The 2033 Conference phone firmware versions are approximations. I’m recreating this table from documentation, since Avaya doesn’t seem to care to keep such a thing current. I do have some old UNIStim 3.0 documentation. I’m debating whether or not to include the now-manufacture-discontinued IP phones (i.e., i2001, i2002, i2004). I’m very tempted to do so, since I still see a lot of 4.5 and earlier systems (which still support the older IP Phones.)
Jan 212012
Jan 212012
I installed Google Analytics a few days ago, and discovered something really amazing (i.e., amazing for me.): the most searched for pages on my blog are pages that I generated about three and a half years ago.
The Nortel Factory Default reset article was written to help me remember the code. Between my previous job and my current job, I found myself needing to reset phones to factory default irregularly, but often. In fairness to Nortel/Avaya, it’s not always the phone’s fault, but especially when you’re providing remote support and you’re uncertain what the field guy is doing or seeing (because, well, you’re not physically there to look over his/her shoulder), I found it useful to instruct people to factory default the phones as part of a troubleshooting process.
The following month, I posted the article on Latin acronyms. In retrospect, it’s not as much a surprise to me now that I’d already been concerned with how to write well. I am, after all, embarking on my own journey as an author of fiction. When I wrote that article, I was working for my current employer and I’d been writing more and more documentation. In documentation, proper use of acronyms greatly enhances readability. e.g., the latin acronym for exempli gratia is useful when you want to give an example, and much easier to use than throwing around the clunky “for example” or colloquial “forex”. When you want to add clarity to a sentence, the acronym for the latin phrase id est is useful. That is to say i.e. is a lot easier to use than saying that is.
In previous posts, I’ve covered someone else’s great list of building a platform and followed up with an explanation of why I critiquing other people’s work (and post it to my blog). I’m not sure how, going forward, I can capitalize on the popularity of the acronym post. I’m going to have to put some thought in to it. For the IP Phone procedure, there’s a lot of documentation that I can turn in to articles, so I’m going to be doing that at least once a week. I already started with reviewing QOS Notification Levels and Manually Upgrading Firmware on Avaya IP Phones.
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Jan 202012
There are several reasons why you might want to enable manual provisioning of your Avaya IP Phones:
- Branch office scenarios, where you want to reduce bandwidth requirements for provisioning or firmware distribution.
- Large site scenarios, where you want to offload provisioning from the DHCP server or offload firmware distribution from the signaling server.
- Secure environment scenarios, where phone security is paramount and phones should not allow themselves to be reconfigured.
- Any scenario where a signaling server is not available, such as a home office scenario or staging warehouse scenario. This includes scenarios where you want to load VPN client licensing on to the IP phone to allow it to be deployed remotely (e.g., a home office.)
The provisioning phase of the boot process can use DHCP or HTTP. To use HTTP, you must configure DHCP Option 66 in the IP Phone VLAN to point to the HTTP server name and prefix the server name with “http://”. For example DHCP Option 66 “http://httpserver/”. Whether you select TFTP or HTTP, the provisioning phase process checks the system.prv file and if it exists, may load one of the other provisioning files. If multiple provisioning files are loaded, the configuration parameters take effect in the following priority:
- DEVICE (e.g., <MAC>.prv, or, 001365FEF4D4.prv)
- TYPE (e.g., <TYPE>.prv, or, 1140E.prv)
- ZONE (e.g., headqrtr.prv)
- SYSTEM (e.g., system.prv)
The provisioning files provide the Info Block, which contains all the information you might normally stick in DHCP (or manually configure on the phone if you’re especially sadistic towards your telecom analysts). The Info Block can also contain information that is not normally provided in the DHCP string (e.g., Node and TN.) After the provisioning block is loaded, the IP phone will load the configuration file to determine how it should obtain firmware and font file updates. At some future point, I might come back and write another article to cover provisioning via HTTP or TFTP, but for now, we’re going to focus on the configuration file and manually upgrading the firmware on an IP phone.
- TYPE (e.g., <TYPE>.cfg, or, 1140E.cfg)
The Configuration file can contain a lot of information:
- [FW] Set Firmware
- [GEM FW] Expansion Module Firmware
- [USER_KEYS] User keys
- [DEVICE_CONFIG] Device configuration
- [IMAGES] Backgrounds and screensavers
- [FONTxx] Custom fonts
- [LANGUAGE] Language (associated with customized fonts)
- [LICENSING] Feature licensing
- [DIALING_PLAN] Dialing plan (SIP only?)
