BEST HEADSET FOR ALTIGEN IP710 PHONE

Altigen IP710 Phone Manual is here:
http://www.altigen.com/system_manuals/50a/ip710_admin.pdf

This phone supports both RJ9 and 2.5mm headsets.   Below you see the RJ9 option.

HW261N

26716-01 Quick Connect Cable

 

HOW TO ADD STREAMING MUSIC TO CARS WITHOUT AN AUX JACK

If you need Bluetooth Phone and Streaming Music/Audio (A2DP), and a solution that works even if you do not have an auxiliary input jack, you can purchase a nice Belkin device that streams both via your car radio's FM band.  You simply tune your radio to the same frequency as your Belkin is transmitting on.  This Belkin device is nice because it gives you the charger with a USB connector slot so you can use this to power two devices from the same cigarette lighter power receptacle rather than only powering the Belkin device.



This Jabra device is a pricier option, but adds some additional features and Jabra is widely known for their phone accessories.



Please feel free to comment if you have any feedback or questions about this article.

HOW TO ADD STREAMING MUSIC TO YOUR CAR

If your car is equipped with an Auxiliary audio input jack this solution will work for you.  My car actually supports Bluetooth phone use, but did not support the A2DP Bluetooth Profile required to stream Audio.  All that is required is that you have an aux input jack.  You then change your car radio's input source to the aux jack, power up the Aluratek AIS01F, use your phones Bluetooth menu to connect to the Aluratek device, and then start enjoying your streaming audio or music from your cell phone.  You could use it to stream any application accessible on your cell phone... like Pandora, YouTube, Navigation directions from Google Maps, or Mapquest, or just enjoy your MP3 collection on your phone via your car speakers.  I use this in my Buick Regal to stream music and android trapster or google navigation information.  It works great!




This unit includes a rechargeable battery so you can use it for portable applications... you can essentially plug this device into any speaker that has an input jack and make any speaker Bluetooth accessible.  Personally I combined this unit with a USB car charger like the Energizer car charger you see above.  Alternatively you could purchase or utilize a USB wall charger for your house, and use the built in rechargeable battery to supply your power when using it in your car.

NOTE:  If you need Bluetooth Phone and Streaming Music/Audio (A2DP), and a solution that works even if you do not have an auxiliary input jack... click here.


Please leave me feedback if you have any questions or comments about this article.

SOLVED: Samsung Kies not connecting

If you receive the message "Please connect a device."... while trying to use Samsung Kies from your PC, then this may help you solve your connection problem.

First you need to know that their are two types of USB cables, and interfaces... some support both sync and charging and some just support charging.  To connect to Kies you need to ensure you are using a sync cable.  If you are certain you are using a sync cable... then make sure you are not using something like a battery case that only supports charging.  I have a Samsung Galaxy S® II Skyrocket™ (Black) and was using the PowerSkin battery case and wasn't able to connect until I removed the PowerSkin Battery case.

Another issue that may give you a connection problem is that there are different generations of Kies versions, and some phones are only supported on older versions of Kies.

To download the latest version of Kies for your PC go here:
http://www.samsung.com/kies

An alternative would be to use Kies on your phone to transfer files over wifi.
To update the version of Kies on your android phone go to the Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samsung.swift.app.kiesair&hl=en

Privacy note:
Please keep in mind that when connecting from your PC to the android version of Kies... it will do so via a secure browser window, but it will display the contents of your phone on the screen including photos, media, and other personal information that you may not want to expose to just anyone who can view your screen.

If you need to check for firmware updates, or install firmware updates... you will need to use Samsung Kies for your PC.



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Manually Configuring a Lan interface using ifconfig under HP-UX

You would like to add an ephemeral or temporary IP perhaps to troubleshoot a problem involving a Network Interface Card.

NOTE: Keep in mind you may lose network connectivity... be sure to be connected to the network console or MP (management port), or via another network card on the system other than the one you are configuring. Be sure to check if you are using NFS shares or other things that rely on network connectivity before making changes that may impact it's availability.

