[cisco-nas] X.75 and modem dial-in, autocommand to TCP

[Aaron Leonard]

Hi Gert,

Glad to hear that it's working well for you!  More inline below.

>> Should work.
>>
>> Here's the config for this, more or less.  Here I am assuming that you
>> intend to support both voiceband modem modulations (V.90, V.34, V.32,
>> etc.) and LAPB-TA, on calls into your E1, but nothing else (not V.110,
>> V.120, sync PPP ...)
>>     
>
> The customer finally gave me the "go" for this project, and I did some
> initial tests on a 3640 with an NM-8B today.
>
> What shall I say?  "Thank you very much!!" 
>
>
> Everything worked right out of the box.  The calls come in, X.75 
> autodetection seems to work every time (unlike some of the existing ISDN 
> modems), the setup is fairly robust (again, unlike some of the existing 
> ISDN modems...), and the Cisco side is really perfectly quiet and 
> transparent about things.
>
> Customer is duly impressed :-)  (and we're now trying to figure out 
> what sort of hardware to get, because they don't know yet whether they
> need to handle analog calls or isdn only, or modem as well - and whether
> they will have a PMX or just "many ISDN S/T").
>
>
> Now, two more questions have come up.
>
> - the 3640 only has 16 vty lines (0..15).  This is on 12.2(46a) "ip only".
>
>   If I fill the NM-8B with calls, I might have 16 concurrent X.75
>   calls - double that for 2 NM-8Bs, or for a PRI interface.
>
>   Will more recent IOS versions and/or different packaging (ip plus) give
>   me more VTYs?  Is this documented anywhere?
>   

Is that only 16 VTYs by default?  Can you not make some more? 
(http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/11_0/router/configuration/guide/cterm.html#wp1245). 
Let me check with my lab 3640:

tucson-3640(config)#line vty 0 ?
  <1-871>  Last Line number
  <cr>

Wow, 872 VTYs, that's a lot!  Let's see what I'm running:

tucson-3640#sh ver | i IOS
Cisco IOS Software, 3600 Software (C3640-IK9S-M), Version 12.4(19),
RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

According to the 12.2 docs, you should have 872 also:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2/termserv/configuration/guide/tcfpt_ps1835_TSD_Products_Configuration_Guide_Chapter.html#wp1001791
- it does say "with translation option", though, so I suppose this means
you need a featureset with the Protocol Translation feature (-is-, -p7-,
etc.)

>
> - for troubleshooting, it would be good to have the incoming caller ID
>   information somewhere on the Unix host.  The router has it (obviously),
>   but the telnetd on the unix side doesn't.
>
>   Will some sort of "AAA accounting" give me caller ID information? 
>   Radius, for example?  (As this is not a "typical" dial-in thing...)
>   

(looks like you found it)

>   I seem to remember that there is some sort of special "dialer" accounting
>   - will that work?
>   

You can try "modem call-record", which can log to syslog ... not sure if
it'll show anything for the X.75 calls, tho.

> In any case - thanks again for your advice, and if you ever happen to be
> in Munich, i owe you a beer or two :-)
>
> gert
>   

That's the best offer I've heard all day!  A beer or 2 in Munich, eh? 
Let's see ... Oktoberfest starts Sept. 19 this year ...

Cheers,

Aaron