twocans v0.1.7

Many more phones — Yealink, Poly, Cisco and Fanvil, each with the settings it actually has — a line full of things to call, from games and the radio to Santa, diagnostics to send when a phone won't come online, and an installer that works on far more Linux, and says what to do when it can't.

Upgrading

./twocans update

The database updates itself. One thing to know: HT801 and HT802 adapters get new, child-friendly defaults the next time they fetch their settings — call waiting off, the hook no longer puts calls on hold, the adapter's own star codes off, SSH off and the *** menu locked, and the line set for your country (so a UK corded phone with a screen shows who's calling). Each can be changed back on the adapter's new Phone settings tab.

Models marked Untested were set up from their makers' documentation and haven't been tried on a real one yet — if you have one, the phone's Setup tab has a Download diagnostics button; attach the file to an issue and we'll get it working.

What's new

Many more phones — Yealink, Poly, Cisco and Fanvil — each with the settings it
actually has; a line full of things to call, from games and the radio to Santa;
diagnostics to send when a phone won't come online; and an installer that
works on far more Linux, and says what to do when it can't.

Added

• Yealink desk phones: T31G, T33G, T42U/T42S, T43U, T44U/T44W, T46U,
  T48U/T48S, T53W, T54W, T57W and T58W (untested). Point the
  phone at twocans (the Setup tab has the steps) and it fetches its line,
  its message key ringing 700, the household's time and phonebook, and its
  speed-dial keys — the line keys after its own, named on its screen.
  Announcements are answered by themselves, and "Pick up to ring a
  grown-up" works. Its Phone settings: how loud it rings (fixed, so it can't
  be turned down to nothing — or left to the phone), call waiting, Do Not
  Disturb and call forwarding on the phone, its phonebook, key tones,
  whether the screen stays lit, a clock screen saver on the colour ones,
  and calls to an IP address.

• A wallpaper of your own on a Yealink colour screen (T33G, T44U,
  T46U, T48U/T48S, T54W, T57W and T58W) — a family photo, a pet, a favourite drawing. Upload it on the
  phone's Phone settings tab: it's cropped to fill that screen exactly,
  stripped of where it was taken, and sent to the phone, whose key labels
  go part see-through over it. "Back to its own wallpaper" puts the
  built-in one back and deletes the picture. The phone fetches it behind
  the same password as its settings, and can fetch nothing but a phone's
  wallpaper that way.

• More Yealink cordless bases: the W70B (up to 10 handsets) and the older
  W52P (up to 5) (untested), set up like the W60B, each with the settings
  it has. Adding a Yealink now picks the base, not the handset.

• Yealink cordless phones: W56H handsets on a W60B base. Each handset
  is a phone of its own in twocans — up to eight on one base — and the base
  fetches everything from twocans: each handset's line, its name on screen,
  its message key, the household's time zone, and a phonebook of everyone it
  can call. Point the base at twocans once (the steps are on the phone's
  Setup tab); a base that asks before it's added shows up under "Found on
  your network". Handsets only answer an announcement by themselves when one
  is alone on its base, so they're rung like a call.

• Yealink handsets answer announcements by themselves (W60B and W70B,
  firmware V85): with a beep first, silently, or ringing to be answered —
  each handset its own choice. So the walkie-talkie works to one too.

• A ringtone for each Yealink handset, and a fixed ring volume (W60B and
  W70B). Pick one of the handset's own rings on its Phone settings tab —
  each handset can have its own — and twocans asks for it on every call to
  it. The ring volume can be fixed for the base, so it can't be turned down
  to nothing.

• Phone settings for every kind of phone, from what it can do. A W56H
  gets its own: lift off the charger to answer, hang up on the charger,
  call waiting, how an intercom from another handset is answered, key and
  battery tones, its lights, whether the screen stays lit, a big clock when
  idle, 12- or 24-hour time, wallpaper and colours, and calls straight to its
  IP address. Most belong to the base, so changing one changes it on every
  handset there — the page says which don't. Desk phones keep theirs.
  HT801 and HT802 adapters get theirs too, for the corded phone in each
  socket: how loud callers sound and how loud it's heard, caller ID for a
  phone with a screen, its message lamp, a tone when it's left off the hook,
  call waiting, whether tapping the hook puts a call on hold, the adapter's
  own star codes (off, so *78 can't quietly turn on Do Not Disturb), and
  "Pick up to ring a grown-up". The line itself — impedance, caller ID style
  and ring — now matches your country, so a UK corded phone shows who's
  calling. SSH, the *** keypad menu, firmware checks and who may change its
  settings are the adapter's, shared by both sockets.

• Rotary phones on an HT801 or HT802. Tick "It's a rotary phone" on its
  Phone settings tab and the adapter hears the dial's clicks as numbers (by
  your country's standard), waiting a little longer after the last one —
  there's no # on a dial to say "that's all". The wait can be set for any
  corded phone. Its contact sheet leaves out the lines a dial can't use —
  messages, games, times tables and the kitchen timer all need keys pressed
  during the call — and says so.

• Poly (Polycom) VVX desk phones — the 150, 201, 250, 300/310, 350,
  400/410, 450, 500/501 and 600/601. Point the phone's provisioning server
  at twocans (the Setup tab has the steps) and it fetches everything: its
  line, its message key ringing 700, the household's time, and its
  speed-dial keys — the line keys after its own, chosen on its Speed-dial
  keys tab and named on its screen. Announcements are answered by
  themselves. Its Phone settings: call waiting, the speakerphone, Do Not
  Disturb and call forwarding on the phone (off), keeping the earpiece
  volume between calls, how bright the idle screen is, a screen saver,
  calls to internet addresses, and editing its contacts on the phone.

• Fanvil GA10 adapters, for one corded phone — untested. Fanvil
  hasn't published the GA10's own settings template, so its settings follow
  the format and names of Fanvil's newer phones: its line, the household's
  time, "Pick up to ring a grown-up", and Phone settings for call waiting,
  transfer and three-way calls with the hook, Do Not Disturb on the adapter,
  the wait after the last number, how loud callers sound and are heard,
  calls to an IP address, Telnet and firmware upgrades. Its caller ID style
  and line impedance are left as the adapter has them. It's marked
  "Untested" when adding it and on its page, with a link to report how it
  goes.

• An "Untested" mark for any model twocans sets up from its maker's
  documentation alone, until someone confirms it on a real one — for now the
  Yealink desk phones and W70B and W52P bases, the Cisco SPA112, SPA122,
  ATA 191 and ATA 192, the Poly VVX phones and the Fanvil GA10. (The Yealink
  W60B has been tried on a real one, and isn't marked.) It shows on the model and its maker when
  adding a phone, and on the phone's page, which says what that means and
  where to report how it goes.

• Cisco SPA112, SPA122, ATA 191 and ATA 192 adapters, for two corded
  phones, each a phone of its own. (The SPA122 has a router built in: its web
  page is reached by plugging a computer into its Ethernet port, and the
  Setup tab says so. An ATA 191 or 192 must be the Multiplatform "-3PW"
  version; the Enterprise one only talks to Cisco's own call manager.)
  Type one line into the adapter (its Profile Rule — the Setup tab has it)
  and it fetches everything else from twocans: both lines, the household's
  time, caller ID and line settings for your country, and its own Phone
  settings — call waiting, hold on a tap of the hook, how long it waits
  after the last number, how loud callers sound and are heard, its message
  lamp, its star codes (off, so *72 can't forward a child's calls), and
  "Pick up to ring a grown-up". They need touch-tone phones: neither can
  hear a rotary dial.

• The installer works on more Linux, and says what to do when it can't.
  It installs Docker the way that suits the machine — Docker's own script on
  Ubuntu, Debian, Raspberry Pi OS and Fedora; Docker's own packages on Linux
  Mint, Pop!_OS, Rocky and AlmaLinux; the distribution's own on Arch,
  Manjaro, openSUSE, Alpine and Kali — and offers to install any missing
  tools with the right package names. It starts services on OpenRC as well
  as systemd, runs as root where there's no sudo (a Proxmox container, say),
  and explains a 32-bit Raspberry Pi rather than just refusing it. Every
  stop now says what went wrong, what to do, step by step, and where to get
  help; a step that fails explains what its output usually means (no disk
  space, Docker Hub's download limit, no internet…); and anything unexpected
  says so, instead of stopping without a word.