For temporary changes which will persist until changed again, or a reboot
occurs:
ifconfig lan0 down
ifconfig lan0 unplumb
ifconfig lan0 plumb
ifconfig lan0 172.16.0.121 up netmask 255.255.255.0
you can confirm by using:
netstat -in
If you need to configure a default route you can use the following:
1) View the current routes by using netstat -nr
You may have to remove the default route and the syntax would be:
route delete default 172.16.0.1
2) add the route as follows:
Note: "default route" route add default netmask 255.255.255.0 172.16.0.1 1
Note: "host route" route add host 136.128.103.16 10.12.3.102 1
Note: "net route" route add net 172.16.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0
192.168.70.11 1
Keep in mind the changes are temporary and are not persistent across a reboot. At boot time the /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file is used as well as other configuration files that vary depending on the NIC and it's associated driver.

Example Routes in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file (Take effect on reboot or "/sbin/init.d/net stop" "/sbin/init.d/net start" see note on connectivity below:

ROUTE_DESTINATION[2]="host 136.128.103.16"
ROUTE_GATEWAY[2]="10.2.15.35"
ROUTE_COUNT[2]="1"

ROUTE_DESTINATION[1]="net 172.16.0.0"
SUBNET_MASK[1]="255.255.0.0"
ROUTE_GATEWAY[1]="192.168.70.11"
ROUTE_COUNT[1]="1"

Default route in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf:
ROUTE_DESTINATION[0]=default
ROUTE_MASK[0]=255.255.255.0
ROUTE_GATEWAY[0]=172.16.0.1
ROUTE_COUNT[0]="1"
ROUTE_ARGS[0]=""
ROUTE_SOURCE[0]=""

Sample Interface entry in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf for lan0:
INTERFACE_NAME[1]="lan0"
IP_ADDRESS[1]="172.16.0.121"
SUBNET_MASK[1]="255.255.255.0"
BROADCAST_ADDRESS[1]="172.16.0.255"
INTERFACE_STATE[1]="up"
DHCP_ENABLE[1]="0"
INTERFACE_MODULES[1]=""

If you see an entry like lan900 and above... that pertains to Auto Port Aggregation (APA), which on other platforms is sometimes referred to NIC teaming or bonding.
You can actually add an alias IP or stack IP's on the same interface by using the following syntax. For example lan0 is actually lan0:0 so an additional IP could be added to lan0:1... lan0:2 etc. This is actually how service guard works... it takes advantage of these alias IP address and they are assigned to an application and then move between nodes in the serviceguard cluster.

Additional Commands
To try to determine which lan card is in which physical slot/location... use
ioscan -funC lan
then look at slot information with "olrad -q", or "rad -q" depending on your HP-UX OS version.

KEEP IN MIND IFCONFIG IS TEMPORARY. IF YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE IP ADDRESS PERMANANTLY IT WILL NEED TO BE DONE IN THE /etc/rc.config.d/netconf FILE.  If you are an advanced user you can edit this file directly and then re-run the /sbin/init.d/net stop and /sbin/init.d/net start or altertively reboot your server. If you do not plan to reboot you should be connected to the console either via a webconsole... actual console, or an ILO connection.

NOTE ON CONNECTIVITY:
(YOU MAY LOSE NETWORK CONNECTIVITY AND MAY EVEN HANG YOUR SYSTEM) Remember to keep in mind other services that rely on network services like NFS that may even affect another server. The safest thing is to edit the netconf file and then reboot during a maintenance window. You can also use the set_parms command to change the IP address if you dont want to edit the files manually or use "sam", or "smh" on newer systems.
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Creating a Depot file from a Depot Directory

There are two types of depot's... either a depot directory or a depot file (also called a tape depot).
apa_J4240AA_11.11.depot is a depot file, which is essentially a glorified tar file.  A depot directory is a directory that can contain products, bundles or patches and resides in a directory that has been "registered" and is known to HP-UX's Software Distributor for Unix (SD-UX).

A depot directory is created or has additional items added to it via the swcopy command.  The benefit of a depot directory is that SD-UX allows for only one source "depot" to be specified... so if you want to install multiple kernel patches (that require reboots)... multiple reboots would be required if all you had were individual depot files (one for each patch).  This is where a depot directory is essential.  Another advantage is that if you have registered a depot it is accessible not only locally, but also over the network to be used as a source depot for other servers.  To see what depot directories you have...

swlist -l depot  (Assumes local system)
or
swlist -l depot @ <hostname>  (remote system referenced by hostname).




