How to dial a call on Cisco VOIP 7940 from my PC?

Question

I'm trying to automate the dialing process: dial any number, patch others on the call, connect to a bridge at a scheduled time. I know how to do this while physically present in the office, but I need to automate it so that people can dial/get patched on the call without being physically present in the office.

If any one can help me with, how i can dial a number on VOIP phone from my PC, I would be able to do the rest (automation part).

Any Idea/Suggestion will be highly appreciated. Specially, the first method "Cisco IP Phone Services XML" which was suggested here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2517239/how-can-i-call-from-my-pc-through-my-cisco-ip-phone/. This one seems quite easy to implement as my automation tool primarily works around XMLs.

Answer 1

Iv'e never tested this with anything other than a SIP version of the Cisco 7940 series, so if your using SCCP or MCGP then what I present below may or may not work :-)

• 1) You need to make sure that you have your VOIP phone correctly set up and requesting it's config files from a TFTP server, helping you do that in this reply is beyond the scope of what I'm describing here.

• 2) Ensure that somewhere in one of those config files (Usually SIPXXXXXXXXX.cnf - where xxxxx is the phones mac address) you have 3 lines that configure the device for telnet access (which is disabled by default), the lines should look like this:

  telnet_level: 2
  phone_prompt: myphone
  phone_password: mypassword
  

  The telnet level MUST be 2, 0 disables, 1 makes it read only, the phone prompt is whatever you want the prompt to be '>', 'myphone ###' whatever and the password is the password you'll use to log in.

• 3) Once you've made those changes to your phone restart it by either pressing '*', '6' and 'Settings' at the same time, or by power cycling it. When it reboots it should obey the new settings in your config.

• 4) Now point a telnet program at the IP address allocated to your phone, and if all's gone well, you should get asked for a password, enter the password and marvel at the internal world of your Cisco phone ;-)

• 5) There are a number of commands you can use now, typing a ? and pressing return will give you help, typing then ? will help you on that command. type test ? and press return and you should see the following:

  Test Command Definitions
  ------------------------
  onhook  , hu - Handset Onhook
  offhook , hd - Handset Offhook
  key     , ky - Simulate Keystrokes
  open    , op - Open the Test Session
  close   , cl - Close the Test Session
  show    , sh - Show Call Feedback
  hide    , hi - Hide Call Feedback
  

• 6) Issue the command:

  test open
  

  your phone should reply with:

  TEST: Opening Session
  

  you are now in test mode.

• 7) once in test mode, entering

  test key <key>
  

  will activate that key. If you enter

  test key ?
  

  the phone should reply with:

  Test Key Names
  --------------
    0-9 # *
      line1   line2     navup navdn volup voldn
    soft1 soft2 soft3 soft4  serv info dir
    msgs set headset spkr mute
  

  replace above with any of those names to activate that key.

• 8) Once your done, remember to call

  test close
  

  before disconnecting the telnet session.

I showed you the manual way here, but it doesn't take much to realize that you could easily script that from a PC or server that has access to the same sub-net as the phone. I have a set of JSON services running on mine that allows my home security system to do things like call the police if an intruder is detected while I'm not home, of for my web based phone book to auto dial numbers by clicking on a link.

All you need to know is the exact key sequence you need, then you can simply just open the test console, send the key sequence, and close. ANY key that's press-able on the phones front panel can be automated this way.