SPIT calls on GXV3000 (updated)

SPIT stands for Spam over Internet Telephony.

Out there exists a lot of evil people that do bad things, SPIT is one of this bad things.
It can be very annoying. Here some notes about to get rid of these calls on the Grandstream GXV3000 phones.

GXV3140 - Update (02/2012)

The GXV3140 is the latest IP phone from GrandStream.
Here some updated notes since the original post and impressions about this new phone.

Positive things

As I mentioned in the original post, the screen activation based on some motion, is really a nice thing.
When in front of the phone is possible to see information about the status of the line or the time (yeah, I love watches :) ) and if nobody is there ... black screen.

Skype is working well. The quality of audio and video is really good also with Skype.

Also the normal calls with SIP are really high quality.

Negative things


Most of the time the phone is working well, however it is less stable and reliable than the older GXV3000 series.
The GXV3140 crashed at least 4 or 5 times since I activated it.
So far I observed that the crash happens when Skype is activated (i.e. logged in).
Some times it was enough trying to place a call to trigger a crash.  In one occasion I had the phone crash without doing any operation, probably after 2 days of continuous log-in to Skype.
Usually the crash manifest itself with a "frozen" system, i.e. the display shows something but the phone is totally non-responsive.
The only thing to do is to unplug the power, wait few seconds and then reconnect the power.

It would be interesting monitor the IP traffic to the phone to see if the crash is due from attempts to attack the phone.
Skype is notoriously dangerous, I don't think the phone is "smart" enough to protect itself.

Another annoying characteristic is the menu' to place a call.
To place a call, assuming to have the number in the phonebook, is necessary to press a lot of buttons, much more than the GXV3000.
First the phonebook button, then select the user, then press the F1 (assigned to the call function), then select if the call is only audio or audio/video and then finally the call is placed.
Really time wasting.

Still remains the impossibility to change some  parameters in the phone. Probably a factory reset is necessary but so far I didn't spend time on that.
Maybe one of these days.

The automatic gain of the camera is quite annoying.
It's enough to move little bit far from the phone during a call to have the image transmitted to become totally dark. I did try also other settings but the final effect is not better.

Skype doesn't support conferences. That would be quite useful.

GrandStream GXV3140

The GXV3140 is the latest IP phone from GrandStream.
Here some notes and impressions about this new phone.

First of all, the first impression is about a more professional phone.
More slim and slick, nice to see.  The screen is definitively better than the GXV3000, but smaller.
High resolution. And also the web pages used to set up the phone, are definitively "professional looking" and better organized than the older series.

So, here some pro and cons, compared mostly with the GXV3000.

Pro

• professional looking
• a lot, really a LOT, of functionalities  (IP radio, YouTube viewer, Skype, social networks (fb/Twitter/IM/ecc.), browser, ecc. ecc.)
• doesn't require to be booted after every change of parameter !!
• the screen saver is interrupted if the phone detect movement !!!! This is nice !!!
• better organization of the screen
• high definition video, is feasible to watch a movie
• nice sound, both for music/movies and phone calls
• WiFi as optional

Cons

• much more complex to use, so I don't think is a phone suitable for non-technological people
• a lot of functionalities but hardly multitask .. so is not possible for example hearing the IP radio and navigate with the browser
• without an external keyboard many functionalities are limited
• is not storing passwords for skype
• some settings are "stuck" and is not possible to change them (bug ?)
• different format of the xml file for the phonebook, so is not possible to share the one used for the GXV3000

Compatibility

So far I was able to use the phone with the services I normally use with the GXV3000.

No problem at all to call and receive calls from the other GXV3000 using different VoIP providers.

Fully compatible with Asterisk too, like the GXV3000.
And it has also Skype functionality !! It means that it can handle 3 VoIP providers SIP based PLUS Skype.

System data

Here some data about the phone :

Product Model :

GXV3140

Hardware Revision :

V0.4A

Version :

1.0.7.2

Core Version :

1.0.7.4

DSP Version :

1.0.5.21

Base Version :

1.0.7.36

Program Version :

1.0.7.50

GUI-A Version :

1.0.7.2

GUI-B Version :

1.0.7.3

Recovery Version :

1.0.7.1

Here the first update.

GrandStream GXV3000

Short review of  the SIP videophone GrandStream GXV3000.

The GXV3000 is one of the cheap SIP videophone on the market.
Is produced by the GrandStream and is on the market for many years.
There are already a lot of information on the net about this phone, so I'm not attempting to describe the product, rather I want to point out some good qualities and some problems this phone has.

Why this phone ?