We’re going to focus only on the [FW] values in this article.
| [FW] | Section header for SET FIRMWARE download information. | |
| DOWNLOAD_MODE | AUTO | Recommended value. Download firmware only if the VERSION on the provisioning server is newer than the version on the phone. |
| FORCED | VERSION of the phone is ingored. Firmware is always downloaded. | |
| VERSION | e.g., 0625C8J | The VERSION string is compared to what is on the phone. VERSION should match the firmware FILENAME exactly. |
| FILENAME | e.g., 0625C8J.bin | Image filename. Must match the filename of the actual IP phone FW file to be downloaded |
| PROTOCOL | TFTP | Download protocol. |
| SERVER_IP | x.x.x.x | IP address of the TFTP server in decimal notation. |
| SERVER_PORT | 0 to 65535 | The port used by the TFTP server at SERVER_IP. Optional |
| SECURITY_MODE | 0 | For future use |
Example 1140E.cfg file:
[FW] DOWNLOAD_MODE AUTO VERSION 0625C8J FILENAME 0625C8J.bin PROTOCOL TFTP SERVER_IP 192.168.0.101 SECURITY_MODE 0
After placing both the configuration file (e.g., 1140E) and the FILENAME (firmware image) in the root of the TFTP server at SERVER_IP, the next step is to choose the method of configuring the IP Phone to know about the external provisioning server (if you haven’t already done this). The options available are:
|
While it is possible to configure the DHCP Option 66 to point to an HTTP server (to retrieve the *.prv or *.cfg files), other files must be available via the protocol specified within the *.cfg file. For the purposes of this article, that means a TFTP server is required whether you provide the <TYPE>.cfg via HTTP or TFTP. |
- DHCP Option 66 – TFTP/HTTP Server Name
- DHCP Option Nortel-i2004-B specification
- Manually configuring the Provisioning Server on the IP phone.
Select a method and implement it. To keep this article short and focused, we’re going to assume you know how to do this.
Plug in your phone and power it up. Assuming that (your DHCP configuration or manually configured provisioning server is correct and) it is able to reach the provisioning server, it will download the <TYPE>.cfg file from the TFTP/HTTP server, then using the instructions contained within, determine if a firmware download is required and perform that download if necessary.
If you use DOWNLOAD_MODE FORCED, the IP phone will force a download of the firmware each time the phone boots. This will increase the boot time for all IP phones configured to use that <TYPE>.cfg file.
I hope you found this article helpful. If you did, please share it.
Addendum:
Note regarding i2007.cfg file
Early versions of the IP Phone 2007 FW will fail to download newer versions of FW if the [FW] line is present before the FW download information in the .cfg file.
If the FW version currently on the IP Phone 2007 is prior to any version of 0621C4x, then delete the [FW] line. Once the phone has FW version 0621C4x or greater, the [FW] line must be present. Example: Phone has 0621C3A – comment out or delete the [FW] line in the i2007.cfg file Phone has 0621C4J – keep the [FW] line in the i2007.cfg file
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Jan 202012
When troubleshooting QOS issues (including dropped calls, one way talk path, etc.) on an Avaya CS1000, sometimes it’s helpful to look at all of the alarms (even the unnacceptable or warning alarms) on a per-call basis. This gives you an idea of when there are problems in an entire zone vs individual users within the zone, or zone-wide and ongoing versus intermittant and individualized alarming.
LD 117
CHG ZQNL <zone> <notification_level>
Level = 0-(2)-4, where:
Level 0 = All voice quality alarms are suppressed.
Level 1 = All zone based Unacceptable alarms.
% QOS019 QoS unacceptable packet loss: [42.3] % in zone [1]
Level 2 = Allow all level 1 alarms PLUS zone based Warning alarms.
% QOS013 QoS warning jitter:[30.6] % in zone [1]
% QOS015 QoS warning R factor:[43.0] % in zone [1]
Level 3 = Allow all level 1 and 2 alarms PLUS per call Unacceptable alarms.
