Looks great.
Few remarks :
- I can't understand why Siemens takes the time (and money) to integrate a voice mail system...is there any telco operator in the world which doesn't handle this ?
- Where is IPv6 ?

We have the item coming in this Thursday and available for pre-order now. It looks a fantastic piece of kit and the bluetooth capabilities and high definition sound look set to make it one of the best phones in its class.

I don't agree with Nicolas' comment. I think having an answering machine is a good feature - you can record your own message; you can change it when you want; you can keep or delete messages; you can listen to and control them remotely; and you can use it to filter calls. I don't believe a telco answering machine does all these things.

If anyone gets the new UK spec S685IP and would like to give their comments on how they find it, I for one, would be very interested to hear what they think.

Just bought one to replace my SNOM 190 IP-phone and everything works pretty well excepte for a single problem wihich i'm unable to solve.
I have a soft-ip phone from SNOM for making free calls from my lap-top and it was actually possilbe for me to place calls on my SNOM 190 when both were placed on my home LAN behind a NAT'ed and VoIP aware route from Zyxel.
But after i've installed the Gigaset at home then it's only possible for me to establish a connection with my soft-phone placed on my LAN if the Gigaset initiates the connection. When i try to make a call from the soft-phone from my LAN it just make it hangs. If my laptop is connected to an outside network everything works - even calling the Gigaset at home.

Has the Gigaset servere problems sharing a line with other IP-phones on the same LAN (SNOM had no problems) - any ideas to what is causing the problem????

Hi Chris, have you come up with a solution to your problem as yet? I have asked the technical guys at our place to take a look.

Sorry, bit of a basic question but how do i switch the bluetooth on?

Click on the right arrow, select the star option on the menu - data transer - then you should have the option of bluetooth, just press ok to activate. Hope this helps.

I got mine on Wednesday with a second handset.
Web configurator does not transfer 'V card' to phone. Saved manual entry in phone can be transferred/saved back & forth. V card file size is very different from Outlook 2007 than in Siemens phone. BUT I can transfer phonebook entries (one at a time) from O2 XDA - bit tedious I think.
Had to buy a bluetooth dongle and use Siemens 'Quicksync' downloaded. After all that money, you'd think they would manage to put it on the CD!
I am using Tesco VOIP service which works well (once you get the router porting correct!!!)

Got a triple set last week.

I haven't used all the features but so far they seem great. I've written a review with screenshots etc on my blog: http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/04/27/siemens-gigaset-685ip-phones/

Cheers

Al

Will the Siemens S685IP be available in the USA? If I purchase over-seas, will it be compatible with our systems here in USA?

If there a DECT/VoIP phone from Siemens like this s offered in the US?

Thanks....
Jaf
jafjaf@mac.com

Hi Alan,
great work! If you agree I would like to post your review on this blog. Is this ok for you? If you have the pic files at hand you could send them to mschaeufele@gmail.com. Otherwise I will take them from your blog.

Hi Jaf,
sry to say but we are still waiting for the S450 IP to be launched in the States...

@Moritz,

Sure you can use it, my blog is licenced under the cc-by-sa: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

That simply means you have to attribute me for the original work and use the same conditions when you re-publish it.

Just do a "save-as" for the images.

Cheers

Alan

Alan,
THX a lot!

Hi all,
Hi Moritz,

I have one question, and one suggestion (as usual ;) )

1- Question
What are differences between s675ip and s685 ip (ignoring bluetooth) ?

2 - Suggestion
Dial-plan was an amazing new feature (was suggested many time here ! :) ). The next one is the ability to allow a call to switch automagically from a line to another if there is an issue with the first selected. i.e. :
- the first is fixed line and another call is in progress yet
- the first is a VoIP account and there is no Internet available or no SIP register possible.

Thx !

Has anyone got the SL685 IP to work with BT Broadband Talk?

I am having problems getting the phone to stay registered and receive incoming calls.

If someone knows the correct configuration settings I would appreciate the details. (paul@chez-whiteman.com).

Great phone by the way.

Paul

I have a Gigaset S685 IP. It came in the German language (I think). I managed to get the display in English but I cannot change the answer machines prompts to English.
Any idea ? I wrote to Siemens support but I am still waiting for a reply.

hey all
I am intending to subscribe with Vonage Canda, I checked the supported list but unfortunatelly it's not in it.

Do you have any idea if it can be easily configured to connect to vonage account?

I would like to be able to change the language of the answer machine to English or just turn it off. Any one knows how to do that ? Can somebody from Siemens give directions ?

I have been using the S685 for a few days now and have a few comments/suggestions/issues

Caller ID not working 100% of the time. It must be to do with the Siemens DECT phone as my old Panasonic phones showed caller Id without fail. Anyone any ideas?

