We’re installing IP phones at work and I found one on my desk this morning. They seem pretty neat. Mine’s a Cisco 7912G.It’s receiving it’s power over the ethernet… I wonder if you could modify an RJ45 connector to make a mobile charger or MP3 player power supply? The other power input to the phone, which isn’t being used is a whopping 48V – the IEEE 802.3af standard, so there’s a lot of voltage (or current when stepped down) to play with!It’s also acting as an ethernet switch – it’s plugged in between my PC and the network port behind the desk, but no traffic to the phone appears to be arriving at the PC’s network card. I might bring a small hub in from home and rig it up so that phone data is sent to the PC as well, then get Ethereal capturing and analysing the packets. In theory, you could write an application that notified you of incoming calls on your PC etc.Browsing through the configuration menus on the phone also reveal some bits and pieces. There’s a TFTP server somewhere – presumably for software updates – and the directory information is supplied as XML from the same server (generated from an ASP file – although it’s not well formed XML)
Jul 08