THE ONE PAGE
GUIDE TO ISDN

FOUR IMPORTANT
QUESTIONS TO
ASK

Buffer makes no bones about his knowledge about DSL technologies. In this section we give BUFFER a chance to answer your most frequently asked questions. Feel free to use our mail form to ask him more, keep in mind though he is just a small dog.

• Q. How may I acquire an ISDN service in my home or place of business?

• A. Call your carrier and attempt to subscribe, be prepared to be put on hold and transferred a lot. Do not give up! Eventually you will be connected with someone who has received additional training in order to be able to recognize the four letters ISDN when spoken in series. Be advised! This may be the most knowledgeable person you are ever allowed to speak to, be sure and get the following information.
  1. The per/month service charge.
  2. The installation fee(s)
  3. Per min additional charges (if any)

  You now know how much you will be "tariffed" to use ISDN.

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• Q. What are the four basic questions I must have answered to successfully use an ISDN line.

• A.
  1. What is the central office switch type? Possible answers include:

     - ATT/Lucent 5ESS
     - Nortel/Northern Telecom DMS xxx ( where xxx is a number )
     

  2. What kind of ISDN service is the central office switch configured to provide?

     - ATT/Lucent 5ESS switches may be configured as follows:
     - Point-To-Point
     - Multi-Point (Custom)
     - NI-1 (National ISDN 1), the most common Nortel/Northern Telecom switches may be configured as follows:
     

     • DMS Custom
       
     • NI-1 (National ISDN 1), the most common
       

  3. What are my phone number(s)?
  4. What are my SPID's

  BTW, if you live in Europe and are accessing this page you may just ignore all this and feel pity for us here in North America.

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• Q. My ISDN adapter figures out SPID's and switches automatically, do I still need to know what my central switch, what my ISDN configuration is and what my phone numbers are??

• A. It's a good idea. ISDN adapters can figure out what the switch is and the SPID's but, sometimes they can get confused so it's a good idea if you can back them up a bit. Secondly, ISDN adapters mostly use the phone number(s) that you must enter to figure out the SPID's If the phone numbers are wrong, then the SPID's are wrong.

  BTW, if you live in Europe and are accessing this page you may just ignore all this and feel pity for us here in North America.

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• Q. Why do I need SPID's in the first place?

• A. Good question! The straight answer is because the switch needs em. Just between you, me and Buffer, nobody needs em. Heck, the NIUF (National ISDN Users Forum) and others have been trying to get rid of them for years. Be sure and tell your carrier you hate SPID's and want to see them go, and maybe they will.

  BTW, if you live in Europe and are accessing this page you may just ignore all this and feel pity for us here in North America

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• Q. My ISDN service only has one phone number, is that ok?

• A. Maybe, not all ISDN equipment needs two phone numbers, and not all ISDN services provide two phone numbers.

  BTW, if you live in Europe and are accessing this page you may just ignore all this and feel pity for us here in North America

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• Q. What kind of North American ISDN services use only one phone number?
• A. Most commonly ATT/Lucent Point-To-Point. i have heard rumors of BA offering NI-1 service with a single phone number evidently they are tight for digits on that coast.

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• Q. What kind of ISDN equipment uses two phone number(s)?
• A. Hard to answer, but one good rule is, if your ISDN adapter has two analog ports for FAX, modem or POTS (most do now) you really need two phone numbers for the thing to work correctly.

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• Q Why does some ISDN equipment uses one or two phone numbers?

• A Well, it really has to do data and voice and how they are discriminated as services by the network and the individual switch. One very common type of switch will support multiple call offerings on data calls (two calls one phone number). Voice calls are always one *active* call per DN (phone number).

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• Q What is an "Active" voice call?

• A. That would be a call where you can actually talk to the far-end station. As opposed to the call being in some other state, as in a held call (On Hold) or In Progress, as in, the phone is ringing, but no one has answered yet.

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• Q. What is a "switch"?

• A. Central Office Switch, it's just a big computer that "switches" a bunch of local circuits (phone lines), and connects them to other circuits to set up circuit switched calls (phone calls).

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• Q. What is a "leased line"?

• A. A dedicated phone line between two places. Comes in two flavors 2-wire (a single pair of wires between two places) 4-wire (two dedicated pairs of wires between two places)

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• Q. What is a "wet line"?

• A. "Buffer help!" It's either a phone line that has been left out in the rain, or, its a phone line with enough current on it so that when you touch the two wires together, they spark! "Thank you Buffer"

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• Q. How did a small dog like Buffer come to be able to talk and surf the web?

• A. Buffer crash landed in my back yard one evening in a piece of space junk. I was never quite sure from the markings who launched him, but concluded he was the result of someone's experimentation with sending animals into space. I can't suppose how long he was up there, or what strange effects radiation, space, and even bioengineering could have on a small dog. But he emerged with a peculiar fascination for computers, and could use one with out any help, whatsoever. Further, he has learned to communicate, though most animals can, and usually don't because there is nothing to say to people. Buffer mostly asks me questions about the computer, or the net, and occasionally to ask for a cookie.

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• Q. How can a dog use a keyboard?

• A. You should relax a bit more and not wonder so much.

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• Q. Where does Buffer live that he can even get access to ISDN and other DSL services?

• A. Actually Buffer lives well away from any major metro area. Buffer and i make our own electricity, and other than ISDN and the Internet don't use much in the way of outside utilities.

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• Q. How does Buffer talk?

• A. Quite well, I think.

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• Q. If faster DSL's and cable modems are just around the corner why shouldn't i just wait for them?

• A. Perhaps you should. It would seem that in terms of access devices (modems, terminal adapters, etc.) available bandwidth about doubles every 12-18 months. At that rate you should be able to get multimega bit rates for several hundred dollars within the next five years. The problem is that the cost/bit with the service providers is falling at a much slower rate. So while you may be able to afford access devices you may not be able to afford the services. I ask myself, "How much bandwidth do i need/want," and "How much am i willing to pay for that bandwidth". Simple.

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• Q. Where does Buffer live?

• A. Buffer and I live just slightly in the future, time travel being not really all that complicated. We have no TV, our only telecommunications access is with the computer, and the attached phones that connect to it. We download music and video and i make video calls when necessary.

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