Years ago I started to build a private network, in order to talk with other family members and to close friends.
In order to cut the costs,  but still having a decent way to communicate, I opted for the VoIP.
Initially I considered Skype, but there were some security and usability issues ... for example the necessity to have a computer always on, running Skype.
People not accustomed to computer surely would have problems to handle such media.

So instead to look for a computer based solution, I started to look for a VoIP phone.
VoIP phones are now quite easy to find nowadays, and they can be really cheap, but at the time, about 6 years ago, the choice was limited and quite expensive.
Especially for a video phone.

After looking around for a while, the choice was the GXV3000, because relatively cheap and with some nice features.

The network

One of the main characteristic I looked for the phone, was the compatibility with the SIP standard.
Having a standard appliance means to have the capability to choose different VoIP providers.
The GXV3000 has the capability to support 3 distinct VoIP providers and this is quite important, since during the years  some providers can  close or they can have  problems, so it is important to always have a backup line in order to be able to call somebody.
I also set up a my PABX based on Asterisk, so to have always a backup line and the capability to use the GXV3000 as an interfonic system in the house.

The setting

Each GXV3000 of the network is set up to use 3 different VoIP providers, one of them is my Asterisk server.
It is possible to assign most of the configuration parameters using the menu on the phone, but is much more comfortable to use the web access.
Each GXV3000 has a web server inside, to easily allow to access all the phone parameters.
Each phone has it's own IP address. Assigned via DHCP by default or can be forced manually.
I chose on the phones in my local network, to assign manually the IP addresses, because in this way is easy to associate a specific IP to a phone in a specific location.
The phone in my office it will always be accessible at a specific IP and so on.
But the DHCP assignment works nicely too.

To access the setting page to the phone, is enough to open a browser (Firefox, Chrome, others) and enter the IP address of the phone.
So for example, assuming to have a phone with the IP address equal to 192.168.1.10, is enough to go on the browser and enter in the URL area : http://192.168.1.10
This is what will come out :

Each phone requires a password in order to access the parameters.
By default the password is "admin".
After entering the password different pages will allow to set up all the phone parameters.
Caution ! In order to do so you need to be familiar with the SIP protocol characteristics and the provider setting.

The web setting possibility is very important because allow the administrator of the network to set up also the remote phones. However, for security reasons, it is important to set the remote system (router) to open a specific port and set the phone to accept remote management only through that port.

I'm not describing here all the possibilities. There is a well done user manual that describes in details the meaning of each parameter.
The suggestion is ... READ IT !  It will saves a lot of troubles ! Believe me !

The Pro and Cons

Well, the phone so far has a more than positive result.
In all these years I had NO dead phones. They are working 24/7, 365 days year and they still works nicely. I'm talking about a fleet of 20 phones.

Different matter for the power supply.
The power supply of the phone is quite weak. On an average of 3 years, usually 1 power supply dies.
It is tricky though to figure it out, because they don't die suddenly, but they "degrade" after some time until they reach the point where the phone is not working anymore.
The first sign of the power supply degradation, is the LCD back-light flickering when there is an incoming call.
Usually it starts just noticeable, then after some months the effect is clearly visible and weeks after, the phone starts to act strange, sometime freeze, sometime lose settings.

So if something like that happens, DON'T PANIC !!! Is not the phone broken, only the power supply.
Any power supply capable to give 12V at 1A it will work !

Other minor problems exists with some secondary features, like the integrated browser or the news feed.
Quite hard to set up and often they simply doesn't work.

To recap, let's see a simple table.

Pro

• cheap video phone
• decent support
• possibility to remote management
• lot of documentation available
• easy to configure/manage
• on newer models (GXV3005/GXV3006) integration with PSTN

Cons

• power supply weak
• some features are difficult to set up/understand 
• some secondary features are not working
• no WiFi enabled

Conclusion

If you need a decent VoIP video phone, without open a loan, it is the right choice.

Is not the top, some features could be done better, but it's totally capable to handle the main job.

It is a reliable phone, especially if you keep handy some spare power supply :)

A dead GXV3000 power supply

After cleaning up my electronic lab (OK OK the garage) and rebuilt my working LED lamp, I found among the junk pile, an old and broken Grandstream GXV 3000 power supply.
This particular one was "in service" in Italy and went dead after a thunderstorm.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to open it and see why it was not working anymore.
Since the box is "melted" and sealed I didn't place any hope to repair it anyway, so I used some strong ways (hammer) to open it.

Here what I found.

As you can see an IC was totally melt down.
A very nice  spike, very probably caused by the thunderstorm.

The PCB is broken because I used a quite strong tool to open the box :-)

Of course is very probable that other components are damaged as well, so is totally worthless to try to fix it anyway.