% QOS007 Unac pkt loss:[PL:8.2 LT:0 JIT:0 R:75] % Near [192.168.16.23:5000],TN[067 16],NZ[0:1] % Far [10.1.152.121:5200] TN[063 23], VPNI:Zone[0:1]
Level 4 = Allow all level 1, 2, and 3 alarms PLUS per call Warning alarms
% QOS001 Warning packet loss:[4.3 %] % Near [192.168.16.23:5000] TN[067 16],NZ[0:1] % Far [10.1.152.121:5200] TN[063 23], VPNI:Zone[0:1] % QOS002 Warning latency :[50 ms] % Near [10.1.152.121:5000] TN[063 23],NZ[0:1] % Far [192.168.16.23:5200] TN[067 16], VPNI:Zone[0:1] % QOS003 Warning jitter :[20 ms] % Near [10.1.152.25:5000],TN[064 22],NZ[0:1] % Far [10.1.112.28:5200] TN[067 18], VPNI:Zone[0:1] % QOS005 Warning R factor:[75] % Near [192.168.16.23:5000],TN[067 16],NZ[0:1] % Far [10.1.152.121:5200] TN[063 23], VPNI:Zone[0:1]
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via Guest Post: Long Sentences.
This article is long winded and misses the point. Meandering, due to the lengthy quotes, this article presents several ideas and manages a conclusion towards the end. Despite the claims that topic is long sentences, this article’s content is really about rhythm, and how there is just as much value in long sentences as in short sentences. That Theodora struggled with the topic of her article seems evident in the structure of the article itself. She spends the first 550 words of her article quoting an article by Pico Iyer and offhandedly refuting Pico’s article (with only a 150 word response to the 242 word quotation). She then continues with a quote that formed the basis for her article, from Pico’s article, and concludes, “And you know, I see his point.” (at the 76% mark in her 1015 word article.) While there is more to the article, I’ll let you read it for yourself. The point of my article is about what drew me in, what I thought of this opinion article, and what the content of the article was (to me) versus what Theodora claimed the article was about.
The start of her article didn’t grab me at all, and it wasn’t until I reread it carefully that I realized that what really drew me in was the start of the article she spends most of her time quoting (and refuting).
“‘Your sentences are so long,’” said a friend who teaches English at a local college, and I could tell she didn’t quite mean it as a compliment.
So says the first line of that Theodora Goss is quoting. That hook is excellent, but Theodora’s beginning: “Recently, the Los Angeles Times published an article …” is less enticing. Pico’s article (at least the part that is quoted) is flush with long, multi-clause sentences, sprinkled liberally with adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions. His writing is readable and complex, bordering on being florid without being convoluted. I am certainly inspired by his style of prose; I find myself tempted to try longer sentences (Theodora felt the same way), but I also find myself thinking that Pico’s writing is too long. There is no urgency to his writing, which might be perfect for journalism, but for fiction it just does not work.
Ironically, Theodora ends her guest post succinctly (at odds with the title):
So, long sentences. But more important than that, nuance and depth. Those are the lessons for today.
So, long sentences, indeed. Which leads me to the conclusion of my article: this article by Theodora Goss is a mess. While it presents some interesting food for thought, the topic not discussed is rhythm (a topic which is currently plaguing me). Rhythm is at the heart of Theodora’s article, even if she never mentions the word. Pico’s use of long sentences, multiple clauses, and verbosity may provide the information dump (i.e., “bombardment of the moment”) that he so desperately desires, but it also creates a languid, almost soporific feeling to the prose. Amazingly, Pico’s hook is short, being a five word quote. The next shortest sentence in the quotes (provided by Theodora) is eight words.
Long sentences may communicate nuance and depth, but short sentences are like punctuation: Proper use greatly improves your writing. What’s more, sometimes the best way to say something is by not saying it at all.
And that was the lesson I learned today.
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Jan 192012
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Jan 192012
In this chapter, Daetrin attempts to connect with the Meyagan human settlement of Cantona, with dire consequences.C.S. Friedman’s The Madness Season Chapter 12.
A summary
Outside Cantona, reconnaissance.
Foreshadowing: The longer Daetrin remains a wolf, the more wolf-like his thinking becomes. The building, or temple, in the center of town.
Unanswered questions: We’re not certain how long it’s been since the last chapter with Daetrin, but we get some hints. Five days spent traveling as a wolf (since when? since where?) Two days after landing on Meyaga, Daetrin got some information about the humans living on this planet and stole some blankets and shoes (but where is the blanket?) Daetrin has flees (but it’s a passing comment that doesn’t seem to have any relevance.) He managed to do some hunting and skinning pelts from animals (suggesting a lot of time has passed, but it’s not stated explicitely.)
At the gate to Cantona, meeting the future neighbors.
Foreshadowing: Shaving the hair off ones head seem to be the dominant style
Unanswered questions: What is this custom you speak of, “passed’n”?
