Provisioning a Linksys SPA901, 921, 941, 922, 942, 962 for 3CX Phone System

Please Note: The Linksys SPA series of IP phones are no longer manufactured and are not supported by 3CX. This page is here for documentation purposes only. Check out the 3CX supported IP phones.

This guide has been tested for the following Linksys phone models: Linksys SPA901 with firmware version 5.1.5, SPA 921, 941 fw version 5.1.8, and SPA 922, 942, 962 for version 6.1.5a

Language LCD Display changes work only with phones that take firmware version 6.1.5a upwards.

This FAQ is based on a new phone or one that has been reset to factory defaults. If in doubt, reset the phone to Factory Defaults.

To make a “Blind” transfer (where you transfer a call to another extension WITHOUT waiting for the other extension to respond”, you need to use the “bxfer” softkey. To make an “Attended” transfer (where you wait for the second extension to answer before transferring the call), you need to use the “xfer” softkey. Using the “Attended” transfer method WITHOUT waiting for the other extension to respond currently does not work with the Linksys phone range.

The easiest way to set up a phone for use with 3CX PhoneSystem is to use the built-in provisioning functionality inside 3CX PhoneSystem. This will allow the phone to configure itself by retrieving a 3cx-generated phone configuration file.

This is a 3-step process:

  1. Enable provisioning for an extension to create the phone’s configuration files
  2. Tell the phone where to get its configuration files from.
  3. Optionally configure advanced options such as Time Zone from the Phone Provisioning node

Enabling Provisioning for an Extension

  1. Select the extension you want to provision and go to the “Phone Provisioning” tab
  2. In the “MAC Address” field, enter the phone’s 12-character MAC Address. This information is normally printed on the back of the phone.
  3. In the “Model” field, select the model number of the phone you want to provision followed by the Phone Display language. (Note: Language packs need to be downloaded and placed in the firmware folder in 3CX*)
  4. If your 3CX Phone System machine has multiple network interfaces, select the interface IP Address through which the phone will be connecting to the 3CX PhoneSystem machine using the “Select Interface” drop down. You can skip this step if you have only one network card in your 3CX Phone System machine.
  5. If you have the Linksys SPA932 Extension unit (a.k.a. sidecar) attached to the phone, you can set the BLF fields to monitor the status of other extensions.
  6. Click on the “OK” button at the bottom of the page. Navigate to the “Phones”, select the phone and click ‘Reprovision’. The phone will be rebooted and will apply the new configuration settings.

Getting the Phone to Retrieve its Configuration Files

Now the phones must be told to download the configuration files from the central server. To do this:

  1. 1. Start up the phone and identify its IP Address – using the menu key on the phone, go to the “Network” option and press the “Select” button. For this example we will assume the IP Address of the phone is 10.172.0.126, and IP Address of the 3CX PhoneSystem machine is 10.172.0.15
  2. Point your browser to the web interface of the phone: http://10.172.0.126
  3. Click on the “Admin Login” link, and next click on the “Advanced” link at the top of the page to the phone’s advanced administration page
  4. Click on the “Provisioning” tab, and set the “Profile Rule” field to:
    • http://10.172.0.15:5000/provisioning/$MA.xml  if you are running 3CX Phone System 11.
    • http://10.172.0.15:5000/provisioning/%%ProvSubDir%%/$MA.xml if you are using 3CX Phone System 12.
    • Replace %%ProvSubDir%%  with the randomly created provisioning folder for 3CX Phone System 12.
  5. Click the “Submit All Changes” button at the bottom of the page. Your phone will restart. After rebooting, the phone will retrieve its configuration files and register with the 3CX Phone System. This can be verified via the “Extension Status” page of the 3CX Management Console.
  6. If the phone takes long to provision you can force the phone to reprovision immediately by copying and pasting this example link in a browser:
    http://10.172.0.126/admin/resync?http://10.172.0.15:5000/provisioning/$MA.xml (if you are using 3CX Phone System 11)
    http://10.172.0.126/admin/resync?http://10.172.0.15:5000/provisioning/%%ProvSubDir%%/$MA.xml  (if you are using 3CX Phone System 12)

Advanced configuration options (Time Zone, DST, Firmwares)

You can configure Time Zone, DST and other options from the Phone provisioning node. From here you can also edit the provisioning templates and include custom configuration options into the templates. Phone firmwares can also be upgraded network wide.

*NOTE: For language display changes the appropriate language packs need to be downloaded and placed in the firmware folder using the 3CX Managament console, “Phone Provisioning” node, “Firmware” tab, and click on the “Add firmware” button.

Available language pack downloads for Linksys SPA phones with firmware 6.1.5a available from here.