Cisco CP-8841 Phone with Asterisk

[George Gaither]

A customer purchased 10 phones CP-8841-K9-V01 phones to use with an Elastix/Asterisk PBX configuration.  The active load shows to be sip88xx.10-3-1-20.  Is there anyway to put the 3PCC on them?  

[Leo Laohoo]

1.  Use 3PCC at your own peril.  That's all I'm going to say. 

2.  For home/hobby use, I'll help anyone setting up Cisco phones to talk to non-Cisco based call server.  For business use, I will decline (out of respect). 

[George Gaither]

Hi Leo.

Thanks for the response.  I guess the main question centers around whether or not it must have the 3PCC SKU for it to work.  I've arranged to send the 10 phones back, but would still like to know for future reference if it's possible and the pitfalls.  First time I've run into this issue.

[Leo Laohoo]

Asterisk-based systems work on industry standard SIP protocol.  The phones themselves work on SIP natively. 

Next, there is a plethora of outside documentation about how to get these phones to work with Asterisk-based systems using SIP firmware.  3PCC firmware just came out around 2016 and not a lot of people have made the migration from SIP to 3PCC.  The ones that did, found in this forum, didn't have a good experience.  

[George Gaither]

Ok. I'm interested in knowing how to configure them as the nicer models seem to not have the 3PCC designation. I've looked through some of the forums, but it comes across as completely arbitrary. I usually deploy Yealink or older SPA phones, but this was an instance of a customer striking out on their own for a model they really liked. 

[Leo Laohoo]

The Cisco phones, like any Cisco phones of the past (excluding the SPA ones) require a file called SEPmacaddress.cnf.xml.  

I have posted several known working SEPmacaddress.cnf.xml file(s) in this forum.  It's just a question of finding them.  

I'm not trying to be rude, but the phones will be used for business, hence, I will be declining any request on how to configure them for Asterisk. 

[George Gaither]

No problem, I got and accepted that from the first post. However, my curiosity has been activated...lol. I'll figure it out.

[roliveira]

Hi Leo,

Hoping you are still active on this forum. I trying to swap out a Cisco SPA525G2 for a Cisco CP8841, but cannot figure out the SIP configuration. My residential VoIP service provider (PhonePower.com) doesn't officially support this phone but they say if I can configure SIP as I did with SPA525G2 the phone should work. I cannot get into any admin portal like I can with the SPA525G2. I love the look of this phone, but if I can't configure it I'll have to send it back. My VoIP service provider thinks the phone is lock to a previous service. Any thoughts? Attaching a screenshot of the Welcome screen where I am stuck. Resetting the device has no effect. :(

Thanks in advance,
Robert

[Leo Laohoo]

My VoIP service provider thinks the phone is lock to a previous service.

Judging from the screenshot provided I tend to agree.  I've never seen something like this before.  

Try factory-reseting the phone.  

1. Power down the phone. 
2. Press "#" when you power on the phone
3. You will see the headset,speaker and mute will light on and then light off.
4. When you see only headset and speaker turn on again, please press 123456789*0# in sequence.
5. After you pressed the the first digit "1", you will see speaker turn off.
6. After all the number are input completely in sequence, you will see Mute button turns on to indicate phone begin to do the factory reset.

If the factory-reset works, I recommend you create a new thread.

[roliveira]

Thanks Leo,

Unfortunately I've come to the realization that this phone will not work for me with my current service provider. I am looking at other options, but not moving any further with this question at this time. Thanks for your help!

Robert

[Leo Laohoo]

Unfortunately I've come to the realization that this phone will not work for me with my current service provider.

Can we ask why not?  

[roliveira]

Certainly. As mentioned earlier my residential VoIP provider doesn't officially support this phone (or any phone they cannot configure). This leaves the end-user with the responsibility to setup the device using SIP credentials. I checked with another VoIP provider and they said the 8841 would also not work on their service. It appears having a configuration file isn't enough. The phone must be compatible with Open-SIP networks as I understand it. I am not an IT person but have been fairly successful at handling some of these tasks. This one just seems beyond my capabilities at this time. Short of switching service providers there doesn't appear to be much I can do on this right now. I'll open a new thread as needed. Thanks again.

[Leo Laohoo]

The phone must be compatible with Open-SIP networks as I understand it.

Cisco phones, regardless of model, support SIP.  This is the same SIP standard every VoIP phone runs on.  

If you Google "cisco phones asterisk", for example, you'll see a long list of hits from people who's successfully integrated Cisco phones to non-Cisco call manager system using SIP (like me).  

Short of switching service providers there doesn't appear to be much I can do on this right now. 

Looking for a voice service provider that will help you configure Cisco phones is difficult because all they want is your money and they don't really care about your phone(s) or how to set them up.  

Good luck with the search and create a new thread when you are ready.

[#14]

Hi Leo,

The phone in the screenshot is running an Enterprise firmware and is asking for a registration code for Cisco Spark as call control.

Resetting the service mode will just enable the phone to register to CUCM or Spark or Expressway (if it is used as a VPN phone). 

For 3rd party call control we have phones that are certified for Asterisk, Broadsoft, etc... but they are running a 3PCC firmware.

[Leo Laohoo]

For 3rd party call control we have phones that are certified for Asterisk, Broadsoft, etc... but they are running a 3PCC firmware.

Thanks for the update, Jerry.