Snom Phones

www.snom.com

Snom SIP based phones:

Snom m9: DECT based cordless solution. Sold as base station with handset/charger station and single handset/charger station. Up to eight handsets can register with the base station and the base station can register up to eight SIP accounts. As with other Snoms, the base station can be provisioned via HTTP and, apparently, the individual handset menus can be configured to lock them down somewhat. Supports IPv6, SIPS and SRTP. Does not include an answering machine.
Snom M3: To be presented at VON autumn 2007, but sneak previewed at Astricon Phoenix 2007. DECT based (GAP compliant) cordless solution. Sold as base station with handset/charger station and single handset/charger station. Up to eight handsets can register with the base station and the base station can register up to eight SIP accounts. One base station supports a maximum of three simultaneous conversations. As with other Snoms, the base station can be provisioned via HTTP and, apparently, the individual handset menus can be configured to lock them down somewhat. Availability is quoted as ‘end October 2007’, but knowing Snom, the reality is to be at least the end of November 2007. UPDATE – It’s January 2008 and they are now shipping! Does NOT support IPv6, SIPS and SRTP.
snom 820: New phone launched at end of 2008.
Snom 870: Touchscreen phone, first showcase announced for CeBIT 2009 (March 2009) in Hannover. Video demo HERE
snom 710: Supporting four SIP identities and blending an elegant utilitarian design for high usability with high performance and affordability, the snom 710 delivers a rich set of everyday business telephony features critical to today’s real-time, information-driven business workforce.
snom 720: The snom 720 phone addresses office users that require excellent audio and a large number of programmable PBX-style keys. It combines a state-of-the-art hardware with the proven snom SIP software.
snom 760: The snom 760 phone addresses office users that require excellent audio, PBX-style keys, and rich visual information. It combines a state-of-the-art hardware with the proven snom SIP software.
snom 370: This phone was announced at CeBIT 2007 to be available April ’07. High-end device, similar to 360, with higher resolution grey-scale display (240×128), a large LED-light for incoming calls and possible VPN support in future firmware versions. The phone has more RAM and CPU power than the 360; no more rubber keys.
Snom 320: based on the snom360 design but with smaller, two-line, tilt-adjustable LCD display without backlight. Also, the 320 supports conferences (joined at the phone) of only 3 parties (ie, the phone user and two others). The 360 will conference many parties (exact number not known). Apart from this, the 320 has features identical to the 360. Introduced in June 2005 (SuperComm).
Snom 300 2006 model: A smaller phone, with less physical interface, but equal software feature-set to the 320.
- Great for SOHO applications
- Programmable function keys
- Simpler interface
- Downside: No Power over Ethernet
Snom 300 2007 model: As per the 2006 model, above, but…..
- Support for Power Over Ethernet (PoE)
- Backlit display

Discontinued Snom phones:

snom 220 (Released August 2004, discontinued, no longer supported Aug-07): Top-of-the-line business phone, replaced by 360 model. codecs: g729a, GSM, G711u/a, 128 X 64 graphical back-lit display, PoE, four context sensitive soft keys, 16bit 16Khz audio, half duplex speaker, key extension module available to expand programmable keys to 60, dual 10/100mbit ethernet switch;
snom 200 (discontinued) codecs: g711u/a, g729a, GSM, power-over-ethernet, otherwise virtually identical to model 190, except for sound system, but no discernable difference in audio quality.
snom 190 (discontinued manufacturing by SNOM, but still available as ip290 by ELMEG): Successor of the discontinued snom200, Two-line LCD display, 5 Function keys with busy lamps, SRTP and SIPS encryption, max. 7 account lines configurable, 2 call appearances, no POE, Codecs: g711u/a, g729A, g722, g726-32, g723.1, GSM (since 3.56e), full duplex audio system.
snom 105 (discontinued)
snom 100 (discontinued) the snom100 is a nice and small SIP/H323 capable IP phone with a 128×64 pixel graphical green LCD screen featuring an analog clock image, date and registration account lines. The botton line is used as labels for the 4 software programmed key on the top row of the 4×5 key pad. The phone uses a 24 or 48Volt power supply and has Power over Ethernet capability as well. It only has one Ethernet port.
snom 360 (Discontinued device)

SIP Phone Features:

The phones are based on an embedded linux kernel, source is available from the SNOM web site.

All models have good sound quality, readable displays, adjustable ring tones and work well with Asterisk and other SIP systems (supported by Asterisk). The programmable keys have LEDs and can “SIP subscribe” to other extensions. The phones support Power over Ethernet (except the 190) as well as having a seperate power supply available. The support SNOM delivers is excellent and they pay attention to the Asterisk community. All phones have native language interface, English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish,..

Custom ring tones:

The SNOM has the ability to download custom ringtones to the phone using the webinterface starting with firmware version 2.05b. The type of files that should be supplied to the phone are: “8 kHz 16 bit/sample (linear) mono WAV files”. Alternatively you can instruct the Proxy or PBX (like Asterisk) to include an ALERT_INFO header in the SIP communication that carries a HTTP URI pointing at a wav file that is to be used as ringtone for this particular call.

