VOIP doesn't work in my building, but....

I'm confused. Are you talking about the Cisco IP phone model 7960? If so, I've never heard of them working by themselves without some sort of call manager. Usually the Cisco phones are connected to a Cisco Call Manager or Call Manager Express device if they are running on their native SCCP protocol or if the phones have been re-flashed to operate on SIP, some other call manager like those from Avaya or open source products like Asterisk or Trixbox.

 

You have to have a call manager some where. I don't know if the menu options changes from when change from SCCP to SIP operation on these phones. But if it's the same, you need to push the button on the front panel that says Settings, then go to the option Device configuration, and then CallManager Configuration.

Your phones have to be contacted some call manager on your network. If there is no call manager at the affected building, then the phones are registering with a call manager at a remote location. If this is the case, I hope you're doing this over a secure tunnel as you're exposing all your phone conversations to the wide internet.

 

Because how ever the call manager the phones are registering up to has set call policies and profiles. That is why you need to find out where/which call manager these phones are registering with and figure out your problem from there. It's not a phone problem. It's a configuration issue with the call manager or how things are set up to route the phone communication to the call manager. The phones are pretty basic in their operation and configuration.

 

The ISP is probably right. If you're getting internet connectivity and everything else you use the ISP connection for works, then it's extremely likely an issue with the VoIP system setup.

I've only done a small simple test with SIP calls through the internet a long time ago. I used a SIP softphone which registered with a Trixbox call manager sitting in my home network. I connected through a Sprint cellular broadband card and was able to connect and make calls. So in the SIP configuration, you have to point the phone to some sort of call manager. The phones depend on the call manager for all call routing. Again, I hope who ever has this phone system setup is doing the VoIP phone to call manager connections over a secure tunnel as you're exposing your phone conversations to anyone on the internet sniffing traffic. SIP communication is not secure and is as wide open as sending information in clear text.

 

So who is providing these phones? Is it the ISP or someone else you're dealing with? From what you've been saying, the phone system is not being provided by the ISP but by some other customer you are working with. If that is the case, like I said, the ISP really has nothing to do with this.

 

I just checked on their website www.rockynet.com and they give no indication they are providing VoIP services. They do indicate colocation services and I suspect your customer's servers, network, and data center equipment are housed there. These ISP/colocation companies just give you a raw internet circuit based on the pipe you purchase from them along with a block of IPs. That's it.

You need to talk to your "customer" and figure out what VoIP system they are running and who is maintaining it. From what I can see, it's not RockyNet.

 

To clarify, it's not their call center. It's what is their call manager for their VoIP system or who is providing their VoIP services which would have the call manager. The call manager is a box which the phones register in to. The call manager is responsible for call routing, profiles, and policies. Cisco has an appliance called Cisco Call Manager as part of the Unified Communications portfolio. Avaya has their own flavor. The open source products like Asterisk or Trixbox are custom builds based on Linux/CentOS which install into a server where you would either install NICs or FXO/FXS cards to connect up to a PSTN telco line.

The reason why I know some about this is because I've worked with the Cisco Call Manager appliance at a previous job and at home I have a Cisco 1861 router which has Call Manager Express and Unity Express (voice mail) built in to it with 7961, 7960, and 7920 VoIP phones running with it. I also played with Trixbox on a PC with a Digium FXO/FXS card.