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How do I know if the provisioner locked my phone?

Attacks on VoIP phone networks have steadily increased in recent years, and the provision app has built-in protection mechanisms.

Checking if provisioner locked a phone

1. Go to Advanced Provisioner > Devices

2. Click the gear icon for the suspected device, and choose View Log File

3. Scroll through the log to see if you see message about a locked phone

Events that trigger a “locked” phone

If Provisioner encounters one of triggers outlined below, it will automatically “lock” the phone — meaning it will block the phone from provisioning and it will no longer be connected.

1. Moving to a new network: When you successfully provision a phone for the first time (from a factory reset state) and you move it to a different network where its IP address will change.

Note: If your ISP uses dynamic IPs, the WAN IP can may change time to time. If the phone is factory-reset right after the WAN IP is changed, the new security mechanism may lock the phone. 

2. Time delay between device creation and device provisioning: If you have created a device in Smart PBX more than one week before you provision it, the phone will be locked out. Consider this timeline when shipping units to your customers.

3. Suspicious activity: When our security system encounters potential suspicious activity

4. Re-using a phone: Your phone is not a new phone but was previously registered in your account.

Unlocking a phone

1. Open Advanced Provisioner > Devices

2. Select the wrench tool for your phone, and choose Unlock

Once you unlock a phone:

  • This will enable the device with that specific MAC address to be provisioned to any IP Address for one week.
  • If a phone is not re-provisioned in that time, the lock will turn back on.
  • If suspicious activity continues (see “Events that trigger a locked phone”), it will re-lock and you will need to contact support. 

Additional items to note:

  • If a phone has historically been tied to the same IP address, and is just being re-provisioned (because the phone needed a factory reset for example), Provisioner will not re-lock the phone.
  • If the IP address has changed and you want to reset and re-provision the phone, you will need to “unlock” the device.
  • If you have overwritten the phone’s config file with a custom configuration (this is very rare) this process will not work.
  • You only need to unlock the phone after factory reset at a new location.
  • The lock does not affect phones with scheduled polling for updated config files. This typically occurs every 24hrs, and/or during a phone reboot.