4 Phone Device Management
Phones can be configured one by one manually using their web interface, which is time-consuming and leads to many errors; or by using the phone provisioning feature offered by PortSIP PBX, which makes it possible to manage phones centrally and remotely and without having to login to the phone’s web interface one by one. Using this method you instruct the phone to retrieve its configuration from the PortSIP PBX.
Phone provisioning greatly eases the day-to-day management of IP phones. It makes it easy to change extension passwords, BLF lights, and so on because you can do it centrally for all phones from the PortSIP PBX Web Portal and then push the changes to the phone. The following provisioning methods are supported:
- Plug and Play - Supported IP phones can be provisioned automatically using plug and play (Applicable for phones on the local LAN)
- Via RPS - For the Fanvil, Yealink ALE, and Htek IP Phones, they can be provisioned by the RPS
- Via Manual Provisioning URL - Supported IP phones can be provisioned by entering the provisioning URL into the phone's web interface (Applicable for local, remote, and SBC extensions)
Note: PnP provisioning requires that the PortSIP PBX run on the default sip port 5060 and that the IP phones reside on the same local LAN subnet as PortSIP PBX.
To auto-provision phones using Plug and Play:
- 1.Plug the phone into the network
- 2.The phone will send a multicast message across the LAN, this will be picked up by PortSIP PBX
- 3.The phone will show up in the “Call Manager > Phones” menu in the Web Portal as a new phone
- 4.Assign the phone to an existing extension or create a new one for the phone
- 5.Go to the extension’s “Phone Provisioning” tab and specify other configuration settings for the phone
- 6.Enter the password for access IP Phone web UI
- 7.Select “Phone Display Language” and “Timezone” for the phone
- 8.Click “OK”
- 9.The PBX sends the configuration file URL to the IP Phone, the IP phone will download the configuration file automatically
- 10.The phone will apply the settings and connect to PortSIP PBX. The IP phone will be manageable from within the PortSIP PBX Web Portal
As shown in the screenshot above, you can set a password for the IP Phone web portal, and choose a network interface that the IP Phone can use to connect to PBX. This value usually refers to the "Outbound Proxy Server" for the IP Phone.
As shown in the screenshot above, you can choose a transport that the IP Phone can use to connect to the PBX. The "Save to RPS" option indicates that you can save the provision link to the IP Phone RPS. The "HTTPS" option is used to generate the provision link for HTTPS or not.
Remote phones that are not on the same LAN as the PortSIP PBX and that can't broadcast the SIP message then must be configured manually by the provisioning link. To provision a remote phone:
- 1.From the “Call Manager > Phones” menu in the PortSIP PBX Web Portal, select “Add Phone”.
- 2.Select the extension that the phone uses.
- 3.Enter the MAC address of the phone (which can be found at the bottom of the phone).
- 4.Select the appropriate phone model from the drop-down menu.
- 5.Select “Phone Display Language” and “Timezone” for the phone.
- 6.Enter the password for access IP Phone web UI
- 7.Click the "OK" button and then edit this extension.
- 8.Copy the provisioning link.
- 9.Insert the provisioning link manually into the phones. You can find it in the “Phone Provisioning” tab of the extension configuration.
In the case where PortSIP PBX is located in the cloud, IP Phones can be auto-provisioned via RPS (RPS is a service provided by IP Phone vendors). PortSIP PBX supports Fanvil, Yealink, and Htek RPS. If you are using the IP phone from one of the providers above, you may configure your IP phone in a very easy way, without the need to manually copy the auto-provisioning link (in this scenario, the PnP mode is unavailable).
- 1.From the “Call Manager > Phones” menu in the PortSIP PBX Web Portal, select “Add Phone”.
- 2.Select the extension that the phone uses.
- 3.Enter the MAC address of the phone (which can be found at the bottom of the phone).
- 4.Select the appropriate phone model from the drop-down menu.
- 5.Select “Phone Display Language” and “Timezone” for the phone.
- 6.Enter the password for access IP Phone web UI
- 7.Turn on the "Save to RPS" option
- 8.Click the "OK" button, and the PortSIP PBX will write the provisioning link to the IP Phone's RPS. When the IP Phone is powered on, it will query the provisioning link from the RPS server using its MAC address to complete the auto-provisioning.
PortSIP PBX provides an easy way to monitor and manage your phones and softphones throughout your network. The “Call Manager > Phones” menu in the PortSIP PBX Web Portal allows you to:
- View all the phones in the network, including IP and MAC.
- View all PortSIP Clients connected in softphone mode.
- Check the firmware version that the phone is running.
- Remotely reboot one or all of the phones.
- Re-provision the phones.
- Launch the admin interface of the phone.
- Monitor the security of the extension password and PIN. Weak extension passwords and PINs are the most common cause of security breaches.
- Plug and Play - Plug in the phone in the local LAN
- By MAC - for legacy phones
- By RPS - for remote phones
If you are connecting a supported phone that is on the same LAN as PortSIP PBX, you will see the phone appear on the "Call Manager > Phones" page. This means PortSIP PBX has detected a new phone on the network that you need to process.
Select the phone and decide to:
- 1.Assign the phone to an existing extension. Click “Assign Extension” You will be prompted for the extension number.
- 2.Create a new extension for the phone. Click the “Add Extension” button. You will be taken to the create extension page and prompted for the Extension name and number. Click “OK” to create the extension.
- 3.Reject the phone. If the phone does not look familiar to you, or it has not been authorized for use with PortSIP PBX, you can “Reject” to delete the provisioning request.
If you are adding phones that are installed remotely, i.e., PBX in the cloud, you must:
- 1.Click the “Add Phone” button from the “Call Manager > Phones” page.
- 2.Select an extension this phone uses.
- 3.Select the phone model.
- 4.Enter the MAC address of the device and click “OK”.
- 5.You can optionally configure other settings for the phone.
- 6.Turn on the "Save to RPS" option.
- 7.When done, click “OK” to add the phone to the extension.
- 8.Now the PortSIP PBX will write the provisioning link to the IP Phone RPS. Once the IP phone starts, it will obtain the link from the RPS to download the profile from PortSIP PBX automatically. Note: currently PortSIP PBX only support the PRS for Fanvil, Yealink, and Htek; if your IP Phone is not provided by one of them, please follow step 9.
- 9.Copy the provisioning link and insert it into your IP phone manually.
Changes made to the phone configuration from the “General” tab of the “Extensions” section or within the “Phone Provisioning” tab of the “Settings” section for certain extension, will take effect within 24 hours. You can re-provision the phones to force them to pick up the new configuration immediately. If you need to re-provision the phones, for example after you have made configuration changes:
- 1.Select the phones that you wish to re-provision.
- 2.Click “Reprovision”.
- 3.If the phone needs a reboot, it will be done automatically.
Last modified 3h ago