In today’s day and age, cloud communication systems are the way of the future. Making voice calls using your internet connection can provide you with both better quality audio and a lower phone bill than with traditional telephone lines.
If you want to take advantage of this technology, all it takes is a compatible device. A good VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) provider will offer smartphone and desktop apps, making it quick and easy to get started making calls over the internet. But if you’d like a dedicated device for making VoIP calls, you’ll need a VoIP desk phone, which will require configuration.
Luckily, VoIP phones are readily available on the market, and we’re here to walk you through their setup. Today, we’ll be using a Grandstream GXP 1625, but don’t worry if you’re using a different make or model of VoIP phone – setup is much the same regardless of the particular unit you’re using.
Out of the box, you’ll find the unit base and underneath the handset, three cables, and a stand for the base. Connect the handset to the unit base using the coiled cable, making sure to connect the handset to the handset port and not the headset port. A simple mistake, but the device will not function if you get this wrong.
Whilst the GXP 1625 supports PoE (Power over Ethernet), we don’t have a PoE switch or injector to hand, so we’ll be using the power cable to power the phone. If you have a PoE switch or injector and an IP phone that supports PoE, then the unit will be receiving its power through the Ethernet cable.
Once the phone is powered on and is connected to your network, you’ll want to locate the phone’s IP address. The method for doing this will differ depending on the model of the phone. For the GXP 1625, just hit the button that reads “next screen,” and you’ll find it straight away.
Now just type the URL you noted down earlier into the address bar of any browser, and you’ll be taken to a login page, much like when you log into an ISP hub. Usually, the login details are straightforward, something like “admin” “admin,” as is the case here. But check the documents included with your phone or check out FAQs which are linked in the description if yours happen to differ.
Next, go to “accounts,” “account one,” and “general settings.” We just need two bits of information, and you’ll find these with your VoIP provider. The only two bits of information we need are the SIP username and SIP password, which are just right here.
If you’re using yay.com, head to voice and users, and identify the particular user that you want to configure to work with your desk phone. Copy the username into the SIP user ID and authenticate ID fields, and the SIP password into the authenticate password field. The server is talk.yeah.com, and you can name it anything you like. Set the account as active, save and apply, and once that’s finished applying, head back over to your yay.com account, and the corresponding user should have turned green to indicate that this user is now registered and can begin making and receiving calls.
The last thing that you’re going to want to do is make sure that call root is assigned so that an actual telephone number is linked to this user so that your phone can ring for that. Just head to call roots, and you will want to make sure that once the call is received, it’s being sent to this particular user.
That’s it – your VoIP phone system has increased its population by one and is fully functional. If you’re interested in finding out more about VoIP or cloud communications in general, or are interested in taking advantage of this technology for yourself, head over to yay.com now to learn more about how we can help you.