2024-07-16 | [phones]
Got telephones / modems? If you haven't used a real landline since 2008 like me, you probably find it a bit hard to make them work. You can get by with one of those 2-line Voip ATA devices to provide one connection between 2 phones, but I'm going for a bit of a step up with more lines.
This page tells how to make a standalone, self contained mini telephone exchange, using the cheap and accessible Cisco VG224. That gives 24 lines, and any line can call any other, plenty for a small collection.
I'm only considering the self-contained, not-connected-to-anything-else method for now, as my VOIP journey is at a beginning for now.
The first step - when you get a used device, it will probably still have the configuration on it. If you don't know IOS like I don't, it's probably going to be easiest to clear out everything and start over.
As best as I can tell, it's like this:
vg224-i6s-mz.151-4.M3.bin. When the unit boots, this gets uncompressed and runs from RAM. The CF card is formatted as FAT (or maybe not) and the .bin is just a file on there. If yours didn't come with the OS, you can try one from Internet Archive.So it's not quite like a Raspberry Pi where the SD card holds the full system.
Make the Serial Cable. It's RS-232 Serial on a RJ45 connector. If you have a RJ45 crimper and cut a DB9 serial cable in half, you can make one pretty easily. Or buy one.
Connect in your terminal emulator at 9600 8N1. Turn on the VG224 power.
If you eventually reach a prompt of rommon 1 > then you aren't in the OS yet, it wasn't set to auto boot apparently. You are in the bootloader prompt. Enter in boot.
If it boots, and you then get Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? [yes/no]: , then the configuration should already be cleared, but I'll clear it again anyways. Enter no.
Eventually you'll get to Router> (maybe after you press enter a couple times) or whatever the system host name was set to.
Enter in enable here to get into "configure" mode (like getting root). Prompt changes to Router#.
Enter in write erase to erase the nvram which holds the configuration. Enter again to confirm.
Enter reload to reboot.
You might get the rommon 1 > prompt again instead of booting, but we'll fix that with config-register later. Enter boot for now.
Once it boots again, the system will now ask you Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? [yes/no]: and this time, you can start pasting in the configuration below, in it's entirety, to get the simple 24-line telephone system I have set up.
When the device starts up, you can paste this whole list into the terminal, piece by piece, and it will configure it to act like a simple telephone exchange.
yes
yes
vg224-0
admin
admin
admin
admin
no
FastEthernet0/0
yes
yes
192.168.1.184
255.255.255.0
2
enable
admin
configure terminal
dial-peer voice 1 pots
destination-pattern 211
port 2/0
exit
dial-peer voice 2 pots
destination-pattern 212
port 2/1
exit
dial-peer voice 3 pots
destination-pattern 213
port 2/2
exit
dial-peer voice 4 pots
destination-pattern 214
port 2/3
exit
dial-peer voice 5 pots
destination-pattern 221
port 2/4
exit
dial-peer voice 6 pots
destination-pattern 222
port 2/5
exit
dial-peer voice 7 pots
destination-pattern 223
port 2/6
exit
dial-peer voice 8 pots
destination-pattern 224
port 2/7
exit
dial-peer voice 9 pots
destination-pattern 231
port 2/8
exit
dial-peer voice 10 pots
destination-pattern 232
port 2/9
exit
dial-peer voice 11 pots
destination-pattern 233
port 2/10
exit
dial-peer voice 12 pots
destination-pattern 234
port 2/11
exit
dial-peer voice 13 pots
destination-pattern 241
port 2/12
exit
dial-peer voice 14 pots
destination-pattern 242
port 2/13
exit
dial-peer voice 15 pots
destination-pattern 243
port 2/14
exit
dial-peer voice 16 pots
destination-pattern 244
port 2/15
exit
dial-peer voice 17 pots
destination-pattern 251
port 2/16
exit
dial-peer voice 18 pots
destination-pattern 252
port 2/17
exit
dial-peer voice 19 pots
destination-pattern 253
port 2/18
exit
dial-peer voice 20 pots
destination-pattern 254
port 2/19
exit
dial-peer voice 21 pots
destination-pattern 261
port 2/20
exit
dial-peer voice 22 pots
destination-pattern 262
port 2/21
exit
dial-peer voice 23 pots
destination-pattern 263
port 2/22
exit
dial-peer voice 24 pots
destination-pattern 264
port 2/23
exit
dial-peer voice 25 pots
destination-pattern 3135552211
port 2/0
exit
dial-peer voice 26 pots
destination-pattern 3135552212
port 2/1
exit
dial-peer voice 27 pots
destination-pattern 3135552213
port 2/2
exit
dial-peer voice 28 pots
destination-pattern 3135552214
port 2/3
exit
dial-peer voice 29 pots
destination-pattern 3135552221
port 2/4
exit
dial-peer voice 30 pots
destination-pattern 3135552222
port 2/5
exit
dial-peer voice 31 pots