Headset / Handset / Speaker behaviour:

SNOM released a document describing the policies regarding this issue:

Intercom and Auto Answer:

Phones have an Auto Answer capability as well as Intercom support.
Intercom works with special PBX support. The Request/To URI must contain intercom=true parameter.
See Asterisk Wiki or Mailing List for specifics for Asterisk users.

NAT traversal support:

Snom phones support a variety of NAT traversal options, including (depending on model and firmware version) STUN, Outbound-Proxy, UPnP, ICE, symmetric RTP. STUN support was broken for a period after the introduction of the snom190 (only snom190/firmware 3.60s works) and all versions of the 320/360 series firmware until release 4.1. UPnP support was dropped in the later releases of the 190 and in the 320/360 models.
In the newer firmware release STUN support can be configured separately for each registration account, which is a nice feature if you need to register to a local PBX (behind NAT with the phone) as well as remote networks.
The newer snom phones models also claim ICE support, but this is not widely available on PBX’s and providers networks.

Impressions and Reviews

Snom phones are definitely at the quality end of the market rather than cheap. The build quality is high – except that the handset of the Snom 200 feels light, and it sits rather loosely in the chassis when hung up.

Mass Deployment

Information on snom mass deployment of phones

Howtos

SNOM360:

How to connect the snom 360 to Asterisk

SNOM190:

Howto on connecting SNOM190 on Asterisk

SNOM200:

Display credit at VoIP provider after call

This scripts manipulates the web interface to temporarily use the “idle text” for showing the credit you have left with your VoIP provider. Works with sipgate.de, nikotel.com and others
- http://www.bier-voting.de/mysnom/mysnom.zip

Remote Tapping a Snom Phone — voipsa.org Blog

http://voipsa.org/blog/2010/09/07/its-a-feature-remote-tapping-a-snom-voip-phone/

3rd party tools

Tool for editing the phone’s address book and Call by PC
Update: V.1.1.2 NEW!!!

Thunderbird extension that integrates TB’s address book with Snom phones
TBDialOut is an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that adds the ability to dial phone calls directly from your Thunderbird addressbook. TBDialout can be configured to work with Snom phones that support remote control via a web interface.

Snom is pretty good at responding to bug reports and inquiries. Be clear in your wording. Follow-up may be necessary depending on your native tongue.

Firmware 5.x

New firmware structure, please see Important Update description.
DKEYS which mean keys which usually have a static binding (redial, transfer, etc.) and which now can be bound to different functionalities.
Actions URLs for call start and call end including support for settings and macro replacement.
Keyboard lock, by pressing the *-key for a few seconds the keyboard will be locked and can be unlocked by again pressing this key for a few seconds. If a PIN has been defined before (e.g. via the web interface), the phone is asking for that before unlocking.
Basic LDAP support.
XML idle screen description to design your own idle screen. Read about it in the FAQs.
Signalling of DTMF via SIP INFO.
Shared Line Appearance based on the IETF draft with sla parameter in dialog Event type.

Firmware 6.x

GUI: added XML minibrowser support (snom360)
GUI: fixed desktop SMS
GUI: title texts configurable through mass deployment (snom360)
GUI: line based ring after delay for incoming calls
GUI: changed MWI led behavior to reflect latest vmail status
GUI: fixed first dtmf echo on dialing
GUI: deny list now works for complete uri match using identity context
GUI: fixed Name+Number for numeric display names
GUI: double redial key press to redial last call
GUI: set led’s for associated key events
GUI: DND icon has high priority on status line
GUI: use identity of connected call for parking/Xfer
GUI: enhanced spanish language support
GUI: reset to factory defaults restarts the phone, too
GUI: fixed speed dial on Xfer
GUI: redirection on timeout has its own target parameter now
WEB: reset to factory defaults restarts the phone, too
WEB: added new reboot info page
WEB: clean up e164 numbers dialed through web interface
WEB: added star codes based dnd/redirection
WEB: directory key is programmable
WEB: added control to filter out SIP tracing for REGISTER/SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY
WEB: added ACTIVE option for fkey context selection
LID: adjusted knocking (call waiting) volume
LID: fixed local playback of first dtmf in handsfree mode, also fixed and cleaned overall local playback of DTMF in different cases
LID: fixed a conference bug (phone slowed down after a conference)
SIP: intercom/Push2Talk calls send an Alert-Info header
SIP: added server hosted conference feature
SIP: use display name if available in 180 Ringing
SIP: send NOTIFY on receiving an unsubscribe request
SIP: added pnp settings retrieval

Upgrading the firmware

There are 3 pieces of software in the Snom 190, Snom 320, and Snom 360:

Linux
Applications
jffs2 (was Ramdisk in the past)

Firmware 7.x

Wannabe call manager compatible ?!?
Phone looks for SIPDefault.cnf, SIP{MAC}.cnf in addition to snom3x0.htm and snom3x0-{MAC}.htm
Provisioning via XML
Default softkey allocation changes
Labelling of certain functions (eg phone book, call history) changes
7.1.8, which ships on some units from the factory, does NOT work with Asterisk.
- Upgrade the firmware to the latest 7.1.x or the latest 6.x and you’ll be all set
If supplied with 7.x from factory, and you’d rather stick with the more mature 6.x, the downgrade process is straightforward if you use Snom’s method:
- https://wiki.snom.com/Firmware/Wizard
- Do NOT downgrade manually unless you know what you are doing. Phones that shipped with 7.x have new MAC address ranges and cannot be downgraded to firmware older than 6.5.13.
  - The flash layout changes and new MAC address ranges.
    - http://kb.snom.com/kb/index.php?View=entry&CategoryID=48&EntryID=77
Snom recently elevated Firmware 7.1.x to non-beta status. 6.x is also still being maintained.

