Cisco → 2600XM bites the dust too!

Cisco Systems announces the end-of-sale and end-of life dates for the Cisco Cisco 2600XM Series. The last day to order the affected product is March 27, 2007. Customers with active service contracts will continue to receive support from the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) until March 25, 2012.

»www.cisco.com/en/US/prod ··· 6da.html

... and people are paying $1,500 and up for 26*1XM's on eBay and you can get a new CISCO2801-AC-IP for the same price from CDW and it blows that router away as it's 2-4X faster.

It's the same with the prices that people pay for 37X5s. They could get faster new 2800s for less money.

The new routers are soooo much more powerful but the message doesn't seem to have got through to the great unwashed public

Right. The only issue is NM slots. In my case I want to take upgrade my current 3640 based VOIP CME system to CME + Unity Express. For that I need an NM-CUE and I want to preserve my NM-HDA investment so I need 2 NM slots. I am hoping that all the "great unwashed public" will wake up soon and 3725 prices will plummet.

Of course I could give up on the NM-CUE, settle for an AIM-CUE and get a 2800.

I've got a 2821 with an AIM-CUE.

Haven't got a clue what to with it yet.

It is my next major learning project but smaller things keep interrupting. As I haven't done any VOIP it's a bit daunting atm but no doubt once I get started it will start to fall into place.

Phraxos, you're a lucky man that can afford to get those nice pieces, just to practice...

I wish to be working in a big company to hace access to real equipment.

As a Cisco Partner we occasionally get special pricing on selected equipment when Cisco bring out something new.

I have always taught myself everything I learn so I save a fortune on training - the equipment is my compensation.

But yes, it's a privilege to have nice equipment to learn on.

You can make a nice home or small office phone system with CME and Unity Express. Get some 7970 and 7920 phones and have at it. I've done a prototype with an old 3640 and it works pretty well.

That's basically the plan.

I work from home and the idea is to route both my work and home lines through the 2821 via a VIC2-2FXO. I already have two sets of digital wireless phones (for work and home) and I plan to hook them up to a VIC2-2FXS. I also have a 7940 for "proper" IP practice

Just got to work out how to put it all together now, which in reality means finding the time

........oops, gone gone completely OT now

When you get a working config, I'd be interested to see how you set it up. I have a 3725 with an NM-2V and a VIC-2FXO and a WIC-2FXS with the intentions of doing the same thing as you with Call Manager Express, aside from running Unity. I also have a few 7960 phones to play with and a switch that supports the old Cisco POE.

I only have a single POTS line at home now with DSL on it but was contemplating getting a second VoIP/SIP line to integrate as well. I started the FXS and FXO configs and even some of the SIP config but I haven't done anything with CME. I have no clue where to start at this point. So, any pointers to good config docs or templates/examples would be welcome.

The DSL config on your web site was helpful to me so I'll try and return the favor and post my CME config in the next few days. It's not too hard to setup. I'll work up some pointers to doc and tips in another post.

I am assuming you have to setup some DHCP boot options for the 7960 phones too and a TFTP server for the phone image etc. I'm assuming I should also setup a separate Voice VLAN on my switch and add it to the few ports I hang phones off of? Obviously, I would then have to either trunk my router's FastE interface or else use the second FastE to connect that segment.

Thanks for sharing your config. I look forward to getting this working myself. It will be fun to play with all the different options and learn a little more about the setup and best practices. I am hoping I can setup a directory portal for the 7960's and geek the phones out.

I can only ditto that - a starting point will be a great help and I promise not to bug you for help........too much

Once I have a working CME/FXS/FXO and switch VLAN/Phone config I will post it as well on my site and credit you for the basis of my template.

I'd love to get an NM-CUE module or even the AIM-CUE as well for voicemail. That would be the icing on the cake. But magically coming up with a spare $2k is not going to happen. I wouldn't be able to sneak that one by my budget/steering committee (wife).

