How hard is it to use ISDN only- no analog
Scott
I would like to use ISDN "only" at my home. What would I need as far
as equipment? (The phone company won't even talk to me about it). I
have two phone lines now and it is about the same price as two B
channel of voice and Data. I know I will need a external modem with
at least one POTS. Probably would be a good Idea to get a UPS for
power outages. I read something about the phones not ringing is there
any way to get around this?
Thanks
Scott
David Richards
In article <33692a24...@news.globalbiz.net>,
Scott <sco...@globalbiz.net> wrote:
>I would like to use ISDN "only" at my home. What would I need as far
>as equipment? (The phone company won't even talk to me about it). I
>have two phone lines now and it is about the same price as two B
>channel of voice and Data. I know I will need a external modem with
When people say "ISDN Modem" they usually mean "ISDN TA"- there are hybrid
devices that include a modem, but most external ISDN devives are solely
terminal adapters...
>at least one POTS. Probably would be a good Idea to get a UPS for
>power outages. I read something about the phones not ringing is there
>any way to get around this?
Different ISDn devices provide different levels of POTS support. Some
provide no ringing voltage at all, some are very limited in the number of
devices they can handle- hook up one too many phones, and none of them ring.
designer
>>at least one POTS. Probably would be a good Idea to get a UPS for
>>power outages. I read something about the phones not ringing is there
>>any way to get around this?
You might be misunderstanding what the UPS is for. It's purpose is to keep
your system running long enough so you can save your work and shut down
your equipment in an orderly fashion when there's a brown/black out. The
length of time they keep your system up depends on how much you spend. But
I think it's measured in minutes, not hours or days.
You might think about investing the money is a cellular phone contract that
provides a free phone and minimum maintenance fee ($15/month - no "free"
minutes). Course you'll want to be sure the cell battery is charged when
the power goes out.
--
For those who risk, life has a flavor the protected shall ne'er enjoy.
Fred R. Goldstein
In article <33692a24...@news.globalbiz.net>, sco...@globalbiz.net
says...
>I would like to use ISDN "only" at my home. What would I need as far
>as equipment? (The phone company won't even talk to me about it). I
>have two phone lines now and it is about the same price as two B
>channel of voice and Data. I know I will need a external modem with
>at least one POTS. Probably would be a good Idea to get a UPS for
>power outages. I read something about the phones not ringing is there
>any way to get around this?
Once again somebody commits a common but major faux pas of this newsgroup:
Asking a question WITHOUT SAYING WHERE ON EARTH THEY ARE!
Repeat after me: ISDN IS NOT THE SAME EVERYWHERE.
There are some places where ISDN-as-the-only-line makes sense. Most of them
are in Europe, perhaps some of Asia. Maybe Bell South.
Then there are tariffs that make ISDN calls costlier than analog line calls
(in parts of the US), the power issue (a UPS battery can keep an ISDN adapter
going for quite a while, actually, if the computer's off), and the number one
problem:
ISDN IS NOT AS RELIABLE AS POTS.
That's not always true. It SHOULD be as reliable. But with some American
telcos (NYNEX comes to mind), the reliability goal for ISDN seems to be "up
more than half the time". But that's just a goal.
--
Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein"at"bbn.com
BBN Corp., Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850
Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission.
Naved Surve
In article <designer-ya0240800...@news.themall.net>,
designer <desi...@quickdata.com> wrote:
>You might be misunderstanding what the UPS is for. It's purpose is to keep
>your system running long enough so you can save your work and shut down
>your equipment in an orderly fashion when there's a brown/black out. The
>length of time they keep your system up depends on how much you spend. But
>I think it's measured in minutes, not hours or days.
It all depends. You can get a beefy UPS and if the only thing you have
plugged into it is an NT1 and TA, you can very easily maintain power for
hours and days. At my place of work we have UPS capacity to keep our
network servers and telecom equipment on-line for 2-3 days in the event of a
power failure.
Naved
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naved Surve, Systems Administrator MarketSource Interactive
mailto:na...@marketsource.com 2 Commerce Drive
http://www.taponline.com/staff/naved Cranbury, NJ 08512
Paul M Blais
In message <33692a24...@news.globalbiz.net> - sco...@globalbiz.net
(Scott) writes:
:>
:>I would like to use ISDN "only" at my home. What would I need as far
:>as equipment? (The phone company won't even talk to me about it). I
:>have two phone lines now and it is about the same price as two B
:>channel of voice and Data. I know I will need a external modem with
:>at least one POTS. Probably would be a good Idea to get a UPS for
:>power outages. I read something about the phones not ringing is there
:>any way to get around this?
:>
:>Thanks
:>
:>Scott
I do it just fine with an Ascend Pipeline 75 I run 3 phones, and a modem
on top of my ISDN with two SPIDS. I ran the ISDN line off a second
connection on the demark directly to the router. I then just disconnected
the old lines from the demark, taped the ends of the wires, and ran one of
the pots connection back to wall where the old line was connected. The
pipeline puts out enough REN's to drive the ringers on all my phones.
There is a limit, so check out your ISDN equipment to see how many REN's
it will drive.
If you want to do this it can work BUT. You'll need to figure out your
costs and usage to see if the $$$ work for you. I have far more data
needs than talking on the telephone needs so it works pretty good. In US
Worst land I get 200 hrs free for $69 / month plus taxes and assorted
extra fees. Once you get into per minute charges it can change the
picture quite easily. You've got to run the numbers to tell if it will be
to your advantage. The service here has been good and I have not had an
outage in over a year since installation. That may not be true where you
live though.
