Cisco Systems, Inc

Cisco's IP telephony products offer great flexibility, a large feature set, and stand up well to every day corporate use. That being said, they're also not the cheapest in the field.

Products

• Cisco 79xx IP Phones: Asterisk configuration tips
• Cisco 79xx IP Phones: XML applications with DashPhone CXP and DashPhone Application Server (see white paper)
• Cisco ATA 18x Analog IP Adaptor: Asterisk configuration tips
• Cisco FXO Ports: Asterisk configuration tips
• High Density Voice Module (NM-HDV) in Cisco 2600/3600/3700 router: You'll need IOS 12.3 for full SIP functionality.
• Cisco AS5XXX: Large boxes for multiple E1/T1s or modems
• Cisco 2,811: Dua PRI gateway and how to pass names to Nortel.
• Cisco 827-4V: ADSL router with ethernet and 4 FXS voice ports (for analog phones), T.38 Fax Relay
• QoS Cisco IOS
• QoS Cisco

Most likely you'll need access to firmware packages for upgrades or version changes, i.e. converting a phone from SCCP to SIP. The files are available on Cisco's website along with a good amount of documentation but you'll need a service contract. The service contract for a Cisco phone is around $8/year. The service contract price will be based on the value of the item you want covered. Cisco has several support options. You just need the most basic support in order to be able to get updated software.

GKTMP

GKTMP is Cisco's open, but proprietary, protocol used for communication between a call control device such as a Cisco Gatekeeper or SIP Proxy and an external application such as a route server. GKTMP, which stands for GateKeeper Transaction Message Protocol, was originally developed for H.323 gatekeepers but since it is a rich and lightweight Operations and Billing Support System (OSS/BSS) protocol, it is equally useful as an API to external applications for SIP proxies or B2BUAs. A major benefit of GKTMP is the ability to offload complex routing algorithms, such as least cost routing tables with hundreds of thousands of routes, to an external server.

An open source module which provides a GKTMP interface to open source OSP servers, such as OpenOSP and RAMS on www.sipfoundry.org/OSP, is available at sourceforge.net/projects/gktmp-to-osp.

Service Contract

Obtaining a service contract directly from cisco can be a lot of fun. When last checked, there's no online registration available, only a page with an email address that's no longer valid. You could try:
1 800 553 6387 option 4

If you're just looking to obtain firmware for an IP phone product the minimum contract agreement is 8x5xNBD at $8 for 1 year, chances are you don't need a three year on-site agreement for well over $100.

It will take one of the largest technology companies on the planet several days to process your request at which point you'll get a contract number via email. After registering your contract number on their service center website the technically advanced system will tell you a person will validate your contract and grant you access to the firmware files you need within 24 hours.

As an alternative, Cisco service contracts can be purchased from authorized Cisco resellers, the process will probably be easier, and the price about the same.

SmartNet part numbers (basic 8x5xNBD 1 year contract)

7920 WiFi IP phone = CON-SNT-CP7920
7940 IP phone = CON-SNT-CP7940 = $8 US ($9 others)
7960 IP phone = CON-SNT-CP7960 = $8 US ($9 others)
ATA-186 = CON-SNT-ATA186 = $8 US ($9 others)

My Experiences

Here is what I went through to get this contract. First off the phone number above just got me someone telling me they couldn't sell me what I wanted and basically they didn't know what exactly I needed. So I ended up finding out I needed to buy the Service Contract, aka SmartNet contract, for one of my phones...so I called up a reseller for cisco phones...www.ams.net is a good one and asked them to sell me the contract. After this was taken care of I got the contract number from them and under my "Guest" cisco account profile I added it to my additional access. The next step is to wait until they approve it being added to your account. Now then it's still a pain because there is no other information after it's been added. You need to then navigate to this link to download the software for your phone. This is a several day process =/...Good Luck — mitchel

Where to buy:

• 8774e4voip.com We beat them all
• 888VoipStore.com Best Prices on all Cisco VoIP - no discount needed. Call for volume pricing. 888-VOIPSTORE.
• Atacomm The internet's largest stocking distributor of VoIP products
• DORETEL Communications, Inc. Global Supplier of New, Refurb & Pre-Owned Cisco Hardware, Quick World-Wide Delivery, References Available
• .e4 Technologies Cisco - LAN/WAN/MAN/SIP
• IT Help and Support Centre Global Supplier of Cisco SMARTnet contracts
• PBXEQ.com VoIP solution made easy. Puchase asterisk hardware at great discounts.
• Voiplink.com Cisco IP Phones Located on the West Coast, Global Distribution
• VoIP Supply Largest VoIP-Specific VAR in North America - enter Discount Code "WIKI5OFF" at checkout and receive a 5% discount valid for all VoIP-INFO.org members
• Used Cisco Supplier - Townsend Assets Specializing in used Cisco Routers, Switches, and VOIP
• VoipTeck VoipTeck.com Best prices. Check us out http://www.voipteck.com
• VoIPWarehouse.com Official Supplier of FreeSWITCH gear
• Whole sale Cisco IP Phones: We are a cisco partner and provide Cisco phones in wholesale price.

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• VOIP Phones: Overview
• Asterisk phones: How to configure Asterisk for various phones
• Cisco Registered Partners