ISDN: Does is really have to be this hard?
I recently had an "episode" trying to get an ISDN basic rate
line to work (n.b. 'basic rate' is the terminology for the type
of ISDN line you would get in your house). The paperwork from
the phone company said the line was configured as "5ESS Nation ISDN".
This was odd, because two of the (many) choices when configuring an
ISDN router for a basic rate (a.k.a "BRI") line are "5ESS Custom"
and "Nation ISDN 1" (or "NI-1"). So, which to pick? 5ESS? NI-1?
We guessed 5ESS. The router would answer the phone but nothing worked.
We got garbage packets from the remote side.
HUmm... After a week of scratching our heads (and trying 1000 other
things) we had the bright idea to try "NI-1". Viola. It worked.
Now, it seems to be that the switch knew how it was configured. And
the router knew how it was configured. And since the router could
answer the phone the two where at least having a basic ISDN conversation.
So, why couldn't the router tell that the switch was configured for
NI-1?
It would have been really helpful if somehow we could have been
informed that we had the configuration wrong.