Monitoring & Controlling IP Phones Remotely

Here is a free 3rd party troubleshooting tool which can be used to monitor and take control of a Cisco IP phone remotely. As a network administrator, you will need this to test the functionality of the phones you manage. I got to know about it recently & thought to share how I use this interesting app..

Only following Cisco IP phone models will be supported..
6921, 6941, 6945, 6961, 7911, 7921, 7925, 7926, 7931, 7937, 7940, 7941, 7942, 7945, 7960, 7961, 7962, 7965, 7970, 7971, 7975, 8961, 9951, 9971

Enable Services
Go to Cisco Unified Serviceability page and go to Tools > Service Activation
Make sure the following services are enabled..

Cisco Call Manager
Cisco TFTP
Cisco CTI Manager
Cisco AXL Web services
Cisco Call Manager SNMP service 

SNMP Configuration
Now go to Cisco Unified Serviceability > SNMP V1/V2c > Community String
Select your server from the drop down menu and click find..
Click add new to create a new community string or you can use existing string if available.
If you are creating a new string, select ReadNotifyOnly or ReadOnly from access privileges.
Just remember the string you gave..

Create Application User
Now go to Cisco Unified CM Administration page & go to User Management > Application User
Create a new user with an ID & a password. These settings will be used to log into the app later..
This is where you add phones which you want to control.
Click Find More Phones button in the device information area and select and add phones which you need to control..
After adding any phone, save it.. (click on the images to see in full size)

Download & Install the App
Go to https://support.singlewire.com/s/software-downloads/a17C0000008Db3aIAC and download the app. It is completely free for everyone.. (singlewire.com)

If you are using Windows 10 like me, may be it will not install properly just by double clicking the .exe file. Instead it will display the error "Installer UI Mode Error"

If so right click and go to Properties > Compatibility & tick and select Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 7






























After installation completes it will ask you to enter the license key. It is in your downloaded folder. Open it..

Configuring & Using the App

Now go to Edit Preferences 1st.
Provide the required fields..
Here is the place you will enter the Community String..

Now you should be able to control the phones you added at the Application User page by just giving the ip address of the phone.

You can get the IP of the phone from CUCM..

Here is a 7945 phone I tested..
When ever you want to take control of a phone, what you should do is to add the phone to application user and give the IP of the phone to the app..