Avaya and Pfsense require DHCP options 242 and 176
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We have an Avaya IP Office phone system at the office and want to setup a handset at my home.
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In the office we have 18 handsets connected to the PBX, all of these handsets are attached directly to the local LAN.
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The Avaya PBX is responsible for handing out IP Addresses to the phones on the office network.
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The IP Office leverages LLDP so handsets can talk with the PBX using IP addresses that it hands out.
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The local network DHCP server (Windows) does not get talk to the handsets.
It's so painless that when they are on the same network I've never had to work at setting one of these handsets up.
I need to provision a new Avaya phone handset at my home to connect to the office system. We have Netgate hardware with Pfsense at both locations. Remote access is not a new concept for us. I setup an OpenVPN client from my computer in my home office to manage some virtual servers at the office. We also have remote employees who work over a VPN using our ERP software.
I'd like to do two things for myself following best practices. Setup a VPN to the office from my firewall at home and get the phone talking to the PBX at the office.
I just picked up an 8 port Layer 3 switch for my home so I can create a VLAN for the phone to connect over a VPN to the office. The goal is to set it up so the PBX will be the only device accessible from the phone. I'm comfortable doing this with pfsense and it's awesome VPN features.
I need some help with DHCP flags. I haven't used Pfsense as a DHCP server with flags in the past. From what I have read the Avaya is programmed by the PBX using DHCP options 242 and 176. I don't see any option codes in the DHCP server settings and I can't find any documentation relating to these codes from Googling.
Ideally I'd like to enable the DHCP server on the VLAN interface on my network then broadcast it to the phone. That way these flags will only be applicable to devices on that VLAN. Unfortunately I can't find any documentation of someone who has used these options from Pfsense to control Avaya handsets in the past. Are any of you fellow Pfsense users also setting up an Avaya phone system?
Then again I need this thing to work so if there isn't any DHCP capability I guess I have to forgo setting up the DHCP server on the VLAN interface and instead I will create a VPN and bridge the VLAN to the corporate network. That should enable broadcast capabilities and let the phone provision. It will also unfortunately open the entire network at corporate to my VPN (i'd like to avoid this)
So to reiterate, can anyone tell me how to setup options 242 and 176 for the DHCP Server in Pfsense?
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Disregard. I found that these instructions could be adapted to Pfsense and did so.
http://www.mcgearytech.com/configure-windows-dhcp-for-avaya-ip-telephones/
Option 176 MCIPADD=192.168.42.1,MCPORT=1719,TFTPSRVR=192.168.42.1,VLANTEST=0
Option 242 MCIPADD=192.168.42.1,MCPORT=1719,HTTPSRVR=192.168.42.1,VLANTEST=0![Screen Shot 2016-07-30 at 12.31.24 AM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2016-07-30 at 12.31.24 AM.png)
![Screen Shot 2016-07-30 at 12.31.24 AM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2016-07-30 at 12.31.24 AM.png_thumb) -
Hi @cenal!
I am facing the exact same problem, could you please detail a bit more how you fixed it?
Regards.
Faustin