Before I buy an 8841 for my home Asterisk server

[supportguy]

I found refurbished Cisco 8841 phones for sale locally, and I'm thinking about trying them with my home Asterisk server (using SIP).  Before I buy one...I have some concerns:

1. I've seen lots of posts saying be sure to get the latest firmware.  So I tried to download it form Cisco, but the Cisco website says I need a support account.  Do I have to pay to download firmware?

2. Can I just flash it with new SIP firmware and it will work like a regular SIP phone?

3. I saw a couple of posts saying you must configure Asterisk to use SIP over TCP instead of UDP.  Is this correct?

4. Do I need to put a config file on my tftp server for this phone to work?  The config file examples I found are huge...I'd like to just use the screen interface (or web GUI if there is one)

5.  I see warnings about using the 3PCC firmware, but some of these comments are old.  Is that still a concern?  And what's the difference between SIP and 3PCC firmwares?

[Leo Laohoo]

Why an 8841 over, say, 7945/7965/7970/7971/7975 or 9951/9971?  

The latter options are far more reliable to use on Asterisk.  

[supportguy]

I see one for sale locally at a great price ($45)...and it's got a nice color screen.  I googled a 7945G and it looks almost identical.  What is it about the 8xxx series that makes them less compatible with Asterisk?

[Roger Kallberg · Accepted solution]

Regardless of the model of phone you use it is recommended to get one with MPP (3PCC) software when using it with a 3:rd party SIP service, like Asterisk. It is possible to use the Enterprise software as well, but as that’s specifically intended for use with Cisco Communication Manager it requires some additional effort to get it to work with other type of systems.

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

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Cisco MPP phones are designed to work with third-party SIP servers like Asterisk, running MPP firmware. The Enterprise  phone has an enterprise version that  uses enterprise firmware, designed to work with Cisco enterprise solutions like CUCM or CME.

First, you need to check what firmware the phone is loaded with—whether it’s enterprise or MPP.

If the phone comes with Cisco enterprise firmware, converting it to MPP requires a license, which incurs a cost.

Regarding your question about downloading software from the Cisco portal, you can only do so if you have a valid contract. If your phone has a valid contract, attach the contract to your profile, and you will be able to download the software. Since you are buying the hardware from non-recommended channels, I assume they won’t be under contract, and in this case, you won’t be able to download the software.

If you still need to use the enterprise version phone with your Asterisk server, you should be able to do that by tweaking the configuration file and loading it using TFTP.

If you reset the 8841 to factory settings, it will never convert to MPP if it’s running enterprise firmware.

I’m not sure about the Asterisk TCP/UDP configuration; someone else might be able to answer that.