[asterisk-users] Siemens Gigaset S685IP Review

[Alan Lord]

Hi there,

in case anyone is interested, I've just taken ownership of a small home
network (3 handsets) of the brand new Siemens DECT PSTN/VOIP phone.

It works great with Asterisk. Here's my overview and review so far...

http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/27/siemens-gigaset-685ip-phones/

Cheers

Al

[Michael Graves]

Post by Alan Lord
Hi there,
in case anyone is interested, I've just taken ownership of a small home
network (3 handsets) of the brand new Siemens DECT PSTN/VOIP phone.
It works great with Asterisk. Here's my overview and review so far...
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/27/siemens-gigaset-685ip-phones/

Most excellent review! I've been waiting for the C6xxIP series to be
available in the US. I hope that it happens soon.

Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
sip:***@pixelpower.onsip.com
skype mjgraves
***@fwd.pulver.com

[Andreas van dem Helge]

AFAIK Siemens ceased distribution of their Gigaset line in North
America a few years ago either you find a wholesaler that is importing
"grey market" items or you buy it from a distributor overseas.

Post by Michael Graves

Post by Alan Lord
Hi there,
in case anyone is interested, I've just taken ownership of a small home
network (3 handsets) of the brand new Siemens DECT PSTN/VOIP phone.
It works great with Asterisk. Here's my overview and review so far...
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/27/siemens-gigaset-685ip-phones/

Most excellent review! I've been waiting for the C6xxIP series to be
available in the US. I hope that it happens soon.
Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
skype mjgraves
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[Jaap Winius]

Post by Alan Lord
in case anyone is interested, I've just taken ownership of a small home
network (3 handsets) of the brand new Siemens DECT PSTN/VOIP phone.
It works great with Asterisk. ...

Sounds great, especially where you say that you got MWI to work with
Asterisk. I bought a couple of S675IP units a few months ago and have
never been able to get MWI to work. The relevant lines that I've added
to my phone's SIP config are:

subscribemwi=yes
mailbox=***@phones,1234

I'm using Asterisk v1.4.19. AFAIK, this is a firmware problem that,
according to voip-info.org, also affects the c470ip (same firmware),
but Siemens has yet to fix.

Cheers,

Jaap

[Michael Graves]

Post by Andreas van dem Helge
AFAIK Siemens ceased distribution of their Gigaset line in North
America a few years ago either you find a wholesaler that is importing
"grey market" items or you buy it from a distributor overseas.

Was there any particular reason? I guess they're just not in the
consumer electronincs business in North America. They seem to be more
in the industrial end.

Post by Andreas van dem Helge

Post by Michael Graves

Post by Alan Lord
Hi there,
in case anyone is interested, I've just taken ownership of a small home
network (3 handsets) of the brand new Siemens DECT PSTN/VOIP phone.
It works great with Asterisk. Here's my overview and review so far...
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/27/siemens-gigaset-685ip-phones/

Most excellent review! I've been waiting for the C6xxIP series to be
available in the US. I hope that it happens soon.
Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
skype mjgraves
_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
asterisk-users mailing list
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

_______________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
asterisk-users mailing list
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
http://blog.mgraves.org
o713-861-4005
c713-201-1262
sip:***@pixelpower.onsip.com
skype mjgraves
***@fwd.pulver.com

[Marco]

Hi Alan,
yeah, latest Siemens DECT phones with VoIP support are quite the new
Chuck Norris of cordless phones. Personally I use the C470IP on a
business context and a C475IP at home (for the integrated answering
machine). The audio quality is amazing, and the extra services are
definitely a plus.
I just found 2 big cons:

* The transfer/hold modes is quite a pain, and it takes many
keypress to activate, which doesn't make them suitable for all people
* The firmware and ALL of the pre-recorded messages are in german. I
had some customers a little scared about this!

What do you think?
Bye

Marco

Post by Alan Lord
Hi there,
in case anyone is interested, I've just taken ownership of a small home
network (3 handsets) of the brand new Siemens DECT PSTN/VOIP phone.
It works great with Asterisk. Here's my overview and review so far...
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/27/siemens-gigaset-685ip-phones/
Cheers
Al

[Alan Lord]

Post by Marco
Hi Alan,
yeah, latest Siemens DECT phones with VoIP support are quite the new
Chuck Norris of cordless phones. Personally I use the C470IP on a
business context and a C475IP at home (for the integrated answering
machine). The audio quality is amazing, and the extra services are
definitely a plus.
* The transfer/hold modes is quite a pain, and it takes many
keypress to activate, which doesn't make them suitable for all people
* The firmware and ALL of the pre-recorded messages are in german. I
had some customers a little scared about this!
What do you think?
Bye
Marco

Hi Marco,

As I've only had them a few days and so haven't used all the features
yet. Call transfer is one that I do need to do but, I guess it's the
same with most things, once you get into a "routine" I don't think that
2 or 3 keypresses will seem a chore.

As for the language, the phones I bought are for the UK market and
everything is English. I have heard of Australians, who seem to have to
buy from the UK or Europe getting German or Dutch versions before but it
wasn't a problem here. These are UK market units.

Ciao

Al

[Fons van der Beek]

I also bought the door intercom HC450 it also works like a charm
The only drawback:
It's not possible (to my knowledge) to make a call TO the HC450-intercom
from asterisk

The only drawback sofar with C470IP and C475IP are
it's not possible to assign ONE handset dedicated to the landline in
respect to OUTGOING calls
you allways have to pre-dail something.....

Post by Alan Lord

Post by Marco
Hi Alan,
yeah, latest Siemens DECT phones with VoIP support are quite the new
Chuck Norris of cordless phones. Personally I use the C470IP on a
business context and a C475IP at home (for the integrated answering
machine). The audio quality is amazing, and the extra services are
definitely a plus.
* The transfer/hold modes is quite a pain, and it takes many
keypress to activate, which doesn't make them suitable for all people
* The firmware and ALL of the pre-recorded messages are in german. I
had some customers a little scared about this!
What do you think?
Bye
Marco

Hi Marco,
As I've only had them a few days and so haven't used all the features
yet. Call transfer is one that I do need to do but, I guess it's the
same with most things, once you get into a "routine" I don't think that
2 or 3 keypresses will seem a chore.
As for the language, the phones I bought are for the UK market and
everything is English. I have heard of Australians, who seem to have to
buy from the UK or Europe getting German or Dutch versions before but it
wasn't a problem here. These are UK market units.
Ciao
Al

[Jaap Winius]

Post by Marco
* The firmware and ALL of the pre-recorded messages are in german. I
had some customers a little scared about this!

I have German units too (of the S675IP), but it's easy to switch the
menu language to English. If the pre-recorded messages are still in
German (and I believe they are), then I don't think anyone has
noticed, since I let Asterisk do my voicemail for me. However, if you
want to use the unit's integrated answering machine -- in English -- I
would think that would just be a question of finding and installing a
UK firmware version... unless maybe the pre-recorded messages are
separate files.

Cheers,

Jaap

PS -- I opted for the German versions because they cost significantly less.

[Alan Lord]

Jaap Winius wrote:
<snip /> However, if you

Post by Jaap Winius
want to use the unit's integrated answering machine -- in English -- I
would think that would just be a question of finding and installing a
UK firmware version... unless maybe the pre-recorded messages are
separate files.
Cheers,
Jaap

I recall reading somewhere that there are "codes" you can enter to
change things like this. It might have been on one of the Gigaset
forums, but I can't remember.

As an aside, I noticed while scanning the back of the manual, that the
software, or some if it at least, is LGPL and you can download the source.

I've added a link on my blog:
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/30/siemens-gigaset-uses-lgpl/

Also, for those who struggled with the vcard import, here's a link:
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/30/s685ip-and-the-vcard-format/

Cheers,

Al

[Olivier]

Do we agree on the fact you can't change a S68 handset display name (S68
should be the model name of the handset included in a S685IP package) from a
computer ?

If my memory serves me right, you can change S685IP base station settings
but not handset settings (display name, subscription to an other base
station, ...), isn't it ?

[Olivier]

Post by Olivier
Do we agree on the fact you can't change a S68 handset display name (S68
should be the model name of the handset included in a S685IP package) from a
computer ?
If my memory serves me right, you can change S685IP base station settings
but not handset settings (display name, subscription to an other base
station, ...), isn't it ?

I checked with Gigaset QuickSync (for S68H and other bluetooth enabled
handsets) software latest version : it allows contacts sync but nothing for
other settings (display names, language, base station association ...) ...

[Alan Lord]

Post by Olivier
Do we agree on the fact you can't change a S68 handset display name (S68
should be the model name of the handset included in a S685IP package)
from a computer ?
If my memory serves me right, you can change S685IP base station
settings but not handset settings (display name, subscription to an
other base station, ...), isn't it ?

You can certainly give each handset a more sensible name if that's what
you mean...