destination-pattern 3135552223
port 2/6
exit
dial-peer voice 32 pots
destination-pattern 3135552224
port 2/7
exit
dial-peer voice 33 pots
destination-pattern 3135552231
port 2/8
exit
dial-peer voice 34 pots
destination-pattern 3135552232
port 2/9
exit
dial-peer voice 35 pots
destination-pattern 3135552233
port 2/10
exit
dial-peer voice 36 pots
destination-pattern 3135552234
port 2/11
exit
dial-peer voice 37 pots
destination-pattern 3135552241
port 2/12
exit
dial-peer voice 38 pots
destination-pattern 3135552242
port 2/13
exit
dial-peer voice 39 pots
destination-pattern 3135552243
port 2/14
exit
dial-peer voice 40 pots
destination-pattern 3135552244
port 2/15
exit
dial-peer voice 41 pots
destination-pattern 3135552251
port 2/16
exit
dial-peer voice 42 pots
destination-pattern 3135552252
port 2/17
exit
dial-peer voice 43 pots
destination-pattern 3135552253
port 2/18
exit
dial-peer voice 44 pots
destination-pattern 3135552254
port 2/19
exit
dial-peer voice 45 pots
destination-pattern 3135552261
port 2/20
exit
dial-peer voice 46 pots
destination-pattern 3135552262
port 2/21
exit
dial-peer voice 47 pots
destination-pattern 3135552263
port 2/22
exit
dial-peer voice 48 pots
destination-pattern 3135552264
port 2/23
exit
voice-port 2/0
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name OPERATOR
station-id number 0
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/1
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name ONE TWO
station-id number 212
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/2
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name ONE THREE
station-id number 213
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/3
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name ONE FOUR
station-id number 214
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/4
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name TWO ONE
station-id number 221
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/5
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name TWO TWO
station-id number 222
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/6
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name TWO THREE
station-id number 223
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/7
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name TWO FOUR
station-id number 224
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/8
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name THREE ONE
station-id number 231
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/9
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name THREE TWO
station-id number 232
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/10
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name THREE THREE
station-id number 233
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/11
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name THREE FOUR
station-id number 234
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/12
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FOUR ONE
station-id number 241
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/13
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FOUR TWO
station-id number 242
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/14
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FOUR THREE
station-id number 243
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/15
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FOUR FOUR
station-id number 244
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/16
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FIVE ONE
station-id number 251
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/17
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FIVE TWO
station-id number 252
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/18
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FIVE THREE
station-id number 253
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/19
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name FIVE FOUR
station-id number 254
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/20
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name SIX ONE
station-id number 261
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/21
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name SIX TWO
station-id number 262
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/22
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name SIX THREE
station-id number 263
caller-id enable
exit
voice-port 2/23
no echo-cancel enable
timeouts call-disconnect 10
timing hookflash-in 110 70
station-id name SIX FOUR
station-id number 264
caller-id enable
exit
config-register 0x2102
exit
copy running-config startup-config
reload