End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

Gigaset Phones & OnSIP

siemens-a580ip-160In the month or two since I posted my review of the Gigaset A580IP SIP/DECT phones I’ve been contacted a number of times by people struggling with configuring the phone for their chosen ITSP. In most cases it’s a simple matter of the people not being familiar with some of the terminology common to SIP service providers, and being able to map the terms use by their ITSP to the menus on the Gigaset web admin portal.

SIP terminology can be a little obtuse. For example, what’s the difference between “User Name” and “Authorization User Name?” The difference is important but it’s not immediately obvious to the non-technical.

The authorization user name is specifically used as part of the login credentials that allow the phone to access the ITSPs systems. The simple “user name” relates more to the specific assignment of one phone or extension. There might be many different “users” who share the same authorization credentials, as in one person who has several extensions assigned to them.

With respect to OnSIP I have often been asked if there’s any special requirement to enable wideband / HDVoice calling. No, there’s literally nothing to do in this regard. The codec is enabled by default on the Gigaset phones. If your call is IP end-to-end, as between various extensions on an OnSIP virtual PBX, and both phones are G.722 capable then you can enjoy the best call quality available today.

To make things abundantly clear, here’s an annotated screen shot of the admin page on my A580IP showing exactly where the OnSIP credentials get entered.

Gigaset-A580IP-OnSIP-Registration-500

I’ll be collecting up some more details on the various other ITSPs that I use and posting a similar description for each one.

This Post Has 17 Comments

  1. Michael, Thank you for posting this as I was one of the people having problems getting my onsip to register.

    I do have a follow on question, and the timing of this post is perfect. Last evening, when I got home, I realized that we had a power outage during the day. I then noticed that the gigaset was not registered with the voip providers.

    It took me many attempts to get the phone to register with any provider, including the gigaset (#9) which doesnt even have any configuration details.

    Have you had similar experiences with getting phones to re-register after a power outage?

    I believe my problem was caused by the phone getting a new internal IP address. I believe what finally solved my problem was letting the phone stay un-plugged for a length of time, allowing the ARP to expire.. and then finally the registrations started to work properly. Although Gizmo5 still put up a fight, requiring three attempts.

    1. Isn’t CenterPoint just great! The deadbeats!

      I suspect the problem is your network. I had similar trouble long ago, but not related to the Gigasets. Some devices reboot faster than others. They get back on-LAN and start trying to login to providers before your router has even restored its outbound side. Timeouts occur. Stuff stalls.

      The best solution to this sort of thing is a small UPS. Since we only have IP phones for business and personal use I think it essential to sustain the core network through brief power outages. My DSL router, cable modem, switches, POE insertors, phones & wifi all sit on a $120 UPS. When last we lost power for more than a few minutes it sustained the core gear for just over 40 minutes before it died, too.

  2. Great article, Michael.
    In the last month or so I have helped twelve .e4 customers setup their Gigasets and in all the cases it has been the confusion with user/authorized user or Proxy/Domain that has caused them their problems getting their phones registered. In all these cases, once we got the terminology straightened up the Gigasets just worked.
    It’s unfortunate that a communication barrier like this prevents people from enjoying a really good product.

  5. Thanks Michael! I am open to suggestions for better naming of items in the GUI. Let’s see what kind of consensus evolves, and I can see about making improvements.

    1. I doubt that there’s much that you can do. Your GUI is clear as far as I’m concerned. That SIP involves more than the minimum number of variables is the heart of the matter. There’s no unilateral solution. Your ability to auto-provision is a great workaround. More ITSPs should take advantage of it.

  6. For OnSIP and Junction Networks, I can get them added to the Connection Assistant if you have a contact there you can hook me up with.

  7. Hi Michael,

    I just recently bought a Giga A580 and found the voice quality excellent. I have had one small problem to date. When I did the calling test to my parents, the connection actually dropped 3 times. It’s funny because when I am using my Sipura with a standard panasonic cordless this problem didn’t occur.

    I recently updated my Tomato settings on my Linksys router and so maybe there is a problem there. But, I was wondering if you had any issues by using the ECO dect mode instead of “full power” on the phone?

    Thanks bp

    1. Yes, I had a little trouble when I had ECO-DECT mode enabled. I found that it dropped calls more often so I simply turned it off.

  9. You have any issues with presence? After 5 min or so my polycoms start showing the “main line” with an away status… my theory is that the gigaset is involved… but stilling ruling it out.

    1. I have seen something related, although since I don’t use presence in the Polycoms I can’t say its the same thing.

      It appears that when the Gigaset registers with OnSIP it kicks the Polycom off if they’re using the same registration credentials. The solution for me was easy, create a new extension for the Gigasets, with their own credentials. Then ring them and the Polycoms in parallel.

  10. Love your blog – a godsend for introducing me to the Siemens Gigaset, which we’ll buy from Jason.

    One big challenge is Onsip is costly for a v. small SOHO with 2 phone numbers and 3 extensions (notwithstanding the flat rate, incoming and outgoing call charges are high and can’t be spread over a larger base of users).

    Do you know of any less costly hosted IP-PBX providers, good for v. small SOHO ops?

    1. It seems to me that you have two choices; flat rates providers or metered providers. OnSIP may not scale down as small as you need. they work great for me, but I have about 20 users on different 30 extensions.

      The trouble with the flat rates ITSPs like Vocalocity and Nuvio is that you pay regardless of what you use. I found that I needed more flexibility setting up extensions without incurring another charge/month for that extension. That said both Vocalocity and Nuvio are good companies, but there are many, with many different cost structures. You’re going to need to do some research.

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