IP Phone Configuration: User Account Settings

Manufacturers different naming conventions

While SIP is an industry standard protocol, the names assigned to the configuration fields on an IP phone are far from standardised. The tables below show the text labels that you can expect to see on the web interface configuration forms next to the boxes where you must enter your settings. We show examples of the labels used for equivalent fields by four manufacturers: Snom, Aastra, Grandstream and Linksys.

User accounts

There is little to no agreement on what heading to show for the user account settings as a whole:

Snom	Aastra	Grandstream	Linksys	Yealink
Identity	Line	Account	Ext	Account

User account: Authentication Name

On SIP accounts, the authentication name and the main account ID are often identical. However, IP phones usually have two different fields to allow maximum flexibility. On older versions of Grandstream and Linksys phones they also have a “yes/no” or radio button to show if the authentication ID is required or is simply the same as the main account ID. The field used for the authentication name appears with the following label alongside it:

Snom	Aastra	Grandstream	Linksys	Yealink
Authentication Username	Authentication Name	Authenticate ID	Auth ID	Register Name

User account: Password

At least there is some agreement about the label used for this field. It is called “Password” on all the different makes of phone except the Grandstream which calls it “Authenticate Password”.

User account: Main account ID

The main account ID may need to be set to match the extension number for your IP phone; or the SIP ID given by your provider. This field appears with the following label alongside it:

Snom	Aastra	Grandstream	Linksys	Yealink
Account	Phone Number	SIP User ID	User ID	User Name

User account: SIP Registrar/SIP Domain

There is no agreement here between manufacturers on what to call it. In my opinion it should be called the “SIP Domain”, but this would clearly be at odds with all the equipment manufacturers who I must assume have done their research, so I will go along with the received wisdom. It is a setting that serves two purposes – mainly it sets the SIP domain name that is used during registration and within other SIP dialogues. However, in the absence of a more explicit server identification, it can also identify the Registrar server and possibly the Proxy server where other SIP requests should be sent. The setting appears with the following labels:

Snom	Aastra	Grandstream	Linksys	Yealink
Registrar	Proxy Server	SIP Server	Proxy	SIP Server

SIP Server Identification: SIP Registrar Server

It gets complicated here. First, Aastra provides an explicit field to identify the Registrar server while the others combine SIP Domain name and Registrar Server into a single field (see above). That is not altogether surprising because the IP address for the Registrar server can be resolved using DNS. However, even on those phones that do have a field for the registrar server, the “Outbound Proxy” setting generally overrides any IP address that can be resolved from the SIP Domain name. However, one caveat: If SRV records are being used, they may be given more weight than simple Host A records. I especially found this to be true on Snom phones.

Snom	Aastra	Grandstream	Linksys	Yealink
N/A	Registrar Server	N/A	N/A	N/A

SIP Server Identification: Outbound Proxy

If you set a value for the Outbound Proxy, then it will almost certainly override other SIP server identification settings in so far as all SIP requests generated by the phone get sent to the Outbound Proxy Server first. Most manufacturers use much the same label to identify this item:

Snom	Aastra	Grandstream	Linksys	Yealink
Outbound Proxy	Outbound Proxy Server	Outbound Proxy	Outbound Proxy	Outbound Proxy Server

SIP Server Identification: Backup Outbound Proxy Server

Some IP phones, such as the Yealink, include the option for a Backup Outbound Proxy Server. This is used when the primary server cannot be reached. Something very similar can be achieved through the use DNS SRV records too. That is because there can be more than one SRV record for a single domain and each can point to a different server. They can also be given different priorities, thereby telling the phone which one should be tried first, which next, etc.