1120e & 1140e DHCP Issue

[Crash4723]

I am working on the Nortel 1120e and 1140e phones. I have about 100 of each and have set up a tftp server with the current Unistim firmware for each. I set the provisioning server in the phones to my tftp server address (192.168.1.123) and enabled DHCP in the phone. The majority of the 1120e's connected, downloaded, and installed the new firmware with no problems at all. About 10 phones are hung up on the DHCP screen and eventually error out. Of those 10 ohones I can go into them, turn DHCP off, manually set the ip address, reboot, and the phone connects, downloads & installs the firmware. Once completed I turn the DHCP back on in the phone and it once again hangs up on DHCP. It's as if the phone never receives an ip address.

The same happened to my 1140's, however I have about 10 that worked with no issues, and about 80 of them that hang up on the DHCP screen. I am able to manually assign the ip address in order to upgrade the firmware, but the same issue exists post firmware upgrade.

Is this a malfunction of a part of the phone? Will the phone operate correctly if installed in a system the does not use DHCP?

I am just looking to know if these phones should be ruled as DEFECTIVE or if there is a piece to the puzzle that I am missing?

Thanks in advance!

-Crash

 

[allenmac]

I have had these symptoms occur with older versions of firmware. I had to manually configure the voice vlan in order for DHCP to work correctly.

Once the phones were on the latest firmware, I set everything back to auto, and they have worked well since. Make sure in your provisioning files that you are specifying how the phone gets the voice v-lan if necessary.

 

[Crash4723]

No VLAN, and all phones are running the exact same firmware.

 

[SSJVirus007]

No VLAN? Not good for VoIP phone. Avaya/Nortel required DCHP setup as this.

DHCP options will actually work with any of Nortel’s Internet Telephones including the i2002/i2004/i2007/1120E/1140E and 1150E.
You’ll need to add a custom vendor DHCP option with a code of “128″ as a string value. You should name this DHCP option as “Call Server Information”. The value of this DHCP option will use the following format.

Nortel-i2004-A,iii.iii.iii.iiipppp,aaa,rrr;iii.iii.iii.iiipppp,aaa,rrr.

Where the following values are;
• “Nortel-i2004-A” = Option #128 begins with this string for all Nortel IP phone sets
• “iii.iii.iii.iii” = the IP Address of the Call Server (S1 or S2)
• “ppppp” = port number for the Call Server
• “aaa” = the Action for the Server
• “rrr” = the Retry Count for the Server

 

[KCFLHRC]

The above information is some what true. S1 and S2 is not the IP address of the Call Server, S1 and S2 needs to be the Node IP address.

 

[Crash4723]

These phones are not in service. I operate a warehouse where we bring these phones in and test them, clean them, and send them back out. I do not need to connect to S1 or S2, I am just connecting to a tftp server to upgrade the firmware in the phone. Some of the phones behave different than the other phones (the ones that do not connect using DHCP). I want to know if it is because they are "defective" or if there is something I can do to correct it.

 

[KCFLHRC]

I would try this default procedure for the phone and see if it works afterwards.

With UNIStim firmware release 3.0, and greater, the following keypad sequence is used to reset all provisioning parameters to a “factory default”:

[*][*][7][3][6][3][9][MAC][#][#]

Where the MAC corresponds to the MAC address of the IP Phone which can be found on a label on the back of the IP Phone.

Since a MAC address can contain the letters A through F, the letters A, B and C can be entered via the [2] key on the dial pad, and letters D, E and F can be entered via the [3] key.

For example, an IP Phone with MAC address 00:19:E1:E2:17:12 would be reset to “factory default” when the sequence **73639001931321712## is entered on the keypad.

 

[Crash4723]

Yup.. Tried the factory default, phone resets no problem, but still hangs on DHCP screen.

 

[KCFLHRC]

What is supplying DHCP, your TFTP Server?

 

[Crash4723]

Cisco router

 

[KCFLHRC]

Kinda weird some work and some don't. But you already knew that.

 

[jasonmerchants]

You mention Cisco router -- are you also connecting through a Cisco switch (L2 or L3)? Portfast enabled on the ports? Some of the phones might be timing out before the negotiation takes place if it's not enabled on the connected ports.

Jason
Network Engineer, Cisco, Nortel, ShoreTel

 

[Crash4723]

I am using a Nortel Baystack 460-24T-PWR. I am only connected to 5 ports at any given time. I have switched phones around to different ports, copied configurations exactly side by side with a properly connecting phone, etc. Still hangs on the DHCP screen. I am almost to the point of flagging these phones as defective. I am out of ideas and options.

 

[ucxguy]

Maybe there are a few more things to try. The problem could be the timing of responses from the DHCP server.

You could use another DHCP server on a device that is connected directly to the Baystack with your phones.

If you know how to do packet captures, then capture the traffic on the port with one of the misbehaving phones and then use Wireshark to take a look at the packets. You should see DHCP requests from the phone and HDCP responses from the router. If the requests are missing (I personally doubt it), there would be some kind of a problem with the phone. If the responses are missing, there is a problem with your network or your router (requests don't make it to the router or responses don't make it back to the phone). If there is a significant delay between the requests are responses, it would still be your network that causes it.

 

[Tman45]

I have been told it is bad DHCP BOOTP (happened with some 2000 series too) ... I have had this happen on several phones and I think it is more something with having Auto set ... I hard-set VLAN and S1/S2 and then they seem to work just fine. Then, yes, I think you can set them back to Auto and then they work ... haven't really spent a lot of time on troubleshooting them as I am too busy with other stuff.

 

[Crash4723]

***Update***

After playing with the phones a bit more I figured out that the VOICE 802.1Q needed to be turned off for the phone to connect to the TFTP server and download/install the new firmware. After download/install I went back in, changed everything to AUTO, rebooted the phone. It connected, searched for updates, recognized it was running the current available firmware, the proceeded to connect to S1. I did a factory reset on each phone and then loaded a BCM 50 and now each phone connects to the BCM 50 no problems at all..