IP Phone firmware with VPN capability for home office

[VoiceOfJoe]

I'm looking for solution here and some info from our avaya rep suggest there may be one. Our goal is ship an employee a Nortel IP Phone (pre-configured) to there home; have them plug it into their broadband internet connection and have it automatically establish a VPN connection (independent of any other VPN connections on the same local home network) back to our BCM450 5.0 system. Trying to avoid the softphone option and provide a better plug-n-go solution that's maintenance free. We realize there is a QoS aspect of this - but assume for the moment bandwidth and response time is not an issue. Our Avaya rep said:

Unistim 4.0 (The IP Phone firmware) supports a built-in VPN client so the phone itself can establish a secure connection. This is possible with the 11xx series phone only (unistim 4 is available on all the IP Phones, but the 1100 is required for VPN - more horesepower)... However, with this being the first release of the VPN functionality it only supports a connection to a Nortel VPN device at this point. The alternative, besides a softphone on the PC, is using a hard VPN SOHO box similar to the ones offered from Avaya's data portfolio.

Has anyone done something like this? We are a Cisco shop, but I'm not opposed to deploying a Nortel VPN hardware solution to provide this capability to our users who want a home office solution.

Please advise. Thanks - VOJ

 

[Khosher]

Yes this works, however I beleive R6 has a new VPN phone feature which doesn't require the Nortel/Avaya VPN hardware. This may be a more economical and simplistic solution for you.

R6 is scheduled for release on 15/9/10 so it's only 2 weeks away. Docs are on Nortel.com if you have logon to access it.

 

[VoiceOfJoe]

Excellent! Thanks for the news. I'll check out the Rls 6 docs online. From what you know - is updating from a Rls5 to Rls6 system going to be something we need to pull in a vendor for or something we can handle our selves, assuming we have the correct keycode file provided us?

 

[Khosher]

As far as I'm aware its standard software upgrade like applying patches.

 

[telcodog]

I have 2 systems running R6 beta software and the remote teleworker is awesome. That feature alone is worth doing the upgrade for in my opinion.

I've had 2 2000 series phones sitting in my house registered to one of those sites for 8 weeks now and they have been rock solid. No problems whatsover.

Once you upgrade (same as any other upgrade), you need to buy the remote teleworker license to be able to use it. It's just a simple mouse click. Connect the BCM to the customer network and forward the appropriate ports in the router to the BCM (7000-7002 for registration, 30000-30099 for BCM50 and 60000-60099 for 450). Once that's done, just program your ip set with the public ip of the router and plug your phone into your home router. That's it!

Took Nortel long enough to finally make it this easy.

 

[VoiceOfJoe]

Good to hear! I like easy.

Didn't realize there was a separate Remote teleworker license. I assumed it just used a regular IP client license. Is there a cost difference? It can't be that much??

Didn't realize the 2000 phones worked. I understood only the 11xx did. We'll need to get pricing on those and see which one is a better fit for our wallet. I've got a 1140e I can test with.

We would normally configure a NAT'd public IP to the BCM which is behind a firewall and just the open ports needed to the BCM's internal IP address.

Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear some positive news!

VOJ

 

[telcodog]

You do need the teleworker license for it to work and still be secure. Have no idea on the pricing.

One thing to watch our for on the old 2000 series phones is make sure they are the phase 2 sets. Phase 1 will work but if you use voip trunking you might (will) have issues with DTMF tones when connecting to AAs, IVR's etc.. Save yourself a headache and just get rid of the phase 1 units.

 

[RLSbutton]

Telcodog, I have release 1 phones and I have experienced the problem with dtmf tones as well. There are no patches to fix that problem on those phones?

Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[telcodog]

Nothing will fix that issue. Nortel did away with those phase 1 sets back in 2005 (i think) and there is no way they are going to spend any time redoing firmware on sets that have been end-of-life for so long nor are they going to patch current software to fix such a specific problem. You're better off just throwing them out. I spent 2 f#ck98g days screwing around with those damned things and that's exactly what we did. Replaced them all with phase 2 sets and problem solved!

 

[RLSbutton]

Are the phase 2 sets ether grey or are they the ones with the silver bezel and charcoal color? What phase are the current i2004 phones? How can I tell if I have phase 1 vs phase 2? Thank you in advance.



Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast

 

[telcodog]

All phase 2 2000 series sets have the silver bezel around the display.

 

[gwebster]

Phase 2 IP Phone 2004 islabelled NTDU92. Phase 2 IP Phone 2002 is labelled NTDU91. All IP Phone 2001 are phase 2.

 

[telcodog]

Like I said, if it has the silver bezel, they are ok!

 

[telcodog]

The other thing to keep in mind about phase 1 sets is that they are not POE enabled so you need to use the external power supply with them. Just another reason to throw them out.

 

[RLSbutton]

Thank you for the information, I assume these were the first generation ip phones from nortel and I wonder if they were developed before ciscos 7900 series phones? I think the i2004s came out in 1999. They look strangely similar to the m3904s. The key clicks and ring tones are weak on these phones, and you can barely hear the speakerphone or the caller with the handset on these phones.I ve seen some pretty good deals on eBay for 1140 and 1120 phones on eBay, so they are worth upgrading!


Joseph Sus Jr. Nortel Enthusiast