High priority customer calls about a Cisco 7950 that was experiencing intermittent availability, one hour she could call, the next she could not. The work around she would use was to cycle the power of the phone, but she was getting tired of doing this and notified us about her situation.
When I show up on site, the phone is working. I check to see if the phone can place a call, and it can. I test the path from the phone to the patch panel to verify the L1 connectivity, and it looks a-okay. When I go to seat the cable back into the phone, I flip the phone over and notice that the connection from the switch to the phone was going into the PC port, while the PC was routed to the network port. I fix this issue and confirm that the phone can place a call. I notify the individual that I will call her front office to check if the phone is still functioning, and then I headed back to my shop.
Two hours after the visit, I place the promised call and confirm that the phone hasn't experienced an intermittent issue since.
My question is how the fuck was the phone able to place any phone calls? My limited understanding of detailed VoIP functionality thought that the link from the switch to the phone had to be in the proper port on the back of the phone. This idea is most obvious to me when PoE isn't supplied to the device if you do use the wrong port, but with this 7950 being supplied power through an injector it wasn't that obvious at first glance.
If I need to clarify anything please let me know. I appreciate any input!
No comments:
Post a Comment