Phones do not have to be on the same LAN as the a Switchvox server. They can sit on the desk at an employee's home or remote warehouse, connected via WAN internet connection.

Even if the phone is configured and managed by the Switchvox, each phone requires some manual configuration changes in order to make this work.

Switchvox has a help article about this topic at: Help > The Admin Tool Suite > System Setup > Phone Setup > Making Phones Visible to Switchvox, but it does not contain all information required to make this work.

This article assumes that both the Switchvox and the remote phone are on local networks using NAT, and you want your VOIP traffic to traverse the public internet. These are NOT the instructions you need if you are using a VPN to connect the networks. An advantage of not sending VOIP over a VPN is that encryption overhead may add latency and affect quality, so you might want to avoid using VOIP over VPN.

Required Firewall Ports for Remote Phones

The following ports must be open in order for remote phones to communicate to the Switchvox. These need to be allowed on both the firewall used by the remote phone AND the firewall used by the Switchvox. These are in addition to any required for SIP or IAX trunking to a VOIP service provider (on the Switchvox side).

Configuring the Switchvox For Remote Phones

Phones can be configured manually, but it is much easier to use the Switchvox Phone Setup utility. There are several settings on the Switchvox which affect remote phones.

Setting the Phone Line Server Address

VOIP phones have the ability to have each line associated with a server. This allows the phone to know the host to connect to in order to place a call. This can be set manually in the phone's web interface, but it is more convenient if the Switchvox managed this.

In Switchvox SMB 4.5, this can be set on the Switchvox from the Network Settings page.

• From the menubar, select "Machine Admin", then "Network Settings"
• Find the radio button labelled "Allow Nat Port Forwarding" and select Yes.
• In the field "External IP Address / Hostname", enter the WAN IP address or full qualified domain name of your Switchvox as it appears to the public internet, followed by "/pc". For example: "pbx.example.com/pc".

WARNING: This could cause problems with VOIP providers. For some reason it seems to cause problems with registration to some providers. Be sure to test inbound and outbound VOIP calls, if you use them. If it's broke, consider manually configuring the phone.

What This Does

At next reboot of the phone, the Switchvox will set the server address on the phone to:

• Line 1: the value you entered in the field "External IP Address / Hostname" on the Switchvox
• Line 2: the NAT IP address of the Switchvox

You can see this on the phone, if you want.

Login to the phone's web interface (see note)

Setting the Time Server of the Phones

In Switchvox SMB 4.5, the time server for remote phones can be set on the Switchvox from the Phone Configuration page.

• From the menubar, select "System Setup" then "Phone Setup"
• Click on "Show Advanced Options"
• Find "NTP Options" and in the field "Custom NTP Server", enter "pool.ntp.org"
• Click on the "Saved Advanced Options" button

The next time a phone is rebooted, it will set its time from the entered time server.

Configuring A Polycom Phone Talk To The Switchvox

Press Menu on your Polycom phone. Navigate to Settings --> Advanced. You will be prompted for a password. The default is "456", but this may have been changed by your administrator.

From Admin Settings, navigate to Network Configuration --> Server Menu. For most phones this means:

• Hit the "Menu" button
• 3. Settings
• 2. Advanced
• "456" {password} Hit the "Enter" soft key at the bottom
• 1. Admin Settings
• 1. Network Configuration
• Scroll down until you see:
• Server Menu...
• Choose the "Select" soft key

In the Server Menu, select "edit", then:

• Server Type: HTTP (use arrow keys on the side of the phone to choose)
• Server Address: [enter the FQDN of the switchvox] (* key for .) This must be a public internet address and required ports (see below) must be open on the firewall
• Select "Exit" and "Save Configuration and Reboot". The reboot process may take up to 30 minutes on older phones, if a firmware upgrade is required.

Note: Choose the 1/A/a soft key to change to (a/Ascii) mode or the "#" key on the 330 to change to URL mode. Also on the 330, once you make the change, press the left arrow twice and then choose "save and reboot."

Then after the phone has completely rebooted, log into the phone via it's web interface. To login to the web interface of a Polycom phone, go to its LAN IP address in a web browser. At the password challenge, for the user enter "Polycom". For the password, the default is "456", but this may have been changed by your administrator.  Then click on the SIP tab. The first section asks for a proxy server, you can skip this one and go to the next section which asks for the Server1 address. Just put in the server's IP or FQDN then scroll down a little until you see the Submit button. Click on the button and the phone should reboot itself.

After you have made this change on the phone, you can configure and manage the phone via the Switchvox Phone Setup page.