The Wild Wordsmith

Recently at PosTrack, the company I work for, we made the switch to Windows 7 on many of our PCs. We also made the switch from using Siemens OptiClient for our VOIP phone system to CounterPath X-Lite for its ease-of-use, cross-platform clients, and price (FREE).

One of the missing bits of functionality we lamented with X-Lite was the fact that the buttons on the headset module itself did not interact with X-Lite at all.

After some tiresome digging through the massive information-overload that is the modern Internet, we finally managed to dig out a possible solution: PerSonoCall (available on the Plantronics PerSonoCall CD that accompanied the Plantronics CS50 USB headset) or PerSono Suite (available from the Plantronics website) allows the headset to interact seamlessly with many popular VOIP clients. Even though X-Lite was not on the list of specifically-compatible VoIP software, we gave it a try. Lo and behold, it worked — on Windows XP. On my Windows 7 box, I was unable to get satisfactory results (READ: ANY ACTIVITY) from the buttons on the headset.

Well, today I had an epiphany: the CS50 sends the button state information over TCP on port 444. Windows 7 is more of a security freak than Windows XP. I should add a Windows Firewall exception for incoming and outgoing communication on TCP port 444 and see if that fixes the problem. There’s nothing to lose; if it doesn’t work, I just delete my custom Windows Firewall exceptions, and I’m back where I started.

So I did. It worked. PerSono Suite receives the button state information from my headset on port 444 and forwards the information to the standard headset input in X-Lite. The pickup/hangup button works. The mute button works. It’s perfect.

Take these steps in Windows 7 to alleviate the problem of communication between the Plantronics CS50 USB headset and your preferred VoIP client:

Plug in your Plantronics CS50 USB headset.

Under the Start menu, navigate to the Control Panel.
Locate the “Windows Firewall” panel.
Under the left-side menu in Windows Firewall settings, choose “Advanced settings.”

Under the left-side menu in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, select “Inbound Rules.”
On the right side of the window, select “New Rule…”
For the Rule Type, choose “Port” and press “Next>.”
Verify that “TCP” and “Specific local ports” are marked.
In the blank text box next to Specific local ports, enter 444
Press “Next>.”
Verify “Allow the connection” is marked.
Press “Next>.”
Verify the “Domain,” “Private,” and “Public,” boxes are checked.
Press “Next>.”
Name your Inbound Rule.
Press “Finish.”

Under the left-side menu in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, select “Outbound Rules.”
On the right side of the window, select “New Rule…”
For the Rule Type, choose “Port” and press “Next>.”
Verify that “TCP” and “Specific local ports” are marked.
In the blank text box next to Specific local ports, enter 444
Press “Next>.”
Mark “Allow the connection.”
Press “Next>.”
Verify the “Domain,” “Private,” and “Public,” boxes are checked.
Press “Next>.”
Name your Outbound Rule.
Press “Finish.”

Close out of all control panel windows.

Install and configure PerSono Suite, available from the Plantronics website if you have not done so already: http://www.plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/support/softwaredownloads/personosuite.jsp

Install and configure your VoIP client of choice, if you have not done so already.

Congratulations, the buttons on your Plantronics CS50 USB headset should work with the functions in your VoIP client, provided it offers standard headset support, and allows for the use of a remote answer/hang-up button and a remote mute button.

If you have any questions, concerns, ideas, gripes, etc., feel free to leave a comment; though the most effective repository for them wold probably be the Plantronics or CounterPath forums, as there are several threads dealing with the issue.

This fix might work for Windows Vista, but as I skipped Vista entirely, I really can’t make any promises, and I shouldn’t be making suggestions either.

Best Regards,

Adrian