Siemens

Siemens Gigaset N300

Warning, this phone contains a number of bugs which can be annoying. It has been replaced by the N300 and if you are using Gigaset this would be the prefered phone.

A very nice little phone which is very useful for users roaming the office. As it is DECT this gives a great power saving over WIFI phones which by comparison drain the battery in no time at all (DECT was designed for low power and voice whilst WIFI was always envisaged for computers with no power issues - but speed was more important).

Config

If you are using this purely for Voip (as they are fixed line aware) ensure that you have selected the babblevoice Voip line for outgoing calls, this is selected in the dialling plans menu selection.

Very straight forward, user, secret and domain is all that is required.

Here's the configuration page:

Call Transfer

As it is not primarily aimed at business use, transfer is not so easy or obvious.

Transfer (using SIP as opposed to DECT which would be between to wireless handsets not other phones in the office) needs a little setup first. The setting are under "settings" then "telephony" and "advanced" in the web interface:

• Use the R key to initiate call transfer with the SIP Refer method: Yes
• Transfer Call by On-Hook: No
• Derive target address: from SIP URL
• Find target addr. automatically: Yes
• Hold on transfer target: For attended transfer

After this the actual transfer process is fairly straight forward:

• During a call, press the menu button just under the screen and choose the "external call" option.
• Dial a number and make a call as normal.
• When you are ready to transfer, simply press the "R" key twice and the calls will be connected.

To ensure this works, make sure you are on the latest firmware.

N300 Voicemail alerts

To configure this the first thing you will need to do is to access the web GUI for the N300 base station, to do this you will need to have a PC on the same network as the phone.

On the PC you have on the same network, open a web browser and in the URL bar enter : www.gigaset-config.com

Then you will see a list of base stations on your network, select the correct one, and then you will be prompted for a password, the default for this is 0000.

Then navigate to the screen below - Go to the Settings tab across the top then select Messaging->Message Notification From the menu on the left.

To enable the message waiting indicator for voicemails ensure the Network mailboxes tick box is ticked for each handset you wish to have it enabled on, INT X are the handset names by default.

To enable missed call notifications tick the tick box for Missed calls is ticked and in the Missed Calls Count section select yes for each line you wish to enable this for.

Once the above steps have been completed when you receive a missed call or a voicemail you will see a notification on the handset, the below image shows notifications on the SL910 handset, but this method will work for all handsets compatible with the N300 base station.

Siemens Gigaset SL400

Siemens have a range of handsets which pair with the N300 base station. It is common to purchase a base station with one or more handsets as bundles to save money.

The Siemens Gigaset SL400 is a fairly basic little phone, but it comes into it's own for the "walk and talk" mindset. A Good range on the device, and good quality for what it is, you get just the right amount of bang for buck, and unlike some other Gigaset handsets, transferring is quite straight forward.