I have just noticed that an option called phone book has appeared (maybe this was there all the time and I didn't notice .
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work - it just keeps asking me for my time zone and then nothing.
Am I doing something wrong?
I would like to be able to install a phone book centrally so that all users can look up extension numbers on their IP phone (we use Linksys SPA9xx serious). Is this possible?
As far as I know, the Linksys SPA-9xx phones have built-in phone-book capability, but no way to import or export their phone-book entries.
In contrast, Snom phones (360) support Import & Export of their phone-book entries, but neither Snom nor Linksys support remote phone-books.
Both phones will display the inbound Caller ID Number and the inserted Caller ID Name, gleaned from PBXes' remote phone-book lookup. During or after the call in the SPA, after the call ends in the Snom, the pair of name & number can be saved in the local phone book of the phones.
At this point, I am not aware of any phone which supports remote phone books.
Since we are revisiting this topic a few years later, I should add that in recent firmware versions both the Snom phones and the Linksys SPA-962, support corporate phonebooks via an LDAP implementation. Also, the Siemens Gigaset phones support some form of LDAP, even if it is via a hidden URL.
The Yealink phones require a URL and the explanation provided is: "Remote phone book. This feature allows you to download contact list from the server. Input the phonebook URL and rename the phonebook". No other details provided even in their manual.
So if an LDAP implementation of the current phone book is created, a lot of phones will be served.