I got a Polycom IP650 on eBay, so that is the phone used in all these examples. Phones from other manufacturers like Aastra, Grandstream and Snom also have wideband codec (G.722) support.
The Polycom phone can be administered three different ways, from the phone keypad, from a web interface to the phone or with configuration files on a boot server on your LAN.
Several things I needed to do with my phone require a boot server, for example updating to the latest software load and enabling the call recording feature. But if you don’t need any of these, there is no need to install a boot server and you can safely proceed to Step 5 as soon as you have your new phone.