Topic: ISDN question

[Norrie]

Hi,

I know at the moment that ISDN support is only recent but...

1) Has anyone got e-smith to connect using the new BT Home Highway box and USB?

2) Has anyone experience of any other Linux using this connetction method?

3) Is the Home Highway ISDN / USB connection any good?

I'm trying to get a local organisation to use e-smith and they're considering having Home Highway installed.

Msny thanks in advance

NTB
8o)

[John Crisp]

Hi,

I have two servers both running on BT Connect.

Both use external ISDN TA - it's far easier as they are just treated as a standard serial device, but be warned, even with external ones, some work and some don't. If you have a good read & search through this forum using my name or ISDN, you'll find loads on it.

I currently use some Dynalink TA's - they seem to be fine. If I remember correctly there are some issues over connection types (asychronous connections etc) that some TA's don't handle well. I have no experience with internal or USB TA's - you'll have to consult someone wiser than me on that issue.

Beware that BT has just changed it's contract terms and their Anytime account expressly forbids 'networked computers' using the connection. I believe that they are fed up with businesses running LANS behind a server/firewall on what should be a personal account. Their new dialer software uses 2 numbers 'in case of high demand'. They will give you one of them but the other remains 'secret'. I guess that they will occasionally pull the plug on the main number, and any one with their dialer won't really notice, but anyone without it will.......

I asked them what they were doing about, for instance, a Linux or Mac workstation, and they really had no answer. 'We are working on it' they said.

Personally I'd use another provider.............


Let me know if I can be of any further help.

B. Rgds
John

[Norrie McKinley]

Thanks for your reply,

I was testing e-smith with my own internal ISDN TA (Asuscom 128k PCI) at home without any problems except one reboot required for some unxplained reason.  At the moment I'm back to running e-smith behind an IPCop box (for other reasons).  

The reason I asked my original questions is that now BT supply ISDN with an inbuilt USB TA it would be nice to just set up an e-smith box with a USB cable and be ready to go.

The only other issues that seems to be unresolved (please correct me if I'm wrong) are those of unwanted dialouts due to (I think) windows netbios queries and a slight problem with the startmail script.  So far I'm not sure if there's any "official" fixes from Mitel for these points.  Anyone know the definitve answers?

Cheers
NTB
8o)

[Graham]

No answers sorry but more comments I am at present being driven mad by BT
whilst undergoing a domian transfer to their servers. They offered first two years free and the previous ISP was more expensive anyway [BT want £5 per month after the two years is up] so we jumped and are starting to regret it. Its been nearly a month since we lost the website on the old server and it my daily job every morning to ring BT Connect and ask them what happening. Firstly they changed the TAG but did not update their DNS IP Addresses at which point we lost IP at the office. We have a NAT Dialup ISDN router. Everyone I ever spoke to said that it would not effect our connectivity but I wasnt so sure - everything seemed like it was working ok just not getting IP externally. You could see the dial out logs where fine but external ping requests resulted in BAD IP'. We are using the Surftime package on a Connect account. OK, so they said that they would have to update the DNS IP Addresses and this would take some time to propagate over the worlds DNS servers etc. I checked on the 17th and guess what? The addresses now point to BT servers and we have external IP back. Nexct Big headache, some gonzo pointed the MX records to the wrong mail server address AND also the domain points not to our Connect webspace but to a BT holding page. They have mailed me 5 times and said "within 48 hours"

I have rang them about a dozen times - they say they are short staffed !!!

It seemed like a coincidence that we lost IP and an email from them said there was a change to their system - but it wouldnt effect us anyway as we are using a Surftime package. Most of the BT guys have also said that even though they DO want anyone with a LAN to sign up for a LAN Account [extra £45/month] you dont have to and they cant make' you.

Of course after being told the DNS change wouldnt effect our system and then for it to be restored just like that' makes me suspicious of anything I am told - I think they are sitting it out and waiting to see if we jump to a LAN account. But as we can get webpages [other than our own] we dont really mind as long as its sorted out eventually. They will give in before we do !!!

I am told that www.smoothwall.org is working with USB ADSL and I think also with ISDN ? Check it out anyways ! - Good Luck, you may need it with BT !!!

Check also :-
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/road/xpm78/duncan/smoothwall.html

[John Crisp]

"Most of the BT guys have also said that even though they DO want anyone with a LAN to sign up for a LAN Account [extra £45/month] you dont have to and they cant make' you.

Oh contrare my man, but they can. Their new terms from the 5th July SPECIFICALLY exclude 'two or more networked computers' - go have a read on their site.

And I quote :10.5 If you are the user of a service other than BTconnect LAN, you must not use the service to allow internet access for two or more computers which are networked.  

Kills that stone dead - if they can catch you

In any event, your experiences are making my knees tremble as the two companies whose E-smith servers I maintain, both chose BT as their ISP despite me recommending to the contrary.

The more I hear, the less I like...........