Once you have created a depot directory... you can use this to create a depot file. To create a depot file from a directory style depot:
 
For our example lets say you have a directory depot /var/spool/sw where there is a product called
J4240AA (Auto Port Aggregation) and you want to create a single file depot (also known as a Tape depot).
swpackage -x media_type=tape -s /var/spool/sw J4240AA @
/tmp/apa_J4240AA_11.11.depot

You will find the depot file in /tmp called apa_J4240AA_11.11.depot.

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BEST HEADSET FOR CISCO IP PHONE (7941/7942) or CISCO UNIFIED PRESENSE CLIENT

PHONE TUTORIAL:

Flash Based Tutorial for the 7941/7942/7945

http://www.cisco.com/comm/applications/CCNP/qlm/7941/index.htm

 

MANUALS:
Quick Reference Guide:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/7962g_7961g_7961g-ge_7942g_7941g_7941g-ge/8_5/english/quick_reference/7962qrcrd85.pdf

User Guide:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/7962g_7961g_7961g-ge_7942g_7941g_7941g-ge/8_5/english/user_guide/7962enu85.pdf

HEADSET OPTIONS:

In an effort to keep costs low and to avoid wasting money on headsets that perform poorly I have put together a guide to help you choose headsets that will work with the Cisco 7941, or Cisco 7942 phones. If you have a legacy headset with an amplifier... the amplifier is not necessary for this phone. 

The costs should be very similar to what I have outlined below… or you are over paying for your solution.

1)   CISCO IP PHONE OPTIONS)  If you need a headset for your standard desk phone (Cisco 7941/7942 or similar):

Plantronics HW251N SupraPlus NC Headset or Plantronics HW261N (HW261N is the binaural version) Approximately $60-$100

NOTE:  You do not need an external amplifier with this setup, but you will need a quick disconnect cable so you can plug it into the headset jack on the back of your phone.  If you already have a quick disconnect cable then there is no need to purchase another one.

       Cost Guideline… the cable should be less than $30, and you may already have one that you can use (see the photo below left).

So Quick Disconnect + Plantronics HW251N (Monaural) Noise Cancelling Headset OR Plantronics HW261N (Binaural)

+OR

Several people report that this works great for their Desk Phone (Cisco 7942) with this Headset combination.  Here is the part number for the quick disconnect cable:

26716-01 M12 Amplifier Cable / Cisco IP Phone Cable

2)   SOFTPHONE/COMPUTER USB OPTIONS) If you need a headset for your Cisco Unified Presence or IP Communicator (Softphone) on your PC:
     NOTE:  If you have an older PC or very low bandwidth connection, or typically run lots of intensive applications (virus scanning, Hard disk defrags, Solitaire <ha ha>)… then a softphone may not work well for you and you should instead consider a headset for your standard phone.  If you feel OK to proceed please consider the models listed below.  The Plantronics models that say DSP are preferred as these provide Digital Signal Processing with active electronics to block noise and echo.  They also provide audio in the WideBand spectrum so it is better than standard telephone quality and more like having and in person converstaion.

2-1)Plantronics Audio 646 DSP  It has noise cancellation, Echo Cancellation, Super WideBand Audio and inline mute and volume controls and is extremely economical.   The Plantronics Audio 626 DSP is a very similar headset with the same features.  The 646 is a behind the head type headset you see pictured below on the left and the 626 is more the traditional headset you see pictured below right.  Both have USB connections and are plug and play (no software to install).  The driver loads automatically when you connect the headset for the first time.  Pros:  When you push the mute button you have a visual red indicator to confirm that it is muted and the softphone also reflects the mute status on the display.

Cost Guideline… these can be purchased for around $29 - $39 from places like Amazon, Fry’s or Bestbuy (Price Match to fry’s if a best buy is closer to you to get the lower price, or just order on line).

2-2)Plantronics Audio 655 DSP  (Make sure it says DSP).
This headset has all the features of the other DSP headsets minus the inline controller.  The mute is integrated into the boom mic (You simply retract it back to the headset to engage the mute.  However, It does not have a visual indication that it is muted and it does not illuminate the mute button on the softphone).  The volume control is on the left headset.  The plus for this headset is in the cushioned earpads.  This provides not only comfort, but also isolation if you are working in a noisy office environment.