A friend of mine with Windows ME as his OS accepted an offer from a so
called Computer expert to upgrade him to XP and install ISDN for him. He
made a botch of it to the extent the my friends dial up would not
connect any more so he had his system restored to its former state with
ME again, a line now upgraded to ISDN and no modem.
I cannot advise him as my own recent experiences are with ADSL and I
don't know much about ISDN.
To sum up, can anyone tell me which ISDN modem he should get, he would
prefer an external one and he has a USB 2 cable already. Can you also
help me to explain the difference between ISDN and ADSL and the
implications for him in rural Derbyshire in the UK.

I would be most grateful as he has recently been kind to me and I did so
want to help him but unfortunately its ISDN and I don't have any
experience of that.
Any replies to this will be forwarded to him with thanks and as he runs
a rural Hotel in the beautiful High Peaks of Derbyshire, I am sure any
helpers will be sure of a good welcome if they ever decide to stay with
him.
--
Derrick Fawsitt

In message <UIfRN3DBOFCAFw4F@fitzwilliamonline.com>, Derrick Fawsitt
<46@fitzwilliamonline.com> writes
Not wishing to be funny (and assuming this post isn't a joke) but from
the questions asked, I'd advise that you do find someone local who IS a
'computer expert' and get them to sort it out.

Oh, and if your friend has just had ISDN put in, its possible you don't
need a modem - just the USB lead from the PC into the new BT wallbox.

--
__________________________________________________
Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
followed by 'net'
__________________________________________________

Derrick Fawsitt wrote:
Presumably this is BT Home Highway in which case the wallbox
would have a USB socket and BT would have supplied a driver CD .
If the PC has USB then no modem is required, although I found
my Asuscom ISDN card to be a tad more reliable and faster.

Chris

In message <3sKoO3ZlnFCAFwep@nospam.demon.co.uk>, Gareth Jones
<usenet@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
not an expert), because of my recent experiences with my new Broadband
connection, I will end up one and I have enough knowledge now to have
given him some advice.
ISDN is another story and although I have read a bit about it, I don't
have enough experience to help him.
However, thank you for the words of advice.
--
Derrick Fawsitt

In message <gWYNb.4793$JL4.36834@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net>, Kris
<chris.howland@ukgateway.net> writes
immediately.
--
Derrick Fawsitt

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 21:11:29 +0000, Derrick Fawsitt
<46@fitzwilliamonline.com> wrote:

First of all let us look on the bright side, maybe his location might
have meant that ADSL was not available to him and therefore having an
ISDN line is a certain improvement over an analogue line with a 56k
modem.

However ISDN comes in two versions with flavours to each version and
therefore what you connect to the ISDN wall box to provide a data
service is different in each case. You can easily indentfy which
version of ISDN has been installed as one quires a power supply and
the other does not.

If it has a power supply then it would be Home or Business Highway;
otherwise it would be ISDN2e. Fundementally Home and Business Highway
are the same having two phone sockets into which you can plug in
normal analogue telephones, fax machines or whatever and a couple of
data sockets. Some newer Higway boxes also have a USB connection but
this should never be assumed to be present.

At any one time you can have a combination on the go of two annalogue
calls, one analogue call plus a data call at 64kbps or just one data
call at 128kbps. Usually three exchange line numbers come with
Highway.

Operating at 128kbps for your Internet connection sounds a great idea
until you relise that the running cost is the equivalent of two local
calls at the same time. Not all ISPs allow connection at 128kbps so in
some ways thoughts of using this connection speed should be
discounted.

To connect the data socket to your PC I would recommends the use of an
internal PCI card for ISDN and these can be obtained for around £50.
Fitting and setting up is quite painless and should not need the
presence of a paid expert. I used to use ISDN with Xp before ADSL
arrived and it worked well for me. There really was no need to revert
back to ME and I would particularly recommend that you reinstall Xp as
ME is now an unsopprted OS by Microsoft.