• Diagnostics for every phone, to send to whoever's helping when one
  won't come online or a setting won't take — on its Setup tab, as a
  download or to read first. One text file: what twocans knows about it,
  how it's signed in (and what it says it is), what it's asked twocans for
  lately, its chosen settings, and the exact settings file it's handed.
  Passwords and keys are taken out, and names, phone numbers, email, MAC
  and IP addresses each get a stand-in — the same each time — so it can go
  on a GitHub issue.

• "Look for phones" finds every brand twocans sets up — Grandstream,
  Yealink, Poly, Cisco and Fanvil — by the maker's registered MAC prefixes
  (from the IEEE registry), and reads each one's model off its own web page.
  One that won't say its model can still be added: twocans offers its
  maker's models, with its MAC filled in. A Cisco is only listed when it
  says it's one of its adapters, so the router doesn't turn up.

• Adding a phone starts with who makes it — an app, Grandstream, Poly,
  Cisco, Fanvil or Yealink — then the model.

• The house's messages on 701, for phones allowed to hear them — a
  grown-up's, say — switched on for each phone under Rules. Off for every
  phone to begin with: a message left for the house may not be for a child.

• Games, on 4263 (G-A-M-E). A menu of games played on the keypad:
  times tables, sums (up to 10 or 20), number bonds ("what goes with 7 to
  make 10?"), guess my number (1 to 100 — "higher!", "lower!") and animal
  riddles. A cheer for a right answer, the answer for a wrong one, and a
  score at the end. 246 goes straight to times tables. The Games page says
  how each phone is getting on, and sets the numbers, the tables in a mix,
  what sums and bonds go up to, and how many questions a game.

• The radio, on 7234 (R-A-D-I-O). Upload songs — up to 20 at a time —
  and dialling it plays them one after another, shuffled, until it's hung
  up; each call carries on where the last stopped. # skips to the next song,
  5 pauses, 6 and 4 go forward and back. Shuffled, or in your own order —
  drag a song by its handle (or use the arrow keys) to change it. Rename
  songs, switch them off, or delete them, from the menu's The radio page.
  Stations: up to five playlists, offered from a menu ("Press 1 for… party
  songs", in your own voice), or straight away on a phone with a favourite;
  ★ goes back to the menu. At bedtime it can play only the songs marked
  calm, or be off, and a sleep timer says night night after a while.

• Sleeps till Christmas, on 1225. Santa counts down: "Ho ho ho! Hello
  there, it's Santa! There are 57 sleeps until Christmas!" One more sleep on
  Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day, his message — Santa's own, or one a
  grown-up records or uploads, with the children's names in it. And, if it's
  switched on, Santa rings the children's phones on Christmas morning at the
  time you choose. On the Games page.

• Desk phones made for a child's room. On each one's page: how loud it
  rings (locked there, so it can't be turned to nothing), and "pick up to
  ring a grown-up" — lift the handset, press nothing, and after a few seconds
  it rings who you chose. The page says when its handset has been left off
  the hook, and when it last started up, which the phone now tells twocans.
  And on every desk phone: no light when idle and a steady one for a new
  message, no start-up beep, no call waiting; Mute no longer quietly turns
  on Do Not Disturb; calls not meant for it, or made straight to its IP
  address, are refused; SSH and the keypad's settings menu are off; and it
  only ever takes settings from twocans, with no surprise firmware. Each of
  these is a switch on the phone's new Phone settings tab — what's best for
  a child's phone to begin with, changed for one phone if it suits — along
  with how long it waits before its "put me back" tone when left off the hook.

• Notifications on your phone and computer (Web Push), even with twocans
  closed — no email needed. On the Notifications page, "Notify me on this
  device": an emergency number dialled (it stays on screen), a message from
  someone not on the list, a number a child tried, a phone gone offline or
  its handset left off the hook, credit running low. Tap one to open the
  page it's about. Each device can be sent a test, or removed. Encrypted for
  each device, signed with this box's own key (RFC 8291 and 8292). On an
  iPhone, add twocans to the Home Screen first.

• Silly voices, on 7455 (S-I-L-L). Say something after the beep and hear
  it back as a chipmunk, then a giant. Nothing's kept.

• Walkie-talkie, on 9255 (W-A-L-K). Pair a phone with another on its
  page; dialling it — or a hotkey for it — makes that phone answer by itself
  on speaker, with a beep, to talk both ways. Never into a call, not at
  bedtime, and not to a paused phone. Both, with the timer and the clock, on
  the menu's Handy lines page.