***
Escorted inside Cantona, ’til ye can be passed’n.
Foreshadowing: Tyr’s eyes.
The detention cell, what’s this “passed’n” all about?
***
The detention cell, shaved pate.
***
Farms outside Cantona, the Meyagan locust-rat.
This is the first really action oriented scene for Daetrin. The Meyagan locust-rat (which Frederick previously mentioned as “an overabundance of herbivores” had created an ecological imbalance that prompted the Tyr to bring predators) swarms the Cantonan fields and eats all of their crops. Daetrin fights a losing battle, killing hundreds (or thousands?) of the creatures with the Cantonan residents. A few people die who had fallen in the path of the rats. The quantity is dramatically told:
The mangy horde was three or four feet deep, and the Cantona warriors waded through them as through a whirlpool. With long, deadly polearms they scythed through the mass of hungry flesh again and again and again, each stroke claiming half a dozen lives from among those who were struggling to breach the defensive wall. But for each one wounded, there were hundreds more; for each one killed, there were thousands.
and
And finally, when the survivors had eaten their fill and swarmed back the way they had come, through the several gaping holes in the perimeter fence, there was nothing left but a field of pillaged stalkes, and the bodies of those thousands who had lost their lives in the plundering.
That is one mean and lengthy sentence.
Foreshadowing: A dead villager’s face is etched in Daetrin’s memory.
***
The detention cell, bring out your dead.
Continuity error:
The fallen invaders would serve the colony with their flesh, but for how long? A few hundred animals, against the loss of a whole season’s crops.
This could be explained if of the thousands who died, only a few hundred were in any shape to be eaten. (There was a fire line built and a lot of the rats had swarmed over the fire, being roasted…) However, it’s not made clear why there is a delta between thousands dead but only a few hundred that are edible. (It’s also not relevant to the story.)
***
The Temple, meet and flee the Priest.
All about us were people. Perhaps a hundred. Men. Experience had taught me that humans were cruelest when segregated by sex, and the cold feeling in the pit of my stomach became lead. What had I let myself in for?
The last line is repetition for dramatic effect (he’s asked himself that more than once this chapter.)
Foreshadowing within the scene to hint at a Meyagan plant that becomes phosphorescent when it begins to die. Friedman reveals this information a little bit at a time, from Daetrin’s POV, as he struggles to remember the relevant information he overheard. During the “passin’n” ceremony, Daetrin comes to a startling realization:
I knew him for what he was—or rather, more accurately, for what he was not—and for what he had done to the humans here. Because he wasn’t human. Not in any sense of the word. Though he wore a human body, though he played their religious games like a master, the intelligence that shown in those eyes—and the power, the triumph—were from some other source. And that source was fully capable of killing me through our contact, as swiftly or as slowly as it chose. Just as it had with the cloak. Just as it had with God alone knew how many human beings.
Continuity: The Priest doesn’t find him inside the Temple before he escapes.
The priest would know this place, I realized.
The priest would know how to find me.
Only the priest doesn’t.
Complication: Daetrin can’t shape change when he is under the sun-fever that renders him more like humans.
Outskirts of Cantona, on the run
The cliff-side, the fall and the raven
Concluding this chapter, we end with the following hooks:
- Daetrin met something nasty in Cantona. What is the Priest? (Is it a Marra, or something new?)
- What’s with the rumor of Tyrran eyes?
- Did he die?
Stakes: Death.
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You have a voice now, and you can write a cover letter, you’ve seen the horrors and the joy of the submission process, but let’s take a step back for a second. Where are you sending your stories? How in the hell do you decide on the right journal or magazine or website for your epic genius? If only there was one place to go, one source for all of your questions, complete with links and statistics and pretty pictures. There is. If you haven’t discovered Duotrope.com yet, then you, my friend, are in for an awakening.
and
Welcome to Duotrope, an award-winning, free writers’ resource listing over 3800 current Fiction and Poetry publications. Use this page to search for markets that may make a fine home for the piece you just polished. Use the menus at the top and right to explore the rest of the free services we offer writers and editors, including a free online submissions tracker for registered users. We usually make several updates per day, and we check each of the current listings regularly (at least once a month) to ensure the most up-to-date database humanly possible. So far this week, we have checked guidelines for 327 listings, and we have made 444 listing updates.
via Duotrope.com (on Jan 17)
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Jan 182012
Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.
via End Piracy, Not Liberty – Google.
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