How to setup SIP on a Cisco 7940-7960 IP telephone

Note: If you intend to use any XML IP Phone Applications on your phones, be aware that the SIP image of the Cisco IP Phones has limitations compared to the Skinny (SCCP) image. Data-centric Products such as the DashPhone Application Server and DashPhone CXP work better with the Skinny image. For example, the SIP image is not capable of rendering softkeys, and the firmware runs into intermittent timeouts upon pulling URLs.

Useful cisco.com links

• Cisco SIP IP Phone 7960 Technical Documentation - Introduction page with links to firmware & IP Phone Release Notes, as well as all Administrator and User Guides. Note: access to the software from this page requires an appropriately authorised cisco.com download account. (Alternate Link)
• Software Download: SIP IP Telephone 7940/7960 Software - Download page with v8.2(0) / 10-MAR-2006 Non-CallManager SIP Flash Image for 7940/7960 IP Phones (for authentication, use anonymous as the username and your email address as the password. Details on site.)
• Cisco 7940 and 7960 IP Phones Firmware Upgrade Matrix
• Cisco Tech Note (Document ID: 5455) - Converting a Cisco 7940/7960 CallManager Phone to a SIP Phone and the Reverse Process (Alternate Link) (PDF)

Cool third party sites

• http://minded.ca/2009-12-16/configure-cisco-ip-phones-with-asterisk/ - Complete guide on configuring several different Cisco 79XX IP Phone models with Asterisk. All config files included. (PDF Format)
• Configuring Cisco 7960 phones with trixbox CE/Pro tutorial from VoipStore.com
• www.loligo.com/asterisk/Cisco/79xx - Miscellaneous notes, example configurations and ring tones for an Asterisk setup ..

Other voip-info.org pages

• Single step upgrade tutorial - description of a technique which allows the phones to completely update from old cisco images to the latest sip images. This may be particularly useful if you have a lot of phones to manage.
• Cisco 7960 P003AM730 firmware upgrade issue and workaround
• Configuring Cisco 79xx phones with Asterisk