1130b656e5
This will make a number of things easier in the future, as well as (finally!) avoiding the Id-smashing problem which has plagued developers for so long. Boy, I'm glad we're not using sup anymore. This update would have been insane otherwise.
227 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
227 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
<!-- $FreeBSD$-->
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<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
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<sect><heading>ISDN<label id="isdn"></heading>
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<p><em>Last modified by &a.wlloyd;</em>.
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<p>A good resource for information on ISDN technology and hardware is
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<url url="http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/" name="Dan Kegel's
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ISDN Page">.
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A quick simple roadmap to ISDN follows:
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<itemize>
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<item>If you live in Europe I suggest you investigate the ISDN card
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section.
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<item>If you are planning to use ISDN primarily to connect to the
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Internet with an Internet Provider on a dialup non-dedicated basis, I
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suggest you look into Terminal Adapters. This will give you the most
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flexibility, with the fewest problems, if you change providers.
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<item>If you are connecting two lans together, or connecting to the
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Internet with a dedicated ISDN connection, I suggest you consider the
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stand alone router/bridge option.
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</itemize>
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<p>Cost is a significant factor in determining what solution you will
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choose. The following options are listed from least expensive to most
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expensive.
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<sect1><heading>ISDN Cards</heading>
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<p><em>Original Contribution by &a.hm;.</em>
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<p>This section is really only relevant to European ISDN users. The
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cards supported are not yet(?) available for North American ISDN
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standards.
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<p>You should be aware that this code is largely under development.
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Specifically, drivers have only been written for two manufacturers
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cards.
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<p>PC ISDN cards support the full bandwidth of ISDN, 128Kbs. These
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cards are often the least expensive type of ISDN equipment.
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<p>Under FreeBSD 2.1.0 and 2.1.5, there is early unfinished ISDN code
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under /usr/src/gnu/isdn. This code is out of date and should not be
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used. If you want to go this route, get the bisdn stuff. This code
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has been removed from the main source tree starting with FreeBSD 2.2.
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<p>There is the bisdn ISDN package available from
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<url url="ftp://ftp.muc.ditec.de/isdn" name="ftp.muc.ditec.de">
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supporting FreeBSD 2.1R, FreeBSD-current and NetBSD.
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The latest source can be found on the above mentioned ftp server under
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directory isdn as file bisdn-097.tar.gz.
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There are drivers for the following cards:
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<itemize>
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<item>Currently all (passive) Teles cards and their clones are supported
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for the EuroISDN (DSS1) and 1TR6 protocols.
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<item>Dr. Neuhaus - Niccy 1016
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</itemize>
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There are several limitations with the bisdn stuff. Specifically the
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following features usually associated with ISDN are not supported.
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<itemize>
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<item>No PPP support, only raw hdlc. This means you cannot connect to most
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standalone routers.
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<item>Bridging Control Protocol not supported.
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<item>Multiple cards are not supported.
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<item>No bandwidth on demand.
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<item>No channel bundling.
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</itemize>
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A majordomo maintained mailing list is available, to subscribe, send the
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usual majordomo requests to
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<htmlurl url="mailto:isdn-request@muc.ditec.de"
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name="isdn-request@muc.ditec.de">.
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<sect1><heading>ISDN Terminal Adapters</heading>
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<p>Terminal adapters(TA), are to ISDN what modems are to regular phone
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lines.
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<p>Most TA's use the standard hayes modem AT command set, and can be
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used as a drop in replacement for a modem.
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A TA will operate basically the same as a modem except connection and
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throughput speeds will be much faster than your old modem. You will
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need to configure <ref id="ppp" name="PPP"> exactly the same as for a
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modem setup. Make sure you set your serial speed as high as possible.
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The main advantage of using a TA to connect to an Internet Provider is
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that you can do Dynamic PPP. As IP address space becomes more and more
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scarce, most providers are not willing to provide you with a static IP
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anymore. Most standalone routers are not able to accommodate dynamic IP
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allocation.
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TA's completely rely on the PPP daemon that you are running for their
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features and stability of connection. This allows you to upgrade easily
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from using a modem to ISDN on a FreeBSD machine, if you already have PPP
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setup. However, at the same time any problems you experienced with the
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PPP program and are going to persist.