If the ISDN service is the ISDN2e flavour then all you have is a box
with a couple of outlet sockets although the principal of 'any two on
the go' still apply. Basically you have to have an external ISDN
modem [called a terminal adapter TA] which you plug into either of the
wall sockets and from the TA you run a CAT5e cable to the network
socket on your PC. Its a bit more involled in setting up but no more
complex than doing a similar task for ADSL.

However to use anologue devices on an ISDN2e service then either your
TA has to have analogue outputs or you will need a seperate unit to
convert the digital service to POTS. You can plug this unit into the
other ISDN2e socket outlet. Expect to pay around £200 for a TA with
the addition analogue outputs. For this reason Highway is prefered to
avoid this expense. ISDN2e has a number of different applications
that it can be put to and would normally be present for Home to Office
network connections or for switchboard use for a small firm.

That's the bones of it all. Post another question here if you wish.
My email address given is quite bogus as I am absolutely feed up with
SPAM originating from farming of email addresses appearing in
newsgroups.

DAVID BRADLEY

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 23:57:28 +0000, Derrick Fawsitt
<46@fitzwilliamonline.com> wrote:

www.bt.com/homehighway
http://www.bt.com/btmidband/hm_presale.jsp
http://www.mckerracher.org/isdn/index.html
http://www.mckerracher.org/highway/index.html
http://www.solwise.co.uk/isdn-index.htm

if he has "proper" ISDN he needs a Terminal Adaptor or TA (the ISDN
equivalent of a modem). BT do a Speedway card, Solwise and others
stock Asus and others (£30 or less). PCI is cheapest and fastest, USB
is available.

These TAs casn also be plugged into the digitasl sockets of BT Highway
/ Midband, or you can use the inbuilt USB TA supplied in the later
Highway boxes as others have said.

Phil

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:11:18 +0000, David Bradley
<btinternet.com@david.bradley7> wrote:

although there are 128k deals from ISPs for a fixed monthly fee that
use 080x free to call numbers.

Phil

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 08:49:49 +0000, Phil Thompson
<cynical_observer@hotmail.com> wrote:

Quite true but sadly there is a cap on the number of hours that you
can be connected - one I saw was just 50 hours a month then you had to
revert to PAYG.

ISDN on PAYG can make a serious dent in your wallet if you have
oscallating logons; make sure that ever program that connects to the
Internet is in manual mode to connect and disconnect and if your
hardware / software combination permits it, set idle disconnection to
a low value and set a daily cap on the number of hours you can be on
line. Regularly check the connection log to ensure nothing is amiss.

DAVID BRADLEY

In message <nnth00ld0q3vkb5u7in38ra4bs9j68sbt0@4ax.com>, Phil Thompson
<cynical_observer@hotmail.com> writes
Phil.

I have passed on all of the replies to my friend this morning and I
cannot thank you all enough.

--
Derrick Fawsitt

In message <EqU11VAvmHCAFwYR@fitzwilliamonline.com>, Derrick Fawsitt
<46@fitzwilliamonline.com> writes
I'd just like to add that my post wasn't done to be deliberately
patronising and I stick by my advice to get someone who really does know
what they are doing.

For my sins, I've been involved in the computer industry in one way or
another for over two decades, and while I can see how systems can be
botched together to work in a fashion, the average person can't hope to
make the right choice or configure a system correctly - there just too
much complexity involved at this present time. I know I get stumped a
lot of the time..... and I'm normally the 'so called computer expert'
that most friends and family phone ......
;-)

--
__________________________________________________
Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
followed by 'net'
__________________________________________________

In message <IexHyZCLjRCAFwb+@nospam.demon.co.uk>, Gareth Jones
<usenet@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
could not agree with you more about so called experts. I thought it was
a simple matter to configure my new ADSL service, how wrong I was. I
just wish I could borrow you for ten minutes to climb under my PC and
sort out my filter and sockets and dialup modems and double adapters and
telling me why my dial up 3Com modem installation software won't now re
install my modem when it was working before and why it knocked out my
ADSL and, and, and, and..........I give up!!
--
Derrick Fawsitt

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 09:12:01 +0000, David Bradley
<btinternet.com@david.bradley7> wrote:

well there are some with no limits though they cost a bit, and you can
have several. BT's midband gives you 75 hrs of 128k for a tenner a
month which you could use alongside another service.

