephone number (e.g. 17471115555) and select “ok”

for Authentication Password, enter your Gizmo5 password and select “ok”.

Thanks for taking the time to fill us in! Isn’t it great when a manufacturer takes an interesting what people want to do with their gear?

In a few days when I’m back in my office I’ll take some screen shots of doing this using the web GUI instead of the handset.

This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Hmmm… I have a connection working as described from my A580IP -> Gizmo5 -> Google Voice.

    However, I configured it using the web interface, instead of through the handset and I specified the following for my (working) gizmo5 config:

    Authentication Name: [firstname_lastname]
    Authentication password: *******
    Username: [firstname_lastname]
    Display name: [First Last]

    Notice, I don’t provide my SIP number at all. And I remain confused by the (rather poor) web GUI which provides no indication as to why I would need both an ‘Authentication Name’ and a ‘Username’, or what the difference is between the two.

    1. Hang on, let’s be fair. Your comment indicates that you have little prior experience with SIP configuration. Username and authentication name are slightly different concepts in SIP credentials. Almost every SIP device that I’ve ever used accommodates both.

      The web GUI is not a SIP tutorial, it’s a means of accessing the configuration. The explanation you seek is more likely to be found on the Gizmo5 web site or in their support forums.

  2. PS – I just tested it substituting my SIP # for my firstname_lastname in both the Authentication name and Username fields and a received a ‘Registration Failed’ message when I tried. Do any other users have this working using the SIP # to authenticate as Tony from Gigaset suggested?

    Also, how is the voice quality for others in this setup? I have personally been a little disappointed in call quality through Gizmo5/GV.

  3. @mjgraves, thanks for the comment and you are correct that I don’t have a ton of SIP experience, but I am a software developer by trade who has setup Asterisk servers with Cisco SIP phones in the past so I am not a total n00b either. In no way do I feel that my comments were not ‘fair’.

    In my professional capacity my eye for website usability and functionality are indeed at the pro level, and in my opinion neither the internal configuration interface, nor the Gigaset online config (e.g. for phone services) are up to par. If others feel differently, then I wish them all the best.

    Additionally, the phone is geared (as you have stated before) at the *consumer* audience, and not the professional SIP market. This market should not be assumed to have ANY knowledge of SIP credentials, or other such nuances. The wizard approach to configuring a number of different services is good, but the website and config interface should be held to a higher standard to allow for understanding by consumer users. Making apologies on behalf of vendors does nothing to advance the cause of usability for end users.

    For example, the site that that config interface on the phone links to for configuration of ‘information services’ is just downright terrible from a usability standpoint (and I would argue functionally as well). I could not get the RSS feed service to work at all, and what should be a very simple interface is counterintuitive at best.

    Secondly, the point of my post was not to be critical, but instead to merely point out that the instructions you provided (posted as a comment previously) regarding what to fill the fields with (SIP # vs. username) just do not work for me in my testing at all (see my second comment where I provide the results of my quick testing). Have you tested it yourself? Did you come to different results?

    Thanks, you are providing a nice service here for users and I learned quite a bit about the phone from your review, and it was influential in my purchase which I am happy with overall.

    Cheers.

    1. Compared to most other SIP devices I’ve used the Gigasets are ahead of the pack, even from a web I/F perspective. I do wish that their web GUI worked better with FF & IE, but that’s more a matter of browser architecture than Gigaset issues.

      Mostly my point was that the info you need is available from Gizmo5. I’m going to try and get my A580IP hooked up to Gizmo5 & GV some time this week. I’ll document that process and post it.

      If there are any issues using the Gigaset wizard to setup the Gizmo5 aspect I’ll let them know. I found some issues using the wizard for FWD earlier this year.

  4. I used web GUI to configure the account as well, and it works. I used my Gizmo5 number in “Authentication Name:” and “Username:”, and it always says “Service not accessible” in the first time click “set”. So I have to click “set” again for it to register. I have no problem receiving call, but I can not dial out from the handset. For out-going call, I have to dial from google voice, and it will call my handset first then call the other party. I have tried so many free outbound proxy, but none of them work. Maybe someone has successfully configued the outbound proxy that can help. Thanks.

  5. I got this to work last night using the GUI… It took me 10 minutes using various combinations of my 1747 number and username… I still am not sure which combination finally worked… terrible registration process indeed.

    However, the phone now receives incoming calls from my google voice phone number without issue, so I must say that is pretty cool. A very inexpensive home phone. Call quality was excellent.

    I am able to make outgoing calls from the handset, but it is using gizmo to connect, not google voice.

  6. BTW, I used Google Chrome and the GUI loads very fast without problems. (on a gigabit wired connection at least)

Comments are closed.

Back To Top