FreePBX for Dummies?


Then go the easy way but not with those hardware’s

(Robert Tramontana) #42

I’m RELATIVELY familiar

(Robert Tramontana) #43

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.


This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

(Robert Tramontana) #45

Post removed…

(Communication Technologies) #46


Again especially as a neewbie (hopefully you understand the that you are in for a long haul getting Cisco7xxx usefully working)

You chose the cheapest in money but the most expensive it time hardware, that is just a fact

but please vaya con dios

(Robert Tramontana) #48

I didn’t know being on a budget was offensive/illegal, please quit posting in this discussion, your harassment is not needed here.

(Robert Tramontana) #49

This has me intrigued! I should look for an SCCP guide on this, all this stuff on the file shown is things I also need info on, or am I able to cross-reference this with the SIP file?

(Robert Tramontana) #50

Found a guide, I think… though I might need help… I might, maybe someone can help me go through it one step at a time?


This is not intended as harassment it is from @xrobau (quite well respected here) consider it while you contrive a solution


Yes, I know you bought those 7962’s cheaply. And yes, I’m sure the person who sold it to you swore blind that they were great SIP phones. Bad news. That person lied to you. They’re terrible SIP phones.

Cisco 7 series phones are SCCP phones, that have ancient (12+ years old) hack-y firmware that allows them to act like a buggy and unreliable SIP phone, and unless you WANT a buggy and unreliable sip phone, you’re just going to end up hating yourself in the future, while everyone who has already gone through this is trying to convince you NOW, before you waste a month of your time discovering this for yourself.

I’ve added some automod rules to automatically remove posts, because this is just a massive waste of everyone’s time.

If you’ve bought Cisco phones for $5 each, then that is a pretty good indication of their value. Go and try to buy some SPA504’s for the same price, and you’ll find out that you can’t, because THEY are SIP phones, and the 79’s aren’t.

Edit: I looked on ebay. 7960s are AUD$5 each. SPA504s are AUD$30 each. Spend the $25 extra per phone. Seriously, it’s just not worth your time.

edit: I stand by this post

(Robert Tramontana) #52

Well, they’re terrible for what I need them for, but they’re actually pretty good for SIP, if you look at it from the standpoint of someone whose needs are barebones, but I won’t lie, SIP just isn’t what I need, so I get that, and you quite literally copied what someone else said, which… I’ve already read… Anyway, I already understand the whole concept, but there’s really no need to remind me. Right now I just don’t have the time or the patience to deal with SCCP, but I’ll keep an eye out for anyone who’d be willing to help walk me through all this.


Then if you don’t have the ‘time or patience’ for it but wan’t someone else to do it for you contact @cynjut our expert here :wink:


What are you trying to accomplish? With most hobbies, the knowledge and skills gained have economic value, even if not used for financial gain. For example, you might advise your friends with small businesses about their communications, or do a phone system for your church or favorite charity. If that’s part of your vision, I recommend focusing on core PBX functions (trunking, routing, IVRs, queues, recording, voicemail, etc.), rather than the minute details of beating 79xx phones into submission using the SIP protocol.

An exception might be if you have a buddy who wants to replace 100 phones in his business on a low budget. In that case, learning about SCCP is a possible path to a solution, which you should compare with other options.

That’s generally not a good idea and causes many problems. For example, returning a call from history won’t work, because the caller ID won’t include the 9. If you set up the PBX to prepend 9 on incoming caller IDs, the phone won’t parse it well and it will be harder for the user to understand. There are many more subtle issues as well. Set up your system so you dial the same as from a mobile phone or landline.

Don’t prioritize form over substance.

I thought that they played US “precise tone plan” tones by default. What are you hearing and what would you like?

I agree that’s very useful, but AFAIK you either need to install patches in Asterisk or switch to SCCP. Other basic functions such as 3-way calling require the same treatment.

(Robert Tramontana) #55

I already have the core functions running, so that’s a good start?

Standard business phone behavior?

Would love to have the US tones circa 1950

I’m told SCCP would be easier to do rather than patches…

(Lorne Gaetz) #56

Not locking this thread (yet) but there have been numerous flagged posts and some already hidden as a result. To those participating, if you feel like you may have contributed something off-topic, repetitive, inflammatory or otherwise not furthering the goal of the thread, now would be an excellent time to edit your post(s).


So edited, mea culpa.


In the old days, the electromechanical systems required it. Almost everything made in the past 20 years is capable dialing without a 9 or 0 prefix, but could be configured to require it for compatibility with the legacy systems they replaced, to reduce the cost of retraining users. For a new system, the downsides of requiring a prefix far outweigh any advantages.

However, if these items interest you from a historical / museum / nostalgia point of view, check out They have a very active mailing list and considerable expertise on anything old telephony related. You can interconnect with their tandem and call fellow boomers from your candlestick or crank phone, without going over the PSTN.


Historically a proceeding 9 was needed by Centrex systems to determine that the call was to the outside. The 0 was used to normalize any NXXNXXXXX, 1NXXNXXXXXX, NXXXXXX dials as defined by the front pages of the white pages available free from your local ‘Exchange’. Although you could synthesize that behavior in your outbound routes today it is just not needed and cumbersome

(Robert Tramontana) #60

Ah, that makes sense, just wanted that 9 for second dial tone because that’s how all business phones behave, or just because XP