spa508 dnd can't tell its active

[Sage Major]

I have several ip phones spa303, spa525 and spa508

On the spa508 when the dnd is active there is no notification on the screen.  The only way to know its on is to hit the > button to see if it says -dnd on the second page

On the spa303 and the spa525 when DND is on there is a large message on the screen saying "Do Not Disturb", how can I make the 508 show that dnd is on?

Sage

[Dan Lukes]

The content of soft-key area is configurable, including the order of keys.

You need to set "Programable Softkeys Enable" to 'yes', then  you need to modify '.... Key List' values according your wishes.

[Sage Major]

I am not talking about which button across the bottom  says DND. 

What I want to do is when I hit the dnd buttion I want a notificaiton on the screen somewhere that dnd is active.  On my 303 and 525 across the screen in large letters it says "DoNotDisturb"

"Currently the 508 only displays that DND is active is when viewing the DND buttion, it is colored in black.

I want to have a similar display that is always up so that I Can tell I am not receiving calls.

[Dan Lukes]

Oh, sorry, I replied to your's "when the dnd is active there is no notification on the screen" and "how can I make the 508 show that dnd is on". So I adviced you how to make the 508 show, always and on main screen, that dnd is on.

If you are asking "how show it the same way as on SPA525", then, as far as I know, it's not possible.

We use one of button configured as BLF to show the DND status (it light red when DND is on) but it require cooperation from PBX side.

[Sage Major]

Attached is the image from my 303.  It uses the same firmware as the 508.  Notice the large DoNotDisturb across the bottom of the screen.

[juliensanmontani]

We use one of button configured as BLF to show the DND status (it light red when DND is on) but it require cooperation from PBX side.

Dan,

How can the PBX retrieve the DND information form the phone?

If I debug SIP information sent from my 508G to my asterisk server, nothing is sent to the server when DND is activated.

It is something I would like to have on my phone (monitor DND with a BLF) but as I cannot retrieve DND information, I have to use a specific function on the PBX and disable the DND softkey on the phone.

[Dan Lukes]

It seems you use almost same solution as our current.

DND status/logic is stored/implemented on PBX (not phone), DND softkey is disabled. One of line keys is used instead of it here. BLF is used to show the DND status (green/red color), SD on same button allow us to toggle the status ('speed dial' of supplemental service code 'toggle DND status').

Starting with 7.5.3 firmware, the custom soft-key (PSKn) may be used for such task as well (look for keyword 'ext2=' within SPA50xG firmware 7.5.3 release notes). But I didn'd tried such approach yet.

I never reach success with synchronisation of internal phone state and PBX state (with Asterisk). It's possible to configure internal DND soft-key to dial vertical service announcement code when pressed, but it's one-way unreliable synchronisation. Internal phone state change even in the case the PBX reject's such change. Even worse, such loose one-way sychronisation is implemented the mad-way, because it work with soft-key only. If user decided to change DND status by other mean (for example via phone's menu) the vertical service announcement code is not dialed, so phone and PBX state become dissynchronised.

Unfortunately, there is almost no documentation related to synchronisation of phone and PBX state from Cisco. To be exact, there is almost no documentation related to SIPB services at all, so unfortunate network designers like me depends on reverse-engineering of phone's behavior ...

[juliensanmontani]

It would be nice to link a line key to the DND status to not have to manage that on the server side. But, it would be even better if SPA phones would send DND status, that would help to manager "white" or "black" lists on calls.

[klogata]

I don't have a SPA508, but I do have a 504G that displays the same message as your SPA303. As far as I know, the display message is normally shown when DND is pressed, and is not configurable. However, I've forwarded the question to the Engineers to see if we can figure out why it's not showing and if it's possible to change that. I will let you know what I learn.

[klogata]

Hi,

I received a response from the engineer. Because the SPA508 has 8 lines, there is a smaller area available for message/info display on the screen than on other models such as the  SPA303, 504, 525G, etc., which have line buttons on only one side of the screen. As the 508 has line buttons on both sides of the screen, the labels for those lines take up LCD space and there is no room for the DND message. It is intentional on the SPA508 design to not display the DND message due to the size limitation of the screen, and there is no way to turn the message on or off.

Other than Dan's suggestion of programming the LED, you could change the order of the softkeys to have the "DND" softkey always be visible on the screen, instead of having to scroll to the second page as you currently are doing. Changing the order of the softkeys is described in Chapter 3 of the Admin Guide.

Hope this helps.

[jamiehhlireland]

The real solution to this is for cisco to finally sync the dnd status back to asterisk!