Help getting 7960 phones to talk to one another

[tylermcrone]

Hello experts,

My classmates and I were assigned a lab to get two 7960's to talk to one another. We have a 2800 series router and a 2950 switch at our disposal as well as a PC. We were also given this video to help us out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rQakFGMZRM

We were able to successfully perform the task in PacketTracer, but when it came time to physically perform the lab, we followed all the instructions and the phones are hung up on the "Configuring IP" screen. We honestly do not know where to go from here and have been  stuck for over a week with this. Could anyone please help us push forwards? Please mind that we are completely new to this and additional hand-holding may be needed
Thanks!

[Joseph Martini]

If you followed the video from the link the first thing that may be causing trouble is that the voice vlan on the switch is configured to be vlan 1.  On certain switches the phones will not function properly when the voice and access vlan are configured to the same value.  The default access vlan is 1 also so if this has not been changed the above configuration would make both the access vlan and voice vlan the same at vlan 1.  Try and change the access on the switch ports that your phones are connected to, to a different vlan such as vlan 2.  This can be done with "enable", "conf t", "interface fa", "switchport access vlan 2". 

If you are still having trouble after that, make sure that CDP is enabled on your switch with "show cdp" and lastly looking at the phones themselves, pressing the settings button and navigating to status, then to status messages should show you what the current problem is with the phones, meaning if it is failing to learn the router's address to register or if you have a DHCP problem causing the phones not to get an IP address.

[tylermcrone]

Should it be just the phones on vlan 2 or can we put all devices on vlan 2?

Also, we did ensure that cdp and dhcp were working properly, but the phones are still hung up on the initial set-up phase

Message was edited by: Tyler Crone

[Trent McKee]

Also please paste the router config from packet tracer. We need to ensure the step for option 150 wasn't missed in the DHCP pool which allows the phones to pull their configs.

[Leo Laohoo]

My classmates and I were assigned a lab to get two 7960's to talk to one another. We have a 2800 series router and a 2950 switch at our disposal as well as a PC.

Need more information.  What do you mean with "talk to one another"?  Are you trying to make CALLS from one phone to another?

[tylermcrone]

Yes, we are trying to have the phones call each other. I'm sorry that was not clear.

[Leo Laohoo]

Yes, we are trying to have the phones call each other. 

Ok, so let's start with the basics.  What voice-related modules does your router have?

Can you please post the output to the following commands:

1.  sh version; and

2.  sh inventory

[tylermcrone]

and

[Leo Laohoo]

You're running the wrong Feature Set.

Your "sh version" shows your Feature Set to be Advanced IP Service.  To enable your router to operate as CME, you need to have SP Services.

[tylermcrone]

How do we acquire sp services instead of advanced ip service?

[Leo Laohoo]

How do we acquire sp services instead of advanced ip service?

I can recommend you two options to choose from:

1.  Cisco CME - You need to have a valid SERVICE CONTRACT attached to your CCO login in order to be able to get the correct IOS with the correct feature set.

2.  Other method - I have some 7960 at home that I use to make VoIP.  I am not rich enough to pay for the Cisco CME solution.  Instead I use Asterisk/FreePBX and installed in a Raspberry Pi.  Alternatively, you can install Asterisk/FreePBX in a Beagle Bone box.  Asterisk/FreePBX is a free software which a lot of people use to do VoIP.  Raspberry Pi and Beagle Bone is a cheap Linux-based computer which you can purchase from the internet for as low as US$50.  If you don't like Asterisk/FreePBX you could also use Asterisk/Trixbox.

[tylermcrone]

Thank you so much for your help. We are going to send this to our professor and see where he wants us to go from here.

[Leo Laohoo]

Here are some Asterisk-related sites for you to chew on:

Asterisk for Raspberry Pi

http://www.raspberry-asterisk.org/

Asterisk for BeagleBone

http://www.beaglebone-asterisk.org/

As this is a Cisco website, any Asterisk-related questions will need to go to the appropriate websites.  It is bad taste for me (or anyone) to respond to Asterisk-related questions here.