IP Phone Configuration Guide Overview

Cloud Voice works with most IP phones that speak SIP (Session Initiation Protocol, the standard signaling language phones and the PBX use to set up calls), so you can bring almost any desk phone into your hosted phone system. There is usually more than one way to get a handset registered, and the best choice depends on how many phones you are deploying and what each model supports. This page explains the available connection methods and links to the step-by-step guide for each phone brand.

Configuration methods

Pick the method that fits your deployment and your hardware.

Method	What it does	When to use it
Auto provisioning	Configures many identical phones at once, general preferences, codecs, and extension registration, and lets you manage them centrally from Cloud Voice.	Rolling out a batch of phones that support auto provisioning.
Manual provisioning	Configures a single phone by pasting a Cloud Voice provisioning link into the phone’s web interface, which applies the same general settings and registers the extension.	Phones that do not support RPS auto provisioning.
Manual registration	Registers one or more extensions on a phone by entering the SIP credentials directly, with no further provisioning.	Any phone that supports the standard SIP protocol.

Auto provisioning

Auto provisioning is the fastest way to bring up a large number of matching handsets, and it keeps them under central management afterward. Cloud Voice can provision phones over two channels: RPS (Redirection and Provisioning Service) and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, the service that hands out network settings to devices). Choose the one your phones support.

Tip

Before you pick auto provisioning, confirm the phone model is on the list of devices that support it. A phone that is not supported can still be brought online with manual provisioning or manual registration (described below).

Through an on-site proxy

When you run an on-site proxy on the local network, it can provision phones in two ways:

• For phones that support PnP (Plug and Play), the proxy discovers them and pushes their configuration automatically.

• For phones that do not support PnP, the proxy hands out the configuration through a DHCP server on the local network instead.

Through RPS

RPS points a phone to Cloud Voice the first time it comes online, and the phone then pulls its configuration directly. This works even when the phone and the PBX are on different networks, because the phone vendor’s redirection service tells the handset where to look. The flow looks like this:

Through a DHCP server (no proxy)

If you need to deploy many identical phones that do not support RPS, you can use DHCP option 66 to hand each phone a Cloud Voice provisioning link. The phones use that link to retrieve their configuration from the system:

Caution

Option 66 is set on the network’s DHCP server, and every device that requests an address can receive that value. Coordinate with whoever manages the DHCP server, and make sure your entry does not overwrite an existing option 66 value, or you can misdirect other devices on the network.

Manual provisioning

For a phone that does not support RPS provisioning, you can provision it by hand: paste the Cloud Voice provisioning link into the phone’s web interface, and the phone retrieves its configuration from that link.

Note

When you have a large batch of identical phones to provision, use DHCP option 66 instead of doing them one at a time.

Manual registration

To register a phone without any provisioning, enter its SIP credentials, the extension details and the Cloud Voice server information, directly in the phone’s web interface.

Note

Manual registration only signs the extension in to Cloud Voice. Unlike provisioning, it does not push general phone settings such as preferences or codecs, so you configure any of those on the phone yourself. Use this method for any handset that speaks standard SIP.

Configuration guides

Find your phone brand below for a detailed walkthrough of each supported method.

Phone brand	Setup guides
Yealink	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Fanvil	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Snom	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Htek	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Tiptel	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Flyingvoice	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Poly	Auto Provisioning · Manual Registration
Gigaset (DECT)	Auto Provisioning
Grandstream	Provisioning · Manual Registration
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE)	Provisioning · Manual Registration
Mitel	Provisioning · Manual Registration
Wildix	Provisioning · Manual Registration
Avaya	Provisioning
NEC	Provisioning
Unify	Provisioning
Flat	Provisioning
Dinstar	Manual Registration