ISDN BRI & Cisco ::: Bad Combination

Well, its not a troll, nor would i like to cribb on my blog.
However ISDN & Cisco don't mate well.
We have legacy hardware which have Leased Circuit & ISDN as backup for a remote site to connect to main Site.

Recently the management decided to replace the legacy hardware with the Cisco Routers.
Well for some sites the ISDN works perfectly on a c2821, whereas for others the same config on the another c2821 with same IOS doesn't work.

I am certain , cisco would be prompt in pointing that we get the line checked.
Despite their best support & excellent documentation, We still have to suffer when it comes to ISDN.
But beleive you me, the fact that the moment we plug our ISDN lines back to the legacy equipment, the, line JUST WORKS !!!!!!!!!!!.

Whereas , on c2821 , we have to log in to the router & issue clear int bri 1/o etc to get the status on the cisco ACTIVE.
Since our migration, we have had severe heart burns, when the leased lines have failed & ISDN hasn't fired.
ON many a times, we have had to request the remote site coordinator to reboot the cisco router & then the ISDN would work. No....... we cant ask remote cooridinator to login to the router & clear the interface status.


So my question to Cisco Lovers & in general ISDN users on cisco to help me out
How do you cope with your share of problems with ISDN on cisco.

I wish to know what would you do when the remote site goes offline completely ( no ISDN, no Leased Line) to get the ISDN to ALWAYS connect to main site when Leased Line fails.

Leased Line on PRI card

Well did you know that you can directly terminate a Leased Line on a PRI card ?
Yes if you have a PRI card , you certainly can connect a leased Line (E1 : Unframed as well as Framed) provided you have a service provider's MUX in the premises.

If you do satisfy the above criteria.
Then just plug in the 4 wires from the Telco's MUX straight into the PRI card &
this is the config that will make it work

controller E1 4/0/1

channel-group 0 unframed

no shut

!

interface Serial4/0/1:0

description Connect to XYZ on leased line

ip address 10.10.10.11 255.255.255.252

no shut

PRI In INDIA

Well there are three major Telco's in India at the moment who offer PRI to subscribers
Thus if you were to terminate them on to your cisco router , you shall need to know one very important parameter.

The FRAMING
So here they are
TATA : crc4
RIC: crc4
BSNL/BBNL/MTNL: no-crc4

So your config for the E1 controller would look like for a BSNL/BBNL/MTNL PRI circuit

isdn switch-type primary-net5
controller E1 2/0
pri-group timeslots 1-31
framing no-crc4
no shut
description : ISDN PRI (XXXXXX)

c2821 ISDN site dialing into c3845 , call lasts only 28 sec

Well we have a remote site with 1 ISDN BRI on c2821
We have a 1 PRI at the central site on c3845
The remote site is supposed to dial in to the central site when the primary link fails
We have a Dialer-watch configuration done on the remote site & PPP callback request. The IP address is negotiated during PPP NCP/IPCP.

At the central site we have a PPP callback accept configured & the IP address is assigned from a static ISDN pool

Now the problem:-
The Remote site connects successfully into the Central Site. However the call lasts only 28 sec.

So what we did to resolve it.
We had four BRI S/T ports on the c2821. However only one was connected to a BRI line. But at all times all four ports were part of the rotary group.
This was causing the dialer interface to cycle between the 4 BRI S/T ports.
So we removed the other 3 non connected ports from the rotary group & voila the cal lasted till the idle timeout.

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c3845 & SFP 1000BaseLX modules

Well we had a scheduled planned event wherein we had to connect a Single Mode Fiber to the SFP module on the gi0/0 of the c3845.

Sounds simple,
well its simple
1) insert the SFP, the router immediately recognizers it.
2) configure the interface with followings details

• media-type sfp
• duplex
• speed
• no shut
• IP address

Well we did all the above and yet the link was not coming up.

We could also not see the SFP LED indicator come UP. This clearly indicated that there was a link issue .What could we've done wrong ?

Seems to be a pretty simple task, aint it ?

Well it turned out to be a horror for us.

We spent hours on the testing the Fiber , the config, and the SFP itself.

To our horror, out some searching on cisco.com & goggle we found out that we should try the defaults first.

i.e default speed

&

default duplex

So we did that , not hoping much luck.

But surprisingly the link came Up instantly

the LED on the SFP module was glowing & we could ping the remote destination address as well.

So I am not sure, why did the Link not come up when we had enforced the Duplex = Full & Speed = 100 , also tried Speed = 1000 ?

Anybody can help why it didn't work ?

the present interface config is as follows:-

interface GigabitEthernet0/0

IP address 10.12.13.9 255.255.255.252

IP access-group 112 in

duplex auto

speed auto

media-type sfp negotiation auto

end

SIM Card Rejected

I have a HUTCH ( MUMBAI) SIM card with roaming activated.
Well it has worked in roaming just fine all these times.

But yesterday I was .
in PUNE for some office work, & the Phone gave this message..
" SIM Card Rejected"
Thus I tried frantically the following:-
1) reboot the phone
2) remove the sim , battery & reinsert it
3) clean the SIM & the socket connections on the phone
4) Try inserting the SIM into another phone.....

But all these attempts were in vain
every time I would boot the phone I would get the same message, " SIM card Rejected"
So I called HUTCH callcenter.
The guy very very politely told me that my card was still active & the roaming profile was enabled.
so from their end the service aspect is not a problem.
Thus I was left with only one choice.
As per the call center guy, I have to visit the local HUTCH shop & they will replace the faulty SIM with a new one.
Also he told me that the new sim would be active in one hour & that the replacement would be FREE.

So lets see, I am due to return for MUMBAI tomorrow . Will try to visit the HUTCH shop then.

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