My VOIP is connected to a Centrex exchange so I have extensions in different locations. I can't wok out how to transfer a call to the other extension (not on the same base station). Does anyone know how to do this?

Is there not a way to assign a different ringtone to IP calls from the ringtone used for Fixed line calls? I can only find the setting for the ringtone for ALL external calls. This would be an extremely useful feature, particularly as I use for VOIP for business and the fixed line for home, and it would make an audible difference without having to look at the bottom line on the phone display.

I can find a way to list dialled calls and also missed calls. I have also found a way of getting the handset to display all calls received. However, my previous DECT phone showed missed calls and answered calls (like a mobile phone) as separate lists. Will the Siemens handset show this?

Me too, I would like to be able to change the language of the answer machine to English or just turn it off. The first contact I had with Siemens shows that the language cannot be changed from German to any other language. Incredible, isn't it ?

Anybody knows how to transfer calls to another extension?
Really in need for this.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Stefan

Hi Stefan, you just press the left hand side of the square button in the centre of the handset. You then just need to scroll to the extension whre you want to place the call, press call button and then hang up when required. JP

Hi JP,

Thanks for your reply. Indeed that's the way for call transfer handsets on 1 base.

My question was regarding call transfers of external calls with these handsets in combination with Asterisk.

Allready found the answer for that:

"Your other desk phones don't use hook flash, Asterisk doesn't listen for
hook flash messages on SIP channels, in fact the Siemens phone will send
a hook flash signal to Asterisk if you press the R key but Asterisk
ignores it.

Your desk phones use normal SIP methods to perform transfers (putting a
call on hold with a special Invite message, doing a transfer with a
Refer message...), this functionality is what has been added to the
Siemens phone. Whilst in a call you need to press the "ext call"
button, then you can announce the call to the person on the other end
and select the "transfer" option in the menu on the phone. If you have
the "transfer on hangup" option set to yes then you can just hangup and
the call will transfer, this method can also be used for a blind
transfer, just hangup while the 2nd call is ringing.

As for Asterisk config, if transfers are already working on other SIP
phones you have (using proper SIP transfers, not the ## code) then there
should be no extra config required."

The above was found on another website, my thanks to the author.

Regards,
Stefan

Can someone confirm if there is Greek language in the menu?

Hi Marc & Harrys,
I will try to find out and let u know asap...

Hi guys,

I got news...sry to say but It is not possible to choose the language greek in the handset of your S685IP. Please notice that the answering machine is only in german language...

But from the futures it has 20 languages in the menu...

Moritz,
Maybe it is possible to change the firmware to get the english language for the answer machine ?

My S685IP phone told me this morning (19 July) that a new firmware version was available, and asked if I wanted it.

In downloaded in about 3 minutes - I have a low speed broadband. The phone re-started and seems the same. I would be interested to know if anyone knows what changes have been made.

That is what Siemens says:

Readme
Gigaset C470 IP, C475 IP, S675 IP and S685 IP

Firmware Update 07/2008 Version V02123:
---------------------------------------

New Features:
- Compatibility with A58H and C38H Handsets (including Infoscreensaver as Liveticker)
- New languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Russian (country and handset dependent)
- BEL, NLD: Autoconfigurationcode-enquiry added in the Handset's connection assistant

Improvements:

- NAT Traversal improved
- STUN can be disabled for Gigaset.net
- Email-Notification: display of date and subject improved, lenght of Email address up to 74 characters
- Display IP-Address without leading "0"s during the paging call
- Entries out of the calls list will be fully copied into the telephone directory, if the name was displayed from online phonebook.
- Web configurator: does not show "********" for empty password
- SMS Status Report function improved
- SIP Protocol implementation improved
- Incorrect recall after a successful call transfer fixed
- Display Scandinavian characters
- Answering machine functionality improved

Thanks for your response Catalonia.

Has anyone got 'caller pictures' working properly. If I delete all the Siemens supplied caller pics also all the Siemens supplied screen savers, so that there is max memory available, the phone will only upload 3 pics (of about 45k each) even though there is plenty of free memory available. So far, Siemens think the phone is defective and want me to send it back. I think that there may be more to it than meets the eye.

Can anyone help?

I agree with several of you: German speak on the answer machine is terribly irritating. Also "she" seems to talk forever... Is there really no way to turn it off?

Mikael, Sorry. I have not been clear enough with my question. Let me try again.

When you put names and telephone numbers in the phone directory you can also put in a picture of the person concerned. When they telephone you - their picture appears on the phone with their name.

