Auto discovery has been added to firmware versions 2x91 and above. This feature was intended to make deploying many phones at once much easier. Set the DHCP option 120 message on your DHCP server to the IP address of the MAXCS server, then plug in one phone and make sure it boots with the correct AW Server address. If it does, deploy all phones – all you need to do is drop it off at the desk and it will be ready for a user to login via #27.

When the phone has DHCP enabled, it will look for an option 120 message from the DHCP server; if found, it will automatically set the AW Server field on the phone to the IP address in the option 120 message. Here’s how the feature was implemented:

1)      When upgrading a version of firmware that does not have the auto discovery feature, auto discovery will be disabled.

2)      When upgrading a version of firmware that does have the auto discovery feature, the previous setting will be used.

         Example: Upgrading from 2x91 with autodiscovery enabled to 2x92: autodiscovery enabled.

3)      When a phone running 2x91 or above has its configuration erased (press Menu, then **2, then Enter), auto discovery will be enabled.

4)      When phones start shipping from distribution with 2x91 firmware or above (some time this year), auto discovery will be enabled.

Resources:

DHCP Option 120 RFC

Instructions for enabling DHCP Option 120 on a Windows 2008 server:

(Note that AltiGen does not support enabling the DHCP server on any MAXCS system).

1. Open a DOS command prompt on the DHCP server.
2. Type netsh.
3. At the netsh> prompt, type dhcp server.
4. Type: