The Cisco 7905G and 7912G IP Phones

The Cisco 7905G and 7912G are entry-level IP phones. Figure 4-5 shows the Cisco 7905G IP Phone. The physical appearance of these two phones is very similar, except for the additional Ethernet port available on the Cisco 7912G.

Figure 4-5. Cisco 7905G IP Phone

Hardware

The Cisco 7905G has a single 10-Mb Ethernet interface. The device requires 48V DC power to operate, which can be provided from an inline Cisco LAN switch or an external power supply unit. The Cisco 7905G has a pixel-based LCD screen.

Note

The Cisco 7905G IP Phone is the only model where Cisco CME supports only the G-series model and not the ordinary Cisco 7905 IP Phone. The Cisco 7905 is an H.323 phone, and Cisco CME supports only SCCP-based phones (such as the Cisco 7905G).

The Cisco 7912G has two 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports and functions similar to the Cisco 7960G phone. The power supply can be provided from an inline power LAN switch or an external power supply.

Both the Cisco 7905G and 7912G phones support a single-line button and have an additional four buttons for hold, transfer, conference, and dialing voice mail. The phone is also equipped with a "listen-only" speakerphone, mute button, volume control keys, and a rocker button to scroll through the LCD screen. The function of the softkeys changes depending on the phone's state. The softkeys can be programmed for various states of the phone, such as the Cisco 7960G. The hold function button is not a part of the softkey set. A dedicated button for this function is located on the left side of the rocker button; it has a hexagon symbol resembling a stop sign. The button on the right side of the rocker button takes you to the Settings menu, similar to the phones discussed previously.

Configuring the Cisco 7905G and 7912G IP Phones

The Cisco 7905G and 7912G IP Phones obtain their IP address and other network information by default from DHCP. You can also configure these parameters from the phone after disabling DHCP. The phone is equipped with a set of menus similar to the Cisco 7960G IP Phone to view and configure some of the phone and network parameters. The key combination to unlock and reset the phone is the same as for the Cisco 7960G IP Phone.

The phone load and phone type should be configured under the telephony-services and ephone configuration modes, respectively, for a successful registration of the phone. The phone can be configured with two single-line directory numbers (DNs) or a single dual-line DN.