The Cisco ATA 186/188 device is well known amongst any Cisco VoIP engineer. It is used allow analog phone devices to connect to the VoIP network and function as they would normally do with any other PBX.  The Cisco ATA186 / 188 was (and still is) one of the most useful (and cheapest) devices for any VoIP Network.  Many companies use the Cisco ATA in areas such as production lines and public areas, where expensive Cisco IP Phones are not required.

As noted, there are two different models, the Cisco ATA 186 & 188. One of the major differences between the two models is that the Cisco ATA 188 has two RJ-45 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports, whereas the Cisco ATA 186 has only a single 10Mbps Ethernet port. One of the ports on the Cisco ATA 188 is an uplink port (connects to the switch), and the other one is a data port, allowing you to connect another network device e.g workstation or network printer, just as you would do with a Cisco IP Phone that has two Ethernet ports e.g Cisco 7911G, 7945G e.t.c.

Both models have two FXS interfaces (shown above, on the right side behind each ATA) which are used to connect two standard analog telephones or fax machines. The Cisco ATA is connected to the network via an Ethernet interface (uplink port) and can be configured via DHCP or manually. The Cisco ATA needs a 5V DC external power supply to operate . It is important to add that the Cisco ATA 186 & 188 device does not support Inline Ethernet power or Power over Ethernet (PoE).

Upgrading the Cisco ATA 186 - 188 Firmware

As with most IP Phones and VoIP network devices, the Cisco ATA firmware should be periodically updated to the latest available version. This will help ensure smooth operation and most importantly, fix any bug issues that might be present in older firmware versions.

Upgrading the Cisco ATA firmware is a fairly straight-forward process and won't require too much effort, as long as all described steps are followed. At the time of writing this article, the latest available firmware for the Cisco ATA 186 - 188 is version 3.2(4) (file name ata_03_02_04_sccp_090202_a.zip ) with release date 23/2/2009.  For the purpose of this article, this image has been made available from our Cisco IP Phone & ATA Firmware Download Section section. It is important to note that the upgrade procedure is the same for the SCCP (Skinny Protocol), SIP and H.323 firmware.

Firstly download and upzip the file in a directory, preferably c:\ata .  The zip file contains 32 files of which two are the ones we are mostly interested in and these are:

- sata186us.exe 72Kb.   This executable will serve the firmware to the ATA, so it may upload and install it.
- ATA030204SCCP090202A.zup 273Kb.  This is the firmware file for the ATA device.

To begin, open a DOS prompt and switch to the directory where you have unzipped the downloaded zip file. We assume this is the C:\ata directory. Once there, run the sata186us.exe executable with the following parameters:

Note: To complete the ATA Firmware upgrade, we will require a analog phone connected to the Phone 1 port of the Cisco ATA device. The phone will be used later on to initiate the firmware upgrade.

This command will start the server and being serving the firmware file to any ATA that connects to it. The -any parameter will allow the upgrade even if the software version is less than or equal to those of the client box. The -d1 parameter sets the verbose level for debugging to 1 (out of 3). This is handy as the server will provide enough debug output to allow tracking of the process.

Once the above command is executed, the server will begin serving the firmware file to any ATA that requests it. The service runs (listens) on UDP port 8000 and the Data Stream (transfer of firmware) on UDP port 8500, so it is important these ports are not blocked by any firewall or antvirus system or else the upgrade will fail.

Following is the output when running the sata186us executable as shown above:

The most important areas have been highlighted for your attention. The server will automatically detect and display the workstation's IP address on which it will listen for incoming connections, followed by the ports used to listen and transfer the data stream (firmware).

At this point, we need to turn to the Cisco ATA device, pickup the headset and press the ATA button on the top. This button lights 'RED' when the handset goes to a 'offhook' status e.g the headset is picked up.  Once the red ATA button is pressed, type the sequence as shown and keep the headset to your ear:

Note that the 10*0*0*90 code represents our workstation's IP address, so this will need to be substituted with your own workstation's IP address.

As soon as this command is entered via the dialpad, the ATA will initiate the firmware transfer and proceed to its upgrade.  During this time, expect a debug on the screen, similar to the following:

The firmware transfer will not require more than 10-15 seconds at the most and once successful you will hear the annoucement "Upgrade Successful".  It's a great idea at this point to reboot the Cisco ATA device and let it boot with the new firmware.

Checking and Verifying the Cisco ATA 186 - 188 Firmware Version

To verify or find out your current ATA firmware version, simply follow these easy steps:

Resetting The Cisco ATA 186 - 188 Device To Factory Default

The Cisco ATA device offers a simple mechanisim to perform a factory default reset, wiping clean all configuration changes that might have been made through the web administrative interface.

To perform a factory reset of a Cisco ATA 186 - 188, follow the steps below:

1) Take the phone off hook.
2) The red button on the top of the ATA-186 / 188 will illuminate.
3) Press the illuminating red button on the ATA and dial 322873738#. (The numbers spell FACTRESET# on the telephone)
4) Voice prompt will ask you to dial * to save changes you have just made.
5) Press * on your phone's keypad.
6) Hang up the phone.

The Cisco ATA will now reset to its factory defaults.

Cisco's CallManager Express (Cisco router platform & UC520, UC540 & UC560) offers a number of customisation features aimed to allow the CCME administrator customise the system to suite the customer's needs.

