1.01) Summary of changes from the last version - MS Telematica vendor info from mstelema@icil64.cilea.it - alt.internet.servicess to posting list, per request of aab@cichlid.com (Andy Burgess) - Info about getting the NIUF ASI ISDN programming interface documentation, courtesy of vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) - Pointer to ISDN Web page from dank@alumni.caltech.edu (Daniel R. Kegel) - MERGE Technologies Group vendor info from JGFIELDS@delphi.com - Vendor info for Apple-oriented ISDN solutions from CLAUSS1@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Clauss, Chris) - Touched up discription of ISDN availability in intro section, input from Tilman Schmidt - A whole new section on SGI, courtesy of mwang@abravanel.esd.sgi.com (Michael Wang) - Update for Adtran info courtesy of Kevin Schneider - CSI vendor info courtesy of beyries@csisdn.com (Mike Beyries) - Info about getting ISDN in Canada from Peter Graw - Updated NT-1 info from oj@vivo.com (Oliver Jones) - TPI vendor info and general FAQ advise from linimon@lonesome.com (Mark Linimon) - diehl info update from uh@diehl.de (Uwe Huebner) - Info about "The ISDN Literacy Book" from hopkins@aw.com - HP product info from Pierre_Vidalenc@hp6300.desk.hp.com (Pierre Vidalenc) - Corrected info about getting the faq via e-mail - Intel info from dagj@netcom.com (Dag Johansen Esq.) and marjorie_j_panditji@ccm.jf.intel.com (Marjorie Panditji) - Vendor info about Conware GmbH from knapp@conware.de (Roland Knapp) - Gandalf update from jsteinb@charm.gandalf.ca (Jennifer Steinberg) - Numerous corrections of e-mail addresses, typos, etc. ------------------------------ 1.02) comp.dcom.isdn Frequently Asked Questions - Introduction These questions and answers have (almost entirely) been extracted from comp.dcom.isdn. Please post any comments or new material that you have, or email them to the current FAQ editor, cherkus@unimaster.com. In particular, the vendor equipment chart is incomplete. If you want to share vendor equipment info, just cut and paste the headers from the chart below and create a new entry for the new information, and send it to me. This FAQ consists almost entirely of information posted to this group. There are a fair number of holes and there may be some outdated information in it. There is no claim of completeness or guarantee of accuracy of any kind, or no warranties for merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. If you have some useful information that you would like to share, email it to me. My goal is to have the FAQ mirror the information provided to the newsgroup itself. The next-to-last section of this FAQ gives references that provide much more information than this FAQ does. This FAQ is posted biweekly to the comp.dcom.isdn news group with an expiration period of two weeks. This FAQ is available via anonymous ftp to host rtfm.mit.edu, in the directory /pub/usenet/news.answers/isdn-faq. It's also accessible via the e-mail server -- send the command "send usenet/news.answers/isdn-faq/*" (without the quotes) in the body of a e-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. It is also available via any other site that shadows news.answers. Some of these sites are: North America: ftp.uu.net /usenet/news.answers Europe: ftp.uni-paderborn.de /pub/FAQ ftp.Germany.EU.net /pub/newsarchive/news.answers grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr /pub/faq ftp.win.tue.nl /pub/usenet/news.answers ftp.sunet.se /pub/usenet Asia: nctuccca.edu.tw /USENET/FAQ hwarang.postech.ac.kr /pub/usenet/news.answers If you have Web access, I recommend you access Dan Kegel's ISDN Web page at http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/, which