End-user perspective on small office tools & technology
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″
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.
Kyle Brocious over at the VOIP Insider blog wrote a good post describing as he puts it, “How To: Upload Firmware to a Polycom Unit.”
It’s a solid example of setting up a TFTP server to load new firmware to a Polycom SoundPoint SIP phone. I’ve been doing this for years.
It’s not quite a complete example of provisioning the phone as it doesn’t address loading the phones configuration from XML files on the server.
Continue reading “VOIP Supply On (almost) Provisioning Polycom Phones”
This afternoon I finally took some time to update the firmware in the snom m3 phone system. The phones arrived early in January loaded with v1.01, but in the eight weeks since then snom has released v1.07.