One popular feature is the ability to change the IP Phone's background image for IP Phones with colour or black/white LCD displays. This feature helps give a new look to the IP phone and usually comes as a pleasant surprise by the end users.

IP Phone background images are files using the .png format and are stored on the router's flash memory in a special directory named 'Desktops'.

Cisco usually provides a .zip file for each CallManager Express version. This file contains IP Phone firmware, ringtones, GUI Interface and more (Links to the download pages can be found from our CCME GUI Software Installation & Configuration article). Within each CCME zip file, you'll find a file named 'backgrounds.tar' which contains total of 6 colour backgrounds to start you off with.

Firewall.cx has made the Cisco IP Phone 'backgrounds.tar' file & custom Firewall.cx background image, available in our Cisco IP Phone Software download section.

Following are thumbnails of the backgrounds provided by Cisco. These are the background images found in 'backgrounds.tar':

Below is the standard background image loaded on every 7945, 7965, 7970 & 7975 IP Phone:

Installing the background images is a straight forward process. All that's required is to extract the 'backgrounds.tar' file directly on to the router's flash and make them available to your IP phones via the router's TFTP server.

Step 1 - Extracting the Files on to the Router's Flash

Note that there must be a TFTP server running on the workstation from where the 'backgrounds.tar' will be uploaded and extracted to the router. Enter the command to extract the 'backgrounds.tar' file from the TFTP server, directly on to the router's flash. This will also create the directory structure in the .tar file:

Extraction of the 'backgrounds.tar' file will create a root 'Desktops' directory. Under this directory, three directories are created: 320x212x12, 320x216x16 & 320x212x16. The code-naming of these directories relate to the resolution of the images they contain (e.g 320x212) and colour resolution (e.g x12). As such, different IP Phones models will look into the appropriate directory to find image files suited for their LCD screen.

For example, a Cisco CP-7965 IP phone will automatically search in the Desktops/320x212x16/ directory for a list of image files.

In each directory (e.g 320x212x12) there are three type of files found:

1) imagename.png

2) TN-imagename.png

3) List.xml

It is very important to understand the purpose of each file. Please note that filenames are case-sensitive in the Cisco IOS.

• The imagename.png file is the image the IP phone will load when selected as a new background.
• The TN-imagename.png file is the thumbnail version of imagename.png. When a user selects the Background Images menu, he will be presented with the thumbnail version of available images. If the thumbnail file for a specific image does not exist, a portion of the full-resolution image will be displayed instead.
• The List.xml file is a xml file that contains the path and list of the available images and their thumbnails. The List.xml file can include up to 50 background images. The images are in the order that they appear in the Background Images menu on the phone.

For each image, the List.xml file contains one element type, called Image Item. The Image Item element includes the following two attributes:

a) Image. The path that specifies where the phone obtains the thumbnail image

b) URL. The location of the actual image file

Below is an example of the List.xml file, showing the location of the thumbnail and full resolution image of CampusNight.png:

The List.xml file is the same file for all three directories. If an additional background image is uploaded on to the system, you must edit the List.xml file and upload it to all three directories, overwriting the existing file.

Essentially all images are stored into one directory (usually Desktops/320x212x12) and all IP phones are directed to that directory through the List.xml files.

Step 2 - Serving The Files To Our IP Phones

Once the files are loaded on the CME router, it is necessary to enter the appropriate tftp-server commands to load List.xml and all .png files and make them available to the IP phones:

Inserting Custom Background Images

As in most cases, you would want to load your own custom images. For example, we created our own Firewall.cx background image and loaded it on to our IP phones.

Here's the necessary procedure and final result:

1) Create an .png image with dimensions 320x212. We did not bother creating the thumbnail version:

2) Edit the List.xml and append the newly created image:

3) Load the image into the 'Desktops/320x212x12/' directory.

R1# copy tftp flash://Desktops/320x212x12/
Address or name of remote host []? 10.0.0.10
 Source filename []? firewall-cx-logo.png
 Destination filename [/Desktops/320x212x12/firewall-cx-logo.png]? [hit enter]
Accessing tftp://10.0.0.10/firewall-cx-logo.png...
 Loading firewall-cx-logo.png from 10.0.0.10 (via FastEthernet0/0): !
 [OK - 34493 bytes]

34493 bytes copied in 0.792 secs (43552 bytes/sec)

4) Load the modified List.xml file into all three directories (320x212x12, 320x212x16 & 320x216x16), overwriting the existing file. We only show the process for one of the three directories:

5) Enter the appropriate tftp-server commands to load the new image file and make it available to the IP phones to download:

R1(config)# tftp-server flash:Desktops/320x212x12/firewall-cx-logo.png

We are now ready to load the new background image on to our IP phone by selecting Settings > UserPreferences > Background Images> .

Notice that the IP phone will show a thumbnail version which essentially is our background image - cropped. This is because we did not create a proper thumbnail version of the background image.

Once we select the new file and save our selection, the IP phone will display it. Below if the final result on our 7945G IP phone:

Firewall.cx has made the Cisco IP Phone 'backgrounds.tar' file & custom Firewall.cx background image, available in our Cisco IP Phone Software download section.

Be sure to install the backgrounds.tar file mentioned at the beginning of this article, to create the necessary directory structure on your router's flash.

Summary

In this article we explained how to install/load background images on Cisco IP phones. We examined the files involved and the procedure that needs to be followed to create and load custom background image files. Lastly, we also provide as a free download, our custom made Firewall.cx background image and Cisco's standard images.