Topic: isdn no dial tone

[Dave D]

been following the passive isdn how to.
got a card from another machine.  it has siemens chips on it but even using fcc number couldn't find out exactly what card it is.
anyway, tried setting the card number to 1, then modprobe hisax, then set it to 2 etc.
setting it to 10 didn't give any errors so thought its working.
connected to isdn line and /var/log/messages shows that after it sends our isps number to the card a "no dialtone" message.

nt box works using same isdn line and cable from nt1 to its own card.

should i assume that i've set the wrong card type even though modprobe showed no errors and even though dmesg|less shows that the ISDN driver has been successfully loaded or is it due to the MSN issue with UK isdn (how-to says something about setting msn to "0")

any help appreciated.

[Peter]

Your best bet is to get a Hayes ext ISDN this will work Fro PC Worl about £120

[Peter]

Your best bet is to get a Hayes ext ISDN this will work Fro PC Worl about £120

[Norrie]

Arrrggh!

"Your best bet is to get a Hayes ext ISDN this will work Fro PC Worl about £120"

Yeh go spend another £120.  NOT!

This doesn't help the guy who wants to use his perfectly fine internal card does it?  I'm sure most of us consider internal / external issues before we purchase gear.  His best bet IMO is to at least keep trying a little longer first.

If we want to use e-smith with our nice internal cards then we have to help each other...


Dave,

Give some more details about the card please.

What are the numbers on the chip(s)?
What is the fcc id number?  all of it please!
Is it ISA or PCI?
Can you guess how old it is?
Is it a full length card?

All the best

Norrie

[Dave D]

Yes, I don't want to have to spend 130 pounds on an external ta unless i can help it.  I've acquired the card from an old nt box that used to be used for video conferencing.

the fcc number just says FCC-AS-2350-XXX-XX

a stick on label near by says ZYDACRON (Z350)

There are the following chips on the board:

SIEMENS PSB 2186N V1.1
ISAC TE
GERMANY 9811

CRYSTAL CS4218-KL
JTAZDG9707

ZORAN
ZR36125PQC
SCD13007CI  C3
ZKAL9830

PHILIPS
SAA71***WP

LUCENT
1617F24
HBM 251
98 34T  2148974
(C)1993 LUCENT

LUCENT
1604J6E YB30
9831S 4181374
(C) 95 LUCENT

It appears to be a full size card and has gone into a pci slot yes.

would be grateful for any guidance.

[Charlie Brady]

Dave D wrote:
 
> been following the passive isdn how to.
> got a card from another machine.  it has siemens chips on it
> but even using fcc number couldn't find out exactly what card
> it is.

If it is a PCI card, then you should be able to identify the card using the "lspci" program.

> should i assume that i've set the wrong card type even though
> modprobe showed no errors and even though dmesg|less shows
> that the ISDN driver has been successfully loaded

Successful loading of the driver does not mean that the driver will work correctly. It's reasonable to assume that you don't have the correct driver enabled.

Charlie

[Stuart]

does the hayes external ta just get plugged into a serial port (com1 for example) and then set up as per a dial up connection in e-smith or do you have to preconfigure the ta to do the dialing/bandwidth etc and then set up e-smith as a direct link to internet?

[Robert Heaton]

Hi, The hayes external terminal adapter, plugs into a 9 pin serial port, ie Com1 Com2 etc... And then you just configure E-smith to use that com port and treat it as a normal modem connection.

[Idris Llewellyn]

I've been looking at using an external ta myself over the last few days.
Think I'll try the Hayes 128k one then (130 pounds in PC World).
They also have an Eicon one or something that goes up to 512 k for 200pounds.

We in work, may upgrade our isdn line (get another one and go to an isp that'll allow us to bond them) and so paying 200 pounds for the 512k one may be better for us in the long run.  I assume that such fast ISDN TAs rely on a network card that goes inside the machine (since a COM port is really slow 115kbs?), and that they then intelligently know what number to call/password etc.  

Has anyone tried using such a TA?

I really do think though that it would be good if e-smith included isdn support (for internal cards) like smoothwall does.  if they can do it!?!
perhaps in a future release?  

But all in all, its an excellent piece of software and if I have to pay 130 pounds for an external ta so i can use my isdn line i suppose  its much much much better value than microsoft nt.

Thanks,
Idris

[Dave D]

I give up.
Thanks for the words of encouragement  Norrie and Charlie telling me about lspci but I give up.
Can't get it to work.
After all my promises about how great e-smith is i now have to suffer the indignity of NT men having a go at me in work.  Ah well, I'll either throw in the towel or get an external isdn adaptor.
Thanks anyway.

[Kees Blokland]

... just a short remark..

( I'm working hard on another project, which has to be finished yesterday)

I've overcome the ISDN-UK etc problem by building myself a 1 floppy router on a 486 etc..

When hooking it up to the e-smith box, simply pretend it's a dsl-box
stick 2 cards in the e-smith etc.. You even create yourself a DMZ in the process (you now have 2 firewalls protecting you.. clever bod to get through!)

If you are interested in the details, let me know..

There are issues with the UK/ISDN/BT that seem to be very unusual.
( how about an isp like BT going down (again) for over 16 hours on the weekend and saying nothing is wrong.. This is what we have to deal with!!.)

I've tried numerous adaptors, including external ones. I tried the LRP-box, and many others using the ISDN card in modem emulation, and all failed in one way or another (on BT)

To use ipppd in e-smith: take a RH-7 distro, install with isdn/ipppd
and copy the right bits to e-smith..

This works in a manual-dial mode. The challenge is to make it automagical.

kees

[Norrie]

.. just a short remark..



When hooking it up to the e-smith box, simply pretend it's a dsl-box
stick 2 cards in the e-smith etc.. You even create yourself a DMZ in the process (you now have 2 firewalls protecting you.. clever bod to get through!)

[NM] Dave, all I could find out using the fcc number was the it was maybe made by ITT Telecommunication Products which don't seem to exist any more.  Could be some sort of re-badged Teles clone?  Also a google search for the chip turned up a few hits but mostly in German.  The card sounds like it may be quite old though... Sorry.

Hi Kees,  How did you get e-smith to work behind another firewall?  I'm trying to get mine to run behind a Smoothwall (with a very nice version of dial on demand) box but I'm having trouble...

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=1747.msg5800#msg5800

If you are interested in the details, let me know..




I've tried numerous adaptors, including external ones. I tried the LRP-box, and many others using the ISDN card in modem emulation, and all failed in one way or another (on BT)

[NM] Have you tried Smoothwall with BT?  I'm pretty sure they've got the BT thing sorted.  Is it because BT use CHAP rather than PAP?


To use ipppd in e-smith: take a RH-7 distro, install with isdn/ipppd
and copy the right bits to e-smith..

This works in a manual-dial mode. The challenge is to make it automagical.


I was able to manually dial by installing conf-isdn-account.rpm.  This is a nice utility which allows you to create several ISP profiles (which I can't see any other way of doing in e-smith) dial on demand etc. but I could'nt figure out how to get e-smith to use it

Anyway, I still can't use e-smith as my gateway!

NTB
8o)