/==========================================/
Paul M Blais - St Paul, MN - pbl...@visi.com
Jeff Rennert
On Thu, 01 May 1997 23:49:26 GMT, sco...@globalbiz.net (Scott) broke
it down like this:
>I would like to use ISDN "only" at my home. What would I need as far
>as equipment? (The phone company won't even talk to me about it). I
>have two phone lines now and it is about the same price as two B
>channel of voice and Data. I know I will need a external modem with
>at least one POTS. Probably would be a good Idea to get a UPS for
>power outages. I read something about the phones not ringing is there
>any way to get around this?
>
>Thanks
>
>Scott
I have an ISDN-only setup in my apartment(north side Chicago).
Ameritech bills me $36-40 a month for the basic service, which
includes about 2K minutes a month in local data calls, both dual and
single. Long distance voice calls, are standard long-distance voice
rates. My ISP is my employer, so I don't spend anything else there. My
setup is an NT box with a USR 128K and plain vanilla cordless phone.
Data transfer maxes out at about 15.4K, but I usually find myself
using only one channel to keep the other open for calling in and out.
If USR's NT drivers make it easy to bring up/drop channels, I don't
know about it. It doesn't really matter, as 64k is enough for me in
most instances, and if I know I'm going to be downloading a service
pack or something, I'll make a 2B call. I don't rely on the phone
much; I only have a dial tone when my machine is on(pretty much
whenever I'm home), and I'm OK with that. In a pinch, I have a wimpy
UPS that'll keep me up long enough to call someone in an emergency.
I've never had any problems getting through on voice, either local or
long distance.
I'm extremely satisfied with my setup. It sounds like you're fortunate
enough to live in an area where ISDN service is cheap enough to be a
no-brainer, which is great. I think if you're interested enough in
ISDN to look into it, and have the resolve to work through any
potential problems that might arise in the beginning, the setup will
really pay off in the end.
HTH
Jeff Rennert
Network Administrator
LINC Capital, Inc.
My opinions are my own and not LINC's, etc. Remove the 's' before my initials to send mail.
Clifford Donley
Naved Surve wrote:
>
> In article <designer-ya0240800...@news.themall.net>,
> designer <desi...@quickdata.com> wrote:
>
> >You might be misunderstanding what the UPS is for. It's purpose is to keep
> >your system running long enough so you can save your work and shut down
> >your equipment in an orderly fashion when there's a brown/black out. The
> >length of time they keep your system up depends on how much you spend. But
> >I think it's measured in minutes, not hours or days.
>
> It all depends. You can get a beefy UPS and if the only thing you have
> plugged into it is an NT1 and TA, you can very easily maintain power for
> hours and days. At my place of work we have UPS capacity to keep our
> network servers and telecom equipment on-line for 2-3 days in the event of a
> power failure.
users, it should at least cover the time to shut down the machine _and_
protect the programming of the VCR. Other users may require enough
diesel to run their generators for months; that's a _serious_
requirement.
Gary Breuckman
In article <designer-ya0240800...@news.themall.net>,
designer <desi...@quickdata.com> wrote:
>
>You might be misunderstanding what the UPS is for. It's purpose is to keep
>your system running long enough so you can save your work and shut down
>your equipment in an orderly fashion when there's a brown/black out. The
>length of time they keep your system up depends on how much you spend. But
>I think it's measured in minutes, not hours or days.
With normal loads... But let's say you had a 600 VA UPS that also
protected your computer, but you shut the computer down as soon as the
power failed. That UPS could likely run several hours with just the TA
on it.
Looking at the Bitsurfer pro... The power cube outputs +5, +12, and -12
volts DC, so it could run on straight DC powered by some batteries and
voltage regulators - the potential could be DAYS with enough battery
power. Power outages here are usually less than a few hours, and rare.
--
pu...@netcom.com
Gary Breuckman
In article <336b45bc...@fury.thoughtworks.com>,
Jeff Rennert <sj...@linccap.com> wrote:
>setup is an NT box with a USR 128K and plain vanilla cordless phone.
>Data transfer maxes out at about 15.4K, but I usually find myself
>using only one channel to keep the other open for calling in and out.
>If USR's NT drivers make it easy to bring up/drop channels, I don't
>know about it. It doesn't really matter, as 64k is enough for me in
>most instances, and if I know I'm going to be downloading a service
>pack or something, I'll make a 2B call. I don't rely on the phone
The Bitsurfer Pro, as an example, will let you bring up a 128K data
connection and then use EITHER Analog line for an outgoing call (dropping
down to 64K, and coming back to 128 afterwards) and will also allow an
INCOMING call on the voice-1 B channel. An incoming call to voice-2 will
get a busy. That't the way mine works, after getting it all straightened
out with Ameritech - both they and Motorolla tell me that's the best it
will do. I'm happy with that. I have an analog line too.
--
pu...@netcom.com
Paul B. Billings, Jr.
--
Paul
Paul B. Billings, Jr. Glankler Brown, PLLC voice 901.576.1795
1700 One Commerce Square Attorneys at Law faxA 901.576.1772
Memphis, Tennessee 38103 mailto:p...@pobox.com faxB 901.525.2389