SX10 Standalone Questions

[aroberts7475]

I just purchased 2 SX10 systems for our company (only 2 cisco devices in company). I'm in the process of installing and configuring both now.

I have a public IP for each device, both of which are outside of the firewall. I simply want both to be able to connect to other outside companies (send and receive) around the country via IP Address. the other companies are using wide spectrum of equipment. polycom, lifesize etc. I want to keep it simple as possible for our staff to use. I was using lifesize equip, both of those units decided to die just after warranty lapsed on both so I decided on the SX10's to replace both. as soon as I started to set the new SX10's up it was asking me to set up sip. I have no idea what I'm doing 

I'm new to the telepresence scene so please any help or advice would be great.

[Chris Swinney]

Hi aroberts7475,

I general most "standards" based videoconferencing devices using IP use a couple of sets of standard protocols, these are:

• H.323
• SIP

H.323 is actually a set of standards governed by the ITU and comprise multiple other standards and protocols. SIP is a standardised protocol under an RFC from the IETF. Whilst from our point of view both do pretty much the same thing, they are different and one device using only H.323 cannot natively talk to another device using only SIP. Lots of devices, however, support both.

Now here's the rub. Your SX10 only supports SIP. Most other VC devices still use H.323, and even if they support SIP, they may not have it configured. It is possible to convert from H.323 to SIP (and vice versa) but you need another piece of kit, or have to hope that the opposing side has a this bit of kit and has it configured correctly. The industry seem like it is gradually switch from H.323 to SIP, but we're not there yet by any means.

As it stands, you will need to setup your SX10 as a standalone device, and there are plenty of threads on this forum that relate to that very subject - the search is you friend.However, be aware that you may NOT be able to do all that you want to do, if the opposing side is still using H.323. The minimum Cisco Telepresence device that supports both H.323 and SIP is the SX20.

Cheers

Chris

[Jens Didriksen]

In addition to what Chris said, also be aware when dialling IP addresses using SIP, then the IP address must be prefixed by anything@ - "anything" can literally be anything you want. I.e. if you're calling another SX10 using the IP address, let's say the IP address is 123.456.7.8 - then you dial sx10@123.456.7.8 (again, you can replace "sx10" with whatever you want to use.)

Majority of other organisations will most likely be using URI dialling, so if they ask you to dial something like mycodec@mycompany.com - then that is the correct address.

Also be aware of all the security implications when using public IP addresses, there are a number of threads covering these in this forum; i.e. spam calls etc, i.e. see https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12340591/nuisance-h323-calls-sx20 - this for h.323 calls, but it's the same for SIP.

/jens

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