OK attached file is a CME 3.3 config (with unix style line terminations)

First, this is all a work in progress. I haven't even done some of the basic IOS config stuff on the 3640 to make it look like I know what I am doing. So I am not proud of this config. I mean it doesn't have a single ACL. Even on the voice side it needs a lot of work. The translations are incomplete. Having said that, this config has proved to be pretty stable in providing a 4 line hybrid KEY/PBX system for my home and office.

in my case I have two POTS lines coming into the house as well as an ISDN line that provides two more voice circuits. Most of these lines are used for incoming as most outgoing calls go out over a ATT CallVantage VOIP box which is running MGCP. Unfortunately it has to connect to CME via POTS. I have more to say on that subject some other time. Calls that don't answer are diverted to one of two answering machines, one of which is two line.

You have to decide up front if you want to have a key system, PBX system, or hybrid. You really need to think about that up front. In my case I run a hybrid system where incoming calls go to 1 of 4 lines (extensions) that appear on all phones. However all phones have their own extension as well. There are some issues with this kind of setup, but in general it works pretty well for me. The incoming lines are line 1 public, line 2 private, line 3 voip, line 4 work.

This runs on a 3640 running 12.3.14T. I would suggest using a newer version of CME as 3.3 is kinda of buggy. I can't do that because 3.3 is the end of the road for the 3640. I don't have WIC based FXO or FXS instead I have an NM-HDA so you will have to make a few adjustments for that.

The 3640 is linked to a 3500-XL-PWR Cisco switch via FastEthernet 2/0. Internet connectivity is provided by a 3620 which is also attached to to the 3500. The 3500 provides the ethernet and POE for the phones and all my other local computer gear. Get a POE switch if you can afford it. POE phones are neat. I have them on long cables and they have good speaker phones so for example we often take the one in the living room and put it on the coffee table for a conference call. Easy to do with a single cable, not easy with an ethernet cable and a brick. I have not set up separate VLANs for the voice and data traffic nor have I linked the 3640 and 3500 via ISL or 802.1Q but all that is planned. I would have done it sooner but I've noticed very little problems with having everything on the same VLAN in my environment. Your mileage may vary especially if you are a gamer or PTP type.

How to proceed.

1. Figure out what version of CME you are going to run.

2. Make sure you have enough flash and DRAM. CME 3.3 really does *not* fit on my 3640 128/64 + 2 x 16 MB PCMCIA flash. I mean it barely makes it.

3. Get *ALL* related documents you can find.

4. Read from cover to cover at least the CME SAG (systems administrator guide) and consider doing the same for the CME CR (command reference). Consider printing these out and having them bound at Kinkos.

5. Gather all the files you need from all the various pieces.
a. IOS for the version of CME you are going to run (they are linked)
b. CME files
c. phone loads
d. other misc files like ring tones

A given version of CME is only tested with a specific version of IOS. Make sure you are OK with that IOS, as you can't really upgrade.

6. Get everything in one room, preferably all within arms reach. I did this in my living room on the coffee table while my wife was gone.

7. A few multiline POTS phones are a bug help in the beginning.

I could write more but I gotta run

I have CME (or UCME as it is called from version 4.0) and Unity Express (AIM-CUE) working nicely on a 2801 now, with incoming/outgoing calls done over ISDN. The next step is to get some extensions working via a VPN for remote/home office type use. Let me know if there is any setup you want help with. I would recommend going for UCME 4.0 over 3.x, although it is only available on IOS 12.4(4)XC at the moment.

i have a 2851 and a cisco 7960 at home but i currently use asterisk.. what all do i need to get cme and unity express working? right now i use a sipura 3000 to do voip to pots conversion can i use that too?

Unfortunately, it looks like all the 12.4 images need 256MB DRAM. I only have 128MB in my 3725 currently. I guess I can cannibalize my other 3725 if I get desperate. Hopefully I can cannibalize another 3700 around here.

»www.memoryx.com/

is a good source for Cisco memory. You have your choice of Cisco certified or not.

128MB Cisco 3725 Approved Router Memory (p/n MEM3725-128D=)
$99.98