8841 phone - unable to access the web interface

[Daniel Howden]

Hi, I have the above phone and when I use a web browser to access the phones web interface I get a message saying "refused to connect"

I have been trying to resolve this for a couple of days now but I just don't get any further.

I have reset the phone, it is using DHCP.  I can ping the phone from my computer.

Hope someone can help, Daniel.

[Maren Mahoney]

First, is "Web Access" set to "Enabled" either on the phone or via the Enterprise parameters?

Second, you said you've been trying to resolve this for a couple of day. Did it work before and stop working, or is this your first try?

Third, what version of CUCM are you running? Or are you running CUCM Express?

Maren

[Daniel Howden]

Hi Maren, thank you for the quick reply.  I couldn't see on the phone interface that there was any way to set "Web Access".  I feel I have looked at every menu item on the phone.

Would you be kind enough to guide me to the correct menu option?

This is my first try at this - Im not using CUCM, just taking this one step at a time.

Thanks, Daniel.

[Maren Mahoney]

Ah. If you are not using CUCM, what call control system are you planning to connect this phone with? And, if you are not using CUCM, do you have the 3PCC (third-party call control) model? If you have an Enterprise model phone, it can only communicate with CUCM. The 3PCC phones can be identified by looking at the model number on the back. If the model number includes "3PCC" or "MPP" then it is 3PCC. If it has neither it is an Enterprise phone.

I don't believe the web page is accessible until it is connected to a system, but I could be mistaken. But pretty much anything you would like to see should be available via the Settings menu. Look for the button on the phone that looks like a wheel/sprocket.

Does this help?

Maren

[Daniel Howden]

Right, I see. Please forgive my ignorance. 

I guess I can just load up the cucm on my PC and then take it from there. 

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Um, not so much. CUCM is an entire virtual machine - operating system and application stack - that is deployed in a cluster across multiple servers to provide on-premises IP PBX functionality.

IP Phones are dumb terminals; they are useless without a call control platform. The 8800 series has two firmware trains: Enterprise for on-premises Cisco call control (CUCM, CME) although the Asterisk community has also reverse engineered how to get it working and MPP intended for Webex Calling multi-tenant and anything else (e.g. Asterisk, Zoom Phone, Ring Central, etc.) You need to figure out which firmware train you're running and what you intend to use the phone with.

[Daniel Howden]

Ok, so I was just wanting to use it as a work phone. It is a nice phone and I'm hoping I can figure out a way to use it. 

Will the firmware version be available via the phones own interface?

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Use it with what service? This isn't an analog landline phone; you can't just plug it into a wall jack and get dial tone.

The menu structure differs between Enterprise and MPP but both will have an information screen that shows what version it's running. Enterprise firmware versions look like "cmterm-88xx-sip.14-3-1-0101-131" while MPP looks like "cp-88xx.11-0-0MPP-7". You can convert between the two but it's not free. This distinction is pointless until you settle on the call control platform though.

[Daniel Howden]

Thanks Jonathan, I have setup an account with voipfone.co.uk

I was just reading up on the Asterisk which sounds an interesting option for me. Thank you for the pointer. 

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Ok, you should be using MPP with that and will need to rely on their documentation (if any) for how to configure the phone. The admin web interface of the MPP firmware train has a ton of nerd nobs since it supports so many platforms.

You might be able to trick the phone into registering on Enterprise firmware following clues from the Asterisk community but it wasn't designed for this; your millage may vary and likely frustrating. There is no local option to enable the web interface on Enterprise. Web access has to be enabled in the XML file as @Maren Mahoney indicated - but it's a read only web interface with basic status/log info. The only way to configure an Enterprise phone is by having it download an XML config file from a TFTP server. The phone also doesn't have a UK locale by default, either user (UI) or network (tones), so you'd have to get those files if you want it to spell and sound as you'd expect. 

[Leo Laohoo]

Ok, so if this phone is set up for Asterisk while using an Enterprise image, then the web interface tag found in the SEPmacaddress.cnf.xml have to be changed to allow web.  

    <webProtocol>0</webProtocol>
    <webAccess>0</webAccess>

The tag <webAccess>  value of 0 means HTTP is enabled (1 is disabled). 

The tag <webProtocol> of 0 means both HTTP/HTTPS while 1 is only HTTPS.

[Daniel Howden]

Hi, I just wanted to come back to this thread.  I have CUCM 12.5 loading on Linux, during the install I said that this was the first node but going forward from that I can't seen to get the install to access an NTP server.

I am running this on a VMware VM and I am wondering if I need to open up my firewall to allow the install of the CUCM access to an NTP server.

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

It wants a true NTPv4 server and upstream reference. It won't sync if there is a Windows SNTP anywhere upstream.

CUCM will automatically open outbound UDP 123 toward the defined NTP server(s) in its local host firewall of the VM OS. Last I checked, VMware ESXi vSwitches don't have a firewall, so you'd only need to worry about network security infrastructure.

[Daniel Howden]

OK thank you, is there a public server I can use?

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

You could use a public server if network reachability exists from CUCM to the public. You could use time.google.com as an NTP server if you prefer a public one.