Onetel's 080x 64k unlimited hours service will apparently usually
connect at 128k though its "not supported" but worth a try.

Phil

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 09:13:15 +0000, Phil Thompson
<cynical_observer@hotmail.com> wrote:

Again I would not disagree with anything you say. However, a mix and
match workaround/solution does cause problems with outgoing emails.
You may find yourself constantly changing the SMTP server name in your
email client which if you have a number of email accounts, can be
quite a pain to keep on top of.

Overall working at 64kbps is not that bad and is after all about a
third faster when using a 56K modem; you have a fast track connection
and reasonable download times but it is hellish expensive for that
duty alone even if your connection type or hardwae allows analogue
calls as well. For a sizeable chunk of the population it is the ONLY
way to get a fairly decent connection to the Internet, especially
those who are stuck with DACS.

Unfortunately you are penalised should Broadband ever reach your
exchange by an ISDN decommissioning charge of £50 and sometimes find
that BT are unable to port your primary digital line number to an
analogue service.

Until Broadband becomes a choice for all that want it, then ISDN is
going to be considered as the next best thing but do be aware of the
issues discussed in this thread.

DAVID BRADLEY

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 10:22:30 +0000, David Bradley
<btinternet.com@david.bradley7> wrote:

One of my ISPs provides SMTP with user/password authentication so I
use that irrespective of connection mode, same on my laptop which
roams the earth connecting in strange places. If you don't have this
and don't run your own SMTP server then it can as you say be a pain.

the key to ISDN is IMHO to have an ISP that supports compression, web
browsing, news etc fairly wizzes along. Without it you can be worse
off than a modem which although it might be at 44k does support
compression almost universally.

very few should be stuck with DACS as the late OFTEL said it was
"incompatible with a good internet experience" or some such and said
BT should take all reasonable steps to remove it from modem users
lines. They take them off for ADSL, after all.

yep. The BT in-house ISPs wil swallow the £50 charge, although they
aren't the cheapest per month you can currently convert an ISDN line
and setup with them for nowt up front.

Phil

Peter wrote:

Just about all of them support it. Just don't have your ISDN
card in a win2k/XP system. With Demon you can configure the
required protocol via the web.


B

--
http://www.mailtrap.org.uk/

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 14:04:17 +0000, Bob { Goddard }
<dont_work_ind_r_1_REMOVESPAM@mailtrap.org.uk> wrote:

IME just about *none* of them support it

Demon do, BT & Freeserve don't.

Phil

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 13:39:14 +0000, z123@nospam.com (Peter) wrote:

by connecting and looking at the status of the connection, windows
shows what protocols ar ein action and it'll be there somewhere on the
proprties of the "two tellies" icon.

You can ask if they support compression, but the only real test is to
try it. There are different types and inconsistent use of names.

Phil

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 14:51:35 +0000, Phil Thompson
<cynical_observer@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dear old Galdalf when they were around produced terminal adapters with
proprietary hardware that was able to provide an 8:1 compression -
assuming their equipment was connected to both ends of the line. This
combined with the bonding of the two channels gave a pretty nifty
service of the equivalent of 1024kbps both ways. This facility was
provided to our teleworkers who, when wishing to connect to the
Internet, linked across at HQ to the leased line running at 1024kbps.

While I am on Broadband now its pretty slow compared to the
arrangement stated above.

I wasn't aware that any ISP provided compression with bonding, but if
there is such a service, quoted URL giving details would be nice.

DAVID BRADLEY

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:13:42 +0000, David Bradley
<btinternet.com@david.bradley7> wrote:

ask Pipex if they do compression with their Dialtime bonded service.
Demon do compression on the Surftime based "super showroom" bonded
service.

niether of these are cheap

Phil