Anyone out there got 'caller pictures' working? My problem is that I can only up-load 3 pictures although there is plenty spare memory available.

Please respond.

My old phone properly signals right CALL-ID in my cell (most of the times).
However S685
Using the same fixed line writes "private number" in the same cell.
Using SIP provider writes "private number" in the same cell.

It looks like a problem in S685 but I cannot find how to solve this.
Anyone solved similar problem?
Thanks in advance
Carl
From Portugal
clix fixed line
ADSL clix/SIP voipcheap
TMN N70 Nokia cell

I just found clix was blocking my call-id. - not anymore.
So now the problem can also be from the SIP provider or still from any missing VOIP configuration in S685 or S68H.

S685 IP changing the language for voice prompt and pre-recorded announcements:

I have found a solution, but unfortunately it does not work for me !!!!!

You can find the answer on page 66 of International Full Manual, and page 67 of Swiss French manual. it says:

Press Right Arrow, then 8 5 9 2
then:
1 ok for German
2 ok for French
3 ok for italian

In my case when i press 1 it displays "Saved" then it is in German
If I press 2 or 3 it goes back to main screen, and no change. What does it mean ?
BUT if I press 0 It displays 920 SET [7] but I don't know what that is ... HELP !!!

Hi Silvio6,

simple answer - official Swiss languages are German, French and Italian. Thats why you can choose between this 3 languages in Swiss devices.
Germany has only one official language -> only one language to choose ...

Regards
Catalonia

Hello Catalonia,

I have bought my Phone from Switzerland. So I should be able to switch between these 3 languages, but I can't.
Does it mean the company I bought it from is ordering it from Germany ??? I hope not ..

Hi Silvio6,

you will find at the bottom of the basestation a number which starts with S30852...
If the 3rd group (composed of 4 characters) starts with an 'F' it is a device produced for Switzerland. German devices will start with a 'B'

Regards
Catalonia

Has anyone been able to get caller pictures working?

I have deleted all the Siemens supplied caller pictures and all the Siemens screen-savers. This leaves the maximum memory available. But I have only been able to upload three caller pictures. When trying for a fourth picture upload, the QuickSynch programme says 'unknown error' but shows that there is plenty of memory available.

Siemens want me to send the pone back as defective, but I wonder if there is some other problem.

If you have been able to load more than three caller pictures, please tell me about it.

Hi,

I'm having a problem to configure the callerID of my betamax account with my (new) s685 IP.
I'm receiving the phone call from betamax, I'm entering the verification code, but the voice message keeps repeating to enter my verification code.
Anyone having the same problem?

Does anyone know whether this handset works well with Skype?

Hi,

I'd also like to know if the handset works with Skype. Also, does the S685 have an additional features over the S685 IP ?

Many thanks

Verghese

Hi!

I am thinking about buying a S685 IP and are looking for the information if the S685 IP is capabel sharing the landline (PSTN) with other phones och PBXs.
Someone said somewhere that it could be used as an FXO.

I would like to connect my S684 IP to both landline and to my VOIP operator, but I already have a wired VOIP phone that I would love to be able to answer calls that arrives through my PSTN line.

Is this possible to set up with the S685 IP?

Will the S685 work with BT talk and a BT landline ??

All help appreciated.

Its awesome! Its great information . But what's about the Price?

Guys question for you, Ive just bought the s685ip
Havent had a great look at it yet , but I didnt realise its not skype compatible. Ive seen usb adapters m34 that comes with skype software does this work, I was under the impression that any voip phones can use any services, to be honest Im fairly cheesed off.
I didnt even get a software sync cd in box .

Appreciate any ones help

Lenny, I have looked at the Skype website and I can't see a simple solution. You can send them an email about using Skype with the S685IP. That might help.

Here is another suggestion. It will only cost you 12.50 €. Betamax is a German company who offer lots of different SIP services - you need a SIP provider to use the S685IP. If you are in the UK you could try poivY. Look at http://www.poivy.com/en/index.html

The 12.50 € will get you 120 days free calls to most euro landlines, after the 120 days the costs are about one centime per minute. I have no connection with Betamax, I am just a user of their services. By the way, don't expect any customer support. They rarely respond to help requests.

Good luck.

I just bought a c470ip phone, but I couldn't find the configuration parameters of my voip provider, it is poivy. can anybody help me?
thanks luciano

Luciano,

If you go to http://www.poivy.com/en/sipp.html you should be able to find the information that you need to input to your C470IP phone. On that same page, if you click on the link to the Siemens SX553 it may have a similar screen to your phone and may help you.

Good luck

hello

can this handset be used with bt talk ?

can you use the bt talk web site to configure the phones

thanks