Please help before I go crazy!

[XoshaMoya]

Hi everybody,

I've been trying for the last three days to get my wireless internet connection to work and have been about as sucsessful as a mouse playing basketball. That's to say not very sucsessful.

Ok, so here's the story: I have a Macbook and a ISDN internet connection. So what I having been trying to do is run the internet connection through a Airport Express I have. But I just can't get it to work! From what I can see just searching on the internet what I am missing is a ISDN router, but to be honest I don't even know what that is. Any help you can give me about how to set this I would really appreciate!

2nd thing is that as my plan B what I thought I would do is create a wireless network from my main desktop computer, which would be connected to the internet via Ethernet, to my Macbook. This way I could use the main computer's internet connection on my Macbook. But I can't get this to work so again please try and guide me as to what to do.

I think mabye I should just by a really long ISDN cable...

Anyway, thanks to all in advance!

 

[Chundles]

Can you even do ISDN wirelessly? I though ISDN was just a fast derivative of dial-up?? The Airport

I currently have dial-up and "poor man's wireless" - a very long phone cord.

Airport Express takes signal from a RJ-45 ethernet cable and creates a wireless connection. I don't think it can even handle an ISDN signal.

 

[mkrishnan]

Yes, the thing you need is some kind of device that will give you access to the net via RJ45. So how does the ISDN connect to the MacBook now? Not at all? Or does it somehow? And how does it connect to the Windows PC?

 

[MacBoobsPro]

I never really understood ISDN. Its some kind of weird dial-up/DSL cross isnt it? I think its pretty much faded into obscurity of late too.

 

[compuwar]

Hi everybody,

I've been trying for the last three days to get my wireless internet connection to work and have been about as sucsessful as a mouse playing basketball. That's to say not very sucsessful.

Ok, so here's the story: I have a Macbook and a ISDN internet connection. So what I having been trying to do is run the internet connection through a Airport Express I have. But I just can't get it to work! From what I can see just searching on the internet what I am missing is a ISDN router, but to be honest I don't even know what that is. Any help you can give me about how to set this I would really appreciate!

2nd thing is that as my plan B what I thought I would do is create a wireless network from my main desktop computer, which would be connected to the internet via Ethernet, to my Macbook. This way I could use the main computer's internet connection on my Macbook. But I can't get this to work so again please try and guide me as to what to do.

I think mabye I should just by a really long ISDN cable...

Anyway, thanks to all in advance!

ISDN usually requires an ISDN modem which has usually have serial connections out of them. Airports have Ethernet, the signaling isn't compatible, so you'll need some sort of router with an ISDN modem, or a PC with an ISDN modem, or a modem with a serial connection and some sort of serial adapter on either a modem or a host that can route to get things running. If the thing coming out of the ISDN modem is RS-232, then you can probably get away with a USB to serial converter, though you might need an adapter for the cable.

I never really understood ISDN. Its some kind of weird dial-up/DSL cross isnt it? I think its pretty much faded into obscurity of late too.

It's a channelized digital service that can be either switched as a dial-up connection or point-to-point as a leased line. Like a regular phone line, it requires a port at the central office switch and a line to the customer's location. Later technologies like DSL and cable share the link between a neighborhood and the CO and/or use external equipment that isn't integral to the main switching facility making them cheaper to deploy. They're also much faster if they haven't been to massively oversubscribed.

 

[XoshaMoya]

Hi,

Thanks for everyone's fast reply. The way I currently have my ISDN linked to my PC is that is runs through a ISDN box (for want of a better term) that the phone company supplys. From there runsa Ethernet cable that I have to plug into a external modem because my old PC doesn't have a ISDN modem built in.

The thing with ISDN though is that it's not always on like ADSL. The way I understand it is that it's just basically two 64kb lines bundled together to one 128kb line. So the problem comes in that the airport is trying to dial into the connection when it hasn't actually been made yet because I haven't dialed up.

Still, ignoring that it's ISDN, shouldn't I still be able to work off the internet if my PC is connected to the internet and it's in a wireless network with my Macbook?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[XoshaMoya]

One other thing, I have tried plugging the Ethernet port directly into the Macbook but it doesn't work, very likely because it doesn't have a ISDN modem.

 

[compuwar]

Hi,

Thanks for everyone's fast reply. The way I currently have my ISDN linked to my PC is that is runs through a ISDN box (for want of a better term) that the phone company supplys. From there runsa Ethernet cable that I have to plug into a external modem because my old PC doesn't have a ISDN modem built in.

The thing with ISDN though is that it's not always on like ADSL. The way I understand it is that it's just basically two 64kb lines bundled together to one 128kb line. So the problem comes in that the airport is trying to dial into the connection when it hasn't actually been made yet because I haven't dialed up.

Still, ignoring that it's ISDN, shouldn't I still be able to work off the internet if my PC is connected to the internet and it's in a wireless network with my Macbook?

Thanks again everyone!