• A kitchen timer, on 2463 (C-H-I-M-E). Dial it, type the minutes and
  #, hang up — and the phone rings when they're up: "Ding ding! Your timer's
  finished!" On time to the second. One a phone; 0# cancels it.

• "What time is it?", on 8463 (T-I-M-E). The time the way children learn
  it — "ten past six", "quarter to seven" — and, when bedtime's under two
  hours away, how long till then. Both on the menu's Timer & clock page,
  which lists the timers running, with Cancel.

• Pause a phone for homework or tidy-up time — 30 minutes, an hour, two,
  or until the morning — from the top of its page. Paused, it doesn't ring
  or call out and the fun lines are off; 999 and its messages still work.
  It turns itself back on, or Resume now.

• This week: each child's phone's week on the line — calls made and
  answered, talk time, missed calls and messages, who they talked to most,
  their busiest day, games played, and numbers they tried that aren't
  allowed — with the weeks before a click away. In the sidebar, and on the
  dashboard.

• Keepsakes. Press the star on a voicemail to keep it for good: a copy
  that stays whatever happens to the message — deleted on the phone, or
  cleared by retention. Give each a name, play it back, and download a
  year's as a zip, with what each one says. Kept copies are in backups.

• Listening to a room, like a baby monitor. A grown-up's phone rings a
  child's desk phone, which answers by itself on speaker, one way — from
  the phone page, or by dialling 88 and its extension. It beeps as it picks
  up and shows "Listening in" on its screen, never breaks into a call, and
  every listen is noted on the phone's page. Off unless switched on for
  both phones, and it takes the permission to listen in.

• A printable contact sheet for the fridge, or beside a phone with no
  screen: everyone a child can call, with their photo and what to dial —
  speed dials first — then the twocans lines to dial, each one ticked on or
  off: messages, the joke line, games, times tables, the radio, the time, the
  kitchen timer, silly voices, the walkie-talkie (on a paired phone's sheet),
  the Christmas countdown and the emergency number. With lots ticked, the
  picture shrinks so it still fits one page. Dinosaur, princess, racing-car or
  plain, on A4 or A5.
  Printed for one phone, it also says which key rings whom. From the
  Contacts screen, or a phone's page.

• An update notice. The System page says which version is running and
  whether a newer one is out — with how to update and what's new — and the
  menu's System entry shows "new". twocans asks GitHub twice a day; the
  System page can turn that off.

Changed

• A phone's Setup tab: its numbers to dial — a long list now — sit side
  by side below the rest, not stretched down one column. And a MAC address
  box takes it however it's typed or pasted, and shows it as 00:0B:82:C1:23:45.

• Uploads show how they're going. A bar while a file goes up, then a
  wheel while the audio's prepared, and the form can't be pressed twice
  meanwhile; leaving the page mid-upload asks first. Every upload now saves
  without a full page load — jokes, greetings, the bedtime message and
  restoring a backup included.

• Easier to read. An accessibility pass with axe: text, links, teal
  buttons, chips and badges now meet WCAG AA contrast (4.5:1) — the greys and
  teal a shade deeper, the same warm look. Coral buttons keep their coral
  with dark lettering instead of white. The backup file picker has a label,
  and a Record button says when it's recording.

• Deleting a voicemail goes through Asterisk, like moving one, so the
  mailbox's numbering and the phone's message light stay right.

Fixed

• A Yealink on newer firmware (a W60B on 77.85, for one) never got its
  settings: it asks for a boot file first (.boot), which twocans didn't
  serve, and was handed the sign-in page instead. twocans now serves boot
  files, and anything else asked of a provisioning address gets "not found"
  rather than the sign-in page.

• An HT802's second socket now gets # as its "dial now" key and the same
  wait after the last number as the first; only socket 1 was ever sent them.

• A desk phone's voicemail button now plays its messages (it dials 700).
  It did nothing before, because the phone was never told the number.

• Staying signed in. The web app signed a grown-up out after 24 minutes
  without a page load, whenever the browser closed, and every time the web
  container restarted or updated. Now it's a month from the last visit, and
  sign-ins outlive restarts and updates (they're kept in storage/sessions).