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If you want maximum stability, use the kernel <ref id="ppp" name="PPP">
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option, not the user-land <ref id="userppp" name="iijPPP">.
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<p>The following TA's are know to work with FreeBSD.
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<itemize>
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<item>Motorola BitSurfer and Bitsurfer Pro
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<item>Adtran
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</itemize>
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Most other TA's will probably work as well, TA vendors try to make sure
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their product can accept most of the standard modem AT command set.
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The real problem with external TA's is like modems you need a good
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serial card in your computer.
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You should read the <ref id="uart" name="serial ports"> section in the
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handbook for a detailed understanding of serial devices, and the
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differences between asynchronous and synchronous serial ports.
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A TA running off a standard PC serial port (asynchronous) limits you to
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115.2Kbs, even though you have a 128Kbs connection. To fully utilize
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the 128Kbs that ISDN is capable of, you must move the TA to a
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synchronous serial card.
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Do not be fooled into buying an internal TA and thinking you have
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avoided the synchronous/asynchronous issue. Internal TA's simply have a
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standard PC serial port chip built into them. All this will do, is save
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you having to buy another serial cable, and find another empty
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electrical socket.
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A synchronous card with a TA is at least as fast as a standalone router,
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and with a simple 386 FreeBSD box driving it, probably more flexible.
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The choice of sync/TA vs standalone router is largely a religious
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issue. There has been some discussion of this in the mailing lists. I
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suggest you search the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/search.html"
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name="archives"> for the complete discussion.
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<sect1><heading>Standalone ISDN Bridges/Routers</heading>
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<p>ISDN bridges or routers are not at all specific to FreeBSD or any
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other operating system. For a more complete description of routing and
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bridging technology, please refer to a Networking reference book.
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In the context of this page, I will use router and bridge
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interchangeably.
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<p>As the cost of low end ISDN routers/bridges comes down, it will
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likely become a more and more popular choice. An ISDN router is a small
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box that plugs directly into your local Ethernet network(or card), and
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manages its own connection to the other bridge/router. It has all the
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software to do PPP and other protocols built in.
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A router will allow you much faster throughput that a standard TA, since
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it will be using a full synchronous ISDN connection.
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The main problem with ISDN routers and bridges is that interoperability
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between manufacturers can still be a problem. If you are planning to
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connect to an Internet provider, I recommend that you discuss your needs
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with them.
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<p>If you are planning to connect two lan segments together, ie: home
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lan to the office lan, this is the simplest lowest maintenance
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solution. Since you are buying the equipment for both sides of the
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connection you can be assured that the link will work.
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For example to connect a home computer or branch office network to a
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head office network the following setup could be used.
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<em>Branch office or Home network</em>
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Network is 10 Base T Ethernet. Connect router to network cable with
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AUI/10BT transceiver, if necessary.
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<verb>
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---Sun workstation
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---FreeBSD box
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---Windows 95 (Do not admit to owning it)
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Standalone router
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ISDN BRI line
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</verb>
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If your home/branch office is only one computer you can use a twisted
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pair crossover cable to connect to the standalone router directly.
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<em>Head office or other lan</em>
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Network is Twisted Pair Ethernet.
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<verb>
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-------Novell Server
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| H |
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| ---Sun
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| U ---FreeBSD
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| |
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| ---Windows 95
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| B |
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|___---Standalone router
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ISDN BRI line
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</verb>
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One large advantage of most routers/bridges is that they allow you to
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have 2 SEPARATE INDEPENDENT PPP connections to 2 separate sites at the
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SAME time. This is not supported on most TA's, except for
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specific(expensive) models that have two serial ports. Do not confuse
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this with channel bonding, MPP etc.
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This can be very useful feature, for example if you have an dedicated
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internet ISDN connection at your office and would like to tap into it,
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but don't want to get another ISDN line at work. A router at the office
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location can manage a dedicated B channel connection (64Kbs) to the
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internet, as well as a use the other B channel for a separate data connection.
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The second B channel can be used for dialin, dialout or dynamically
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bond(MPP etc.) with the first B channel for more bandwidth.
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<p>An Ethernet bridge will also allow you to transmit more than just
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IP traffic, you can also send IPX/SPX or whatever other protocols you
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use.</p>
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