Configuring wireless devices

Each device will have its own user interface-either through the display on the device (if it’s a phone) or through a web interface that you can browse to (some Wi-Fi phones will have both).

The actual entries used for setting up the device to work with Asterisk are standard SIP parameters like username, password, host, and so on, and therefore, the next screenshot has been included (taken from the Siemens S460IP phone) as an example:

What is worth looking into in more detail are the Nokia dual-mode phones, as there are a couple of parameters necessary for successful connection with Asterisk, which are not as widely known as they should be. These “lesser known” parameters are responsible for many people giving up on connecting their devices to Asterisk.

I will use the Nokia E90 as an example:

Most of the parameters are self explanatory, but the two parameters we pay special attention to are the Public user name in the SIP profile itself, and the Realm in the submenus for both the Proxy server and the Registrar server. Further in this section, some screenshots of each of the screens you will need to go through to set up your Nokia phone as an extension on your Asterisk PBX have been included.

Start by selecting the Connection in the Settings screen:

Then select SIP settings:

Select or create the relevant SIP profile from the submenu:

Inside the SIP profile, complete the settings—the Public user name must be the SIP profile name (from sip.conf)@:

Now move down to the Proxy server and Registrar server sections:

It is here that the all-important Realm must be entered—Asterisk sets this as “asterisk” by default, but you can change it in the [general] section of sip.conf.

The Registrar server screen needs to be the same as the previous one:

Although the IP address used (see preceding screenshot) is internal, it could equally be an Internet IP address such as 80.229.203.112

Note that the Realm is defined in the [general] section of sip.conf by the realm= line. If this line is missing, then the realm will default to “asterisk”.