has even more ISDN information and a pointer to a Web-accessible copy of this ISDN FAQ. I would like to thank Sean Welch for creating the previous edition of the FAQ. His work is still responsible for the majority of the information gathered here. I hope to continue the fine example that Sean has set. ------------------------------ 1.03) Table of Contents Section 1: Subject: 1.01) Summary of changes from the last version Subject: 1.02) comp.dcom.isdn Frequently Asked Questions - Introduction Subject: 1.03) Table of Contents Subject: 1.04) To Do List Subject: 1.05) Who do I have to thank for this list? Section 2: Subject: 2.01) What is ISDN? Subject: 2.02) What does an ISDN network connection look like? Subject: 2.03) What will Basic Rate (2B+D) ISDN look like in my house/office? Subject: 2.04) What is a NT1? Who sells them? Subject: 2.05) Can the existing local loop lines be reused for ISDN? Subject: 2.06) How does this compare to regular phone lines? Subject: 2.07) Is caller ID available on ISDN? Subject: 2.08) What do I get above and beyond plain old telephone service? Subject: 2.09) What do ISDN phones cost? Subject: 2.10) Can you use existing telephone equipment with the voice portion? Subject: 2.11) What is National ISDN? Subject: 2.12) What is the NIUF? Subject: 2.13) What is ATM? Subject: 2.14) What is B-ISDN? Subject: 2.15) What is BONDING? Subject: 2.16) Data Encapsulation for IP over ISDN Subject: 2.17) Full Motion Video over ISDN Subject: 2.18) What is a SPID? How come my ISDN device won't work without one? Subject: 2.19) Will ISDN terminal equipment that works in one country work properly when it is installed in another country? Subject: 2.20) Will ISDN terminal equipment that works with one vendor's ISDN switch work properly when used with another vendor's switch? Subject: 2.21) Do different manufacturers' Terminal Adaptors interoperate when used asynchronously? Subject: 2.22) Why do I get only about 19.2k throughput from my TA? Subject: 2.23) How long should call setup take when using a TA? Section 3: Subject: 3.01) How do I find out about getting ISDN in my area? Section 4: Subject: 4.01) Where can I find what all of these acronyms mean? Subject: 4.02) What are the relevant standards? Subject: 4.03) Where can I read more? Subject: 4.04) Can I get on-line National ISDN information from Bellcore? Section 5: Subject: 5.01) Who is shipping what? Subject: 5.02) How about that SPARCstation 10? Subject: 5.03) How about that IBM Waverunner? Subject: 5.04) How about that SGI? Subject: 5.05) How about that HP? Subject: 5.06) How about that Intel RemoteExpress? ------------------------------ 1.04) To Do List Questions for which I have not yet put together an answer, but for which I am accepting suggestions: a) What programming API's are useful for creating ISDN applications? (e.g. Sun, Microsoft TAPI, NIUF ASI, ETSI(?), CAPI(?), more(?)) What are their strengths and weaknesses? ------------------------------ 1.05) Who do I have to thank for this list? Lots of people, in one way or another. Dave@yost.com (Dave Yost) CLAUSS1@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Clauss, Chris) Eric_Boll-RXNN70Q@email.sps.mot.com (Eric Boll) Greg.Onufer@Eng.Sun.COM Helge.Oldach@Stollmann.DE (Helge Oldach) Jim.Rees@umich.edu (Jim Rees) JGFIELDS@delphi.com KUMQUAT@SMCVAX.SMCVT.EDU (Gary C. Kessler) PMW1@psuvm.psu.edu (Peter M. Weiss) Pierre_Vidalenc@hp6300.desk.hp.com (Pierre Vidalenc) SYSGAERTNER@cygnus.frm.maschinenbau.th-darmstadt.de (Mathias Gaertner) apsteph@cs.utexas.edu (Alan Palmer Stephens) art@acc.com (Art Berggreen) awillis@athena.mit.edu (Albert Willis) bernot@inf-wiss.uni-konstanz.de (Gerhard Bernot) beyries@csisdn.com (Mike Beyries) bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Ben Harrell) blsouth!klein@gatech.edu (Michael Klein) bob@larribeau.com (Bob Larribeau) bob_clemmons@smtp.esl.com (Bob Clemmons) cabo@Informatik.Uni-Bremen.DE (Carsten) cherkus@UniMaster.COM (Dave Cherkus) cliff@Berkeley.EDU (Cliff Frost) craig@aland.bbn.com (Craig Partridge) cstorry@gandalf.ca (Chuck Storry) curt@kcwc.com (Curt Welch) dagj@netcom.com (Dag Johansen Esq.) dank@alumni.caltech.edu (Daniel R. Kegel) dav@genisco.gtc.com (David L. Markowitz) dave@philips.oz.au dem@hep.net (David E. Martin) dror@digibd.com (Dror Kessler) dwight@hyphen.com (Dwight Ernest) earle@poseur.JPL.NASA.GOV (Greg Earle - Sun JPL on-site Software Support) eleskg@nuscc.nus.sg (Winston Seah) elitman@wam.umd.edu (Eric A. Litman) etxorst@eos.ericsson.se (Torsten Lif) ews@Babel.COM (Ed Sznyter) fenton@combinet.com (Jim Fenton) garym@netcom.com (Gary Martin) giles@paxdata.demon.co.uk (Giles Heron) glarson@bnr.ca (Greg Larson) goldstein@bbn.com (Fred R. Goldstein) huntting@futureworld.advtech.uswest.com (Brad Huntting) james@kaiwan.com (James - The Keeper) jerry@watchman.sfc.sony.com (Jerry Scharf) jfritz@wvnvm.wvnet.edu (Jeffrey Fritz) jhonan@kralizec.zeta.org.au (Jamie Honan) jik@security.ov.com (Jonathan I. Kamens) jms@romana.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) jordan@hursley.ibm.com (Rob Jordan) jsteinb@charm.gandalf.ca (Jennifer Steinberg) jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen) kessler@Eng.Sun.COM (Tom Kessler) ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) kevin@adtran.com (Kevin Schneider) kevin@newshost.pictel.com (Kevin Davis) kevinc@aspect.UUCP (Kevin Collins) keyman@Eng.Sun.COM (Dave Evans) kph@cisco.com (Kevin Paul Herbert) krowett@large.cisco.com (Kevin J. Rowett) knapp@conware.de (Roland Knapp) linimon@lonesome.com (Mark Linimon) lmarks@vnet.ibm.com (Laurence V. Marks) marjorie_j_panditji@ccm.jf.intel.com (Marjorie Panditji) marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) marc@Destek.NET (Marc Evans) mea@intgp1.att.com (Mark Anderson) mike@tn.com (Mike Sanders) mikes2@cc.bellcore.com (Mike Souryal) msun@ntmtv.com (Ming Sun) mstelema@icil64.cilea.it () muftix@junior.bintec.de (Juergen Ernst Guenther) mwang@abravanel.esd.sgi.com (Michael Wang) oj@vivo.com (Oliver Jones) oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) hopkins@aw.com (Gerald L. Hopkins) p45dpmg@sherritt.ca (Peter Graw) paul@suite.sw.oz.au (Paul Antoine) peter@memex.co.uk (Peter Ilieve) pturner@eng.auburn.edu (Patton M. Turner) rachelw@spider.co.uk (Rachel Willmer) randys@access.digex.net (Randolph A. Sisto) rdavies@janus.enet.dec.com (Rob Davies) rjl@fawlty1.eng.monash.edu.au (Russell Lang) rogers@eplrx7.es.dupont.com (Wade T. Rogers) ronnie@cisco.com (Ronnie B. Kon) sanjay@media.mit.edu (Sanjay Manandhar) scott@labtam.labtam.oz.au (Scott Colwell) scotty@l5next.gagetalker.com (Scott Turner) sklower@toe.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Sklower) sorflet@bnr.ca (winston (w.l.) sorfleet) spike@coke.std.com (Joe Ilacqua) stamp@cc.bellcore.com (stamp,scott) tilman@gb1.sema.de (Tilman Schmidt) tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) turtle@newshub.sdsu.edu (Andrew Scherpbier) uh@diehl.de (Uwe Huebner) varney@ihlpf.att.com (Al Varney) vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) we34329@is1.vub.ac.be (Sven De Kerpel) wb8foz@scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) welch@watchtower.Berkeley.EDU (Sean N. Welch) whs70@cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) wmartin@nsa.bt.co.uk (William Martin) zok@ins.net (Andreas Frackowiak)