Your post is confusing, which makes it difficult to assist- but at least we have a little more information- you're on a dial-up ISDN connection, in which case something has to tell the ISDN modem what to dial if it's not set up to do this itself. Where we have issues is you say the ISDN has an Ethernet port that's plugged into a modem on the PC-- those two things aren't compatible-- it's either ethernet, and it's plugged into a network adapter on the PC, or it's some sort of serial connection plugged into a serial card, or it's just a TA plugged into an ISDN modem in the PC. Basically, outside of some really strange non-home corner cases, one of those has to be true.

If your PC is able to act as a router, and also able to talk to your laptop, then yes, setting your PC up as a router should work, however you'll probably also have to have your PC do NAT (network address translation.) If it's Windows, then there's something called "Internet Connection Sharing" that might do it- I'm not familiar with its configuration though. If it's linux, then you'll just need an iptables or ipchains NAT rule and to enable IP routing assuming you've got your wireless network addressing working

One other thing, I have tried plugging the Ethernet port directly into the Macbook but it doesn't work, very likely because it doesn't have a ISDN modem.

It's probably not Ethernet, it's probably just ISDN from a TA on an RJ-45 connector. Lots of things use RJ45 connectors, including proprietary phone switches, Token Ring networks, and T1 circuits. Be *very* careful to only plug things that are definately Ethernet into Ethernet jacks, and things that are definately analog lines into normal modem jacks- it's possible to damage some hardware by plugging it into the wrong thing.

Unlike computers, the telecom guys have been using similar jacks for different things for years so "it fits" isn't a sign of compatibility.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

ISDN still exists???

That was the very first broadband technology which was made obsolete by DSL and Cable. Very surprised to hear about it in this day and age.

 

[compuwar]

ISDN still exists???

That was the very first broadband technology which was made obsolete by DSL and Cable. Very surprised to hear about it in this day and age.

I'm pretty sure we had perfectly functional leased lines prior to ISDN roll-outs. ISDN is probably still very popular in parts of Europe- telecom companies are very good at holding on to old tech for as long as possible. If most US telcos had priced it for residential service instead of business service, we'd probably never have gotten ADSL when we did.

Verizon spent *boatloads* putting ISDN in all of its switches, and priced itself out of the market.

For folks who aren't within the distance limits of ADSL, or who need synchronous bandwidth, it's still not a bad technology unless you're streaming lots of pr0n!

 

[matperk]

I remember leo laporte saying a while back that ISDN was one of those technologies that the phone companies were, and still are, required to offer across the country. If someone can't get high-speed, they can apparently call the phone company and the company has to set up their switches and stuff and pay whatever is required to get that person ISDN.

 

[XoshaMoya]

Yeah, ISDN is pretty rare. I'm over in South Africa and even though we do have very good DSL it's pretty expensive. So I'm stuck with ISDN.

Just about the Ethernet cable I must say I'm pretty sure it is Ethernet. It fits perfectly in the port on both the Airport and my macbook. The way I understand the whole thing being confirgured is that the ISDN box is used to basically join the two 64kb lines into the 128kb line. It still then needs to run into an ISDN modem for the computer to work it though.

But I think the best option is for me to give Internet sharing a try. You can get that to work on a simple Computer to computer network, hey?

 

[compuwar]

Just about the Ethernet cable I must say I'm pretty sure it is Ethernet. It fits perfectly in the port on both the Airport and my macbook.

That's because it has an RJ45 connector, so do T1 circuits with SmartJacks- just because it fits does NOT make it Ethernet. One of the telecom lineman I had in to do a T1 install last week borrowed an Ethernet cable from me to extend the T1 from the Smartjack to the CSU/DSU location I wanted, but T1 signals aren't Ethernet either.

The way I understand the whole thing being confirgured is that the ISDN box is used to basically join the two 64kb lines into the 128kb line. It still then needs to run into an ISDN modem for the computer to work it though.

Not normally, ISDN is a channelized service, you get 2B and 1D channel on a circuit, terminating in an NT1 block in the US (not sure about .za.)

The NT1 is just a termination point for the cirucuit, then comes the modem- what gets delivered to an ISDN modem is channelized digital ISDN frames, NOT Ethernet. The signaling is completely different. Not even close to the same. The ISDN modems I've seen do the demuxing of the channels themselves, but it's been a lot of years since I played with ISDN.

But I think the best option is for me to give Internet sharing a try. You can get that to work on a simple Computer to computer network, hey?

Far as I know, but I've not tried it.

I remember leo laporte saying a while back that ISDN was one of those technologies that the phone companies were, and still are, required to offer across the country. If someone can't get high-speed, they can apparently call the phone company and the company has to set up their switches and stuff and pay whatever is required to get that person ISDN.

I'm not aware of any FCC or PUC rulings in the US that require a particular service offering out of any telecom supplier. Certainly I'd be surprised to find it the case that there was a national requirement, since most telecom compaines are regional even today unless they're a long distance carrier.