We have multiple installations on FusionPBX with Yealink and Polycom, are familiar with the ins and outs, and these are our staple. A future business order before our company is a customer who prefers Cisco gear, and we are contemplating it. What do you all think when comparing Cisco phones for FusionPBX compared to Yealink, PolyCom, and other vendor models? Does anyone have experience deploying Cisco phones on FusionPBX? If so, we are looking to learn: 1 - Are Cisco Phones just as easy to deploy regarding initial config & templates on FusionPBX, compared to Yealink or other vendors? 2 - Are the number of different working model choices comparable to Yealink and others? 3 - What if anything do you think are the main reasons why they trail behind Yealink and others in popularity? (Or do they?) Thanks for any feedback in advance.
Cisco phones for FusionPBX compared to Yealink / Others - your feedback is appreciated...
- Thread starter KangarooWho
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I have just got an 8841 to test but haven't opened the box yet. I would ask THEM there reasons for preferring Cisco.
Form my point of view, these are the immediate reasons that come to mind:
Do Cisco accept letsencrypt certificates or do you have to buy an expensive one from Cisco?
You do not have the easy ability to use the Yealink RPS server, maybe this is not an issue for you.
From experience, Cisco does not work the best with failover, a few people have also reported this.
We now have the ability with Yealink latest firmware to register simultaneously to multiple fusionpbx servers, do Cisco have the ability to do this?
Yealink still seem to be in listening mode, Ie may modify firmware if you have a problem and reach out to them, do Cisco?
I'll spin that 8841 up and see if I can answer some of these questions.
Form my point of view, these are the immediate reasons that come to mind:
Do Cisco accept letsencrypt certificates or do you have to buy an expensive one from Cisco?
You do not have the easy ability to use the Yealink RPS server, maybe this is not an issue for you.
From experience, Cisco does not work the best with failover, a few people have also reported this.
We now have the ability with Yealink latest firmware to register simultaneously to multiple fusionpbx servers, do Cisco have the ability to do this?
Yealink still seem to be in listening mode, Ie may modify firmware if you have a problem and reach out to them, do Cisco?
I'll spin that 8841 up and see if I can answer some of these questions.
CISCO SPA phones comes from old Sipura technology. They have improved them but the old structure is still present. Do they work as expected? YES. Are they easy to use? No, expecially when you have to modify provisioning files to enable features. So told, they can implement any classical feature without effort.
Thank you for the information. As it turns out, our prospect is looking to deploy Cisco 6800/7800/8800 series instruments.
FusionPBX stocks SPAxxx series templates and two 79xx model templates in the /var/www/fusionpbx/resources/templates/provision/cisco directory, but no sign of 68xx/78xx/88xx series.
We are hearing that the spa514g template or spa525g template should work. You would think Cisco would be more than happy to give away these files since they would allow more customers to deploy more phones in less time.
I also heard that many Cisco models support multiple protocols, so when buying a Cisco phone, it has to that of the " 3cpp " type (sounds like a Cisco term). If you do get that 8841 up and running on FusionPBX, could you send us a copy of that config file? The 8841 is one of the models the customer is looking at.
FusionPBX stocks SPAxxx series templates and two 79xx model templates in the /var/www/fusionpbx/resources/templates/provision/cisco directory, but no sign of 68xx/78xx/88xx series.
We are hearing that the spa514g template or spa525g template should work. You would think Cisco would be more than happy to give away these files since they would allow more customers to deploy more phones in less time.
I also heard that many Cisco models support multiple protocols, so when buying a Cisco phone, it has to that of the " 3cpp " type (sounds like a Cisco term). If you do get that 8841 up and running on FusionPBX, could you send us a copy of that config file? The 8841 is one of the models the customer is looking at.
Pay attention: CISCO spa phones are common SIP phones you can use with every SIP PBX. Cisco 6800/7800/8800 are thought for Cisco CUCM (once Call Manager) and it's very hard to use them with a SIP IPPBX such as Fusion/Freeswitch, Asterisk or whatever else. You have to update them with SIP firmware (usually CISCO put SCCP firmware on them) and convince them they are working with a Call Manager.
A lot of time has passed since I did this operation, maybe something is changed now, but be sure you can easily use them. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of money to buy something you can't use!
A lot of time has passed since I did this operation, maybe something is changed now, but be sure you can easily use them. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of money to buy something you can't use!
What advantage do you get to registering to dual servers vs using SRV records? Are you using server 1 and server 2, or are they registering to the first two servers in the srv records?
Last time we worked with Cisco phones was the 7960's. After having to fumble around with the provisioning files for what seemed like weeks (this was back in our asterisk days, so no provisioning servers yet). We stopped using them as they were much more expensive, and were hard to manage remotely. We are almost 100% selling Yealink equipment now, and they are incredible.
Coming in late to this. As mentioned previously there are 2 ways to go with Cisco phones:
1) Cisco SPA, which is derived from sipura phones making them fairly generic and easy to work with.
2) Cisco everything else (79XX, 88XX, etc) which are built to work with call mangler.
Cisco SPA is end of life so you probably don't want to go there and Cisco everything else is more trouble than they're worth. The SPA's work fairly well with Fusion PBX after you do some provisioning file hacks, but honestly if you can steer them into Yealink thats the way to go.
1) Cisco SPA, which is derived from sipura phones making them fairly generic and easy to work with.
2) Cisco everything else (79XX, 88XX, etc) which are built to work with call mangler.
Cisco SPA is end of life so you probably don't want to go there and Cisco everything else is more trouble than they're worth. The SPA's work fairly well with Fusion PBX after you do some provisioning file hacks, but honestly if you can steer them into Yealink thats the way to go.
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