To upgrade these, you paste the URL locations into the “Software Update | Firmware” field.
Currently, there is also a “Bootloader” field on this page. DO NOT use the Bootloader Field in the procedure below.

The phone picks out the last letter before .bin in order to know what type of software is being changed:

-l corresponds to Linux
-r corresponds to jffs2 (was Ramdisk in the past)
-j corresponds to Applications

As of 3.60b, there is no way to tell what Linux or Ramdisk version you are using. The only way to know for sure is to upload the files.

Bugs and Issues

Asterisk support broken in 7.1.8, fixed in 7.1.10 and higher
Retarded dialplan support v7.1.x, rectified a little bit in 7.1.16 and higher
Phones transfer function seriously broken – see below (upto 7.1.19)

Blind Transfers

I had a problem with transfers on my Snom 190 until I made sure that the “Break Key” setting on the advanced page of the Snom web configuration was set to off. Then blind transfers started working great.

Distinctive ringing:

This only seems to work if the distinctive ringtones are selected based on “source”, rather than “destination”. That is, you can assign distinctive ringtones for certain callers. However, trying to assign ringtones based on the extension dialed (if you have set up multiple lines on the phone) just doesn’t work (as of firmware v3.35, anyway) – the default ringtone is always used.

This problem is fixed in Snom190 3.56r, Snom200 3.56r, Snom220 3.56t.
Also makesure you have “Default Selection:” set to “source” under “Ringtone defaults:” on the preferences page.

Call Parking Orbits

I don’t think the programmable function keys can be used to implement call parking on Asterisk. (Snom has their own server software – for which the call parking function keys presumably work.) Go to Asterisk bounty snom call park if you know how to fix this.

I tried the Call Park Orbit feature with Asterisk by setting the desired button to Park with a value of 700. When in a call pressing the park button immediately parks the call but I don’t get the Asterisk announcement telling me what extension to pick the call up on.

UPDATE:

There is a patch for 1.2.9.1 available here: https://bugs.digium.com/view.php?id=5779 which will get parking working on the 3XX series*** See the last few comments on the notes.
- Regarding the dialplan setup: the directions available are somewhat ambiguous as to one detail: DO keep your [parkedcalls] context, and DO include => parkedcalls in the context your user is registered to (or included in), but make sure you DO also provide a hint to local/701@parkedcalls in the SAME context your user is registered to (i.e. DO NOT put the hints in a context included from the one your user is registered to). -FG
Set “Transfer On Hook” to off in the Snom firmware, or attempting to connect to a parked call while your phone is ringing will transfer the incomming call to that parking spot with no way of getting it back. The two 3rd parties will be chatting on your dime. -FG
Users may try, and are now able, to attempt to transfer a call directly to a parking spot. The system picks up on the fact that the spot is empty, tells the incomming caller that “.. there is no call parked on that extension… “, and proceeds to hang up on them. This would be great if it worked, and somehow had a safeguard that would prevent loss of the call if two users try to park a call on the same spot at the same time (what happens to the one that came in second?). My feeling is that Asterisk 1.4 will address this. -FG
My users dont get audible confirmation of the parking either using Snom 360s. Everything else works, but the CLI shows that the Snom disconnects the call before Asterisk gets to the playback the second digit of the spot extension, and before the user heasrs the first one. While this is probably still ok for a small PBX, it two people park a call at the same instance, there is no way to tell who got the first available spot. -FG

These last two issues are the only serious ones I’ve found, but they are pretty critical. Hope this helps.

Assisted (Attendant) Transfers are broken.

Although the Snom 370 might look like a great receptionists phone it has a major problem with assisted transfers (7.1.X to 7.1.19 at least).

Basically, if there is more than one incoming call your receptionist has to answer all of them and put all of them on hold before using the phones transfer functions (this has been raised with Snom support and they confirmed this is the case). If another call comes in whilst in the transfer process you’re stuffed.

Here’s the failing scenario:

Snom370 gets a Call (Call A).
Snom370 answers Call A. Call A wants to be transferred to Phone C.
Snom370 has another call ringing (Call B).
Snom370 presses HOLD button gets Dialtone. Call A is on Hold, Call B still ringing.
Snom370 Dials Phone C (Call C).
Snom370 talks to Call C.
Snom370 presses TRANSFER.

The display shows:

< CallA
> CallB

The soft keys now show “<<” and “>>”. Pressing them does nothing.

When the TRANSFER button is pressed again, CallA is connected to CallB (the original caller is now talking to the previously unanswered party) not what one wanted to happen!