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Paul Hayes

Differences between SARK and SnomONE PBX

I’m being asked which is better, SARK or SnomONE a lot at the moment. Rather than a Harry Hill style fight, I’d thought up a quick comparison list. I don’t believe either system is “better” than the other, they have their own advantages which work in certain scenarios. Horses for courses…

Advantages of SnomONE over SARK:

– 10 user version free and downloadable.

– Windows, Linux & Mac versions (nice easy installers for each although I’m yet to try the Mac version as I don’t have a Mac).

– software only (some people see this as an advantage)

– PnP snom phone config (even slicker than Adopt in SARK)

Advantages of SARK over SnomONE:

– complete solution inc hardware (some people see this as an advantage)

– supports any SIP/IAX etc… end point (snomone is basically snom phones only apart from the odd one or two periphery devices)

– extensible : you can write your own Asterisk code and modify existing code.

– 100s if not 1000s of 3rd party bits of software support Asterisk to do all sorts of things. Including call centre reporting, operator panels, call billing etc…etc…

– choice of telephony interfaces for connecting to ISDN lines.

– custom code gives options for much more complicated call routing scenarios.

That’s all I can think of right now, this isn’t an exhaustive list 🙂

Snom joins compatible devices program for Microsoft Lync 2010

Following on from the recent news that the Snom300 is compatible with OCS 2007R2, Snom have also joined the “Compatible Devices Program for Lync 2010”. This means that it is continuing it’s development of “OCS” firmware to include the new features that will be present in the future Lync release.

Lync is the new name Microsoft has given to the next version of OCS, it was generally referred to as Wave14 until this official name was released. Lync is currently at the public beta stage so not yet ready for production use.

ProVu will be testing Lync with Snom phones in due course and Snom themselves will be developing the new features possible with Lync.

Microsoft list Snom 300 as a compatible OCS device

Last week we brought you the news that the snom 300 has achieved official certification from Microsoft for use with the Office Communication Server 2007 R2. This is big news for any one involved with snom phones as OCS is gradually making it’s way into some big corporate customers.

Anyway, the reason for this second blog is that you can now find the Snom 300 listed on Microsoft’s Compatible Devices Program website here:

Phones and Devices for Microsoft Office Communicator

This is the first step in getting all snom phones with OCS firmware certified, this should just be a matter of time since the firmware on each is basically the same code base.

Celebrating the Zyxel P660r-D1 ADSL router

When you’ve been working with SIP phones for as long as I have, you can be forgiven for developing a deep-set hatred for “SOHO grade” ADSL router equipment. More specifically the SIP ALG that router manufacturers seem to love putting into routers these days. I’m yet to encounter one that actually works. In most cases these ALGs tampering with passing SIP traffic cause more problems than they solve. They are a nice idea but in reality they just don’t work.

To that end, my preferred router is one that doesn’t try to be too clever for it’s own good. One that has no SIP ALG inside it what-so-ever. For a small office on a normal ADSL connection I can’t recommend anything better than the Zyxel P660r-D1. It’s a basic single port router which will provide NAT and DHCP if you want it to.

For a home or small office using VoIP over ADSL you can’t go far wrong with one of these routers, a decent switch, a reputable VoIP service provider and decent quality phones (i.e. Snom!).

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Snom – See What’s Happening on the Screen of a Remote Phone

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This is a good one for checking the common issue where a customer has turned on Do-Not-Disturb without realising it or just seeing what’s on the screen in general.

I have also used it to demonstrate the phone in training sessions.

You can view the bitmap currently shown on the phone’s screen in a web browser by going to:

http://ip.addr.of.phone/screen.bmp

This works on all Snom phones (including the 800 series!) with version 7 firmware and up. It’s a static image but you can keep hitting refresh in your browser to update the image.