September 2000 - USR-TC - mailman.xmission.com

(usr-tc) CSLIP anyone?
by Jeremy Gault 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

Hi everyone, Just wondering, will the Total Control HiPer ARC (v4.x stuff) do the CSLIP stuff? All of our dialups use PPP, but a long time ago someone told me CSLIP is better performance-wise. Being the admin, I can give myself a SLIP connection, and know how to set it up. I've already been able to make SLIP work between my Linux box and the server, now I'd just like to try CSLIP. Anyone know if this can be done, and how? Thanks. Jeremy -- Jeremy Gault <jgault(a)wingnet.net> - UNIX Systems Administrator WingNET Internet Services (web site @ http://www.wingnet.net/ ) PGP Public Key @ http://www.wingnet.net/~jgault/pgpkey.txt (423) 559-5465 (voice) / (423) 559-5444 (fax) "Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are easy to annoy and have the root password." - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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RE: (usr-tc) Logging modem disconnect reasons
by Dwayne Varey 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

umm, this may sound like a dumb question, but how is the nmc setup to log radius call data. I've been looking around in our nmc's and the only sort of logging that seems to be available is syslog. Do you just set the nmc to syslog all of its info to a radius server? and then have the radius server insert data into sql table, or did I miss something along the way? ________________________________________________ Dwayne Varey Systems Administrator WestNet - WA's Statewide Internet Provider Phone: 92182600 - Fax: 92182666 http://www.wn.com.au _________________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Mike Andrews [mailto:mandrews@bit0.com] Sent: Sunday, 17 September 2000 14:57 To: usr-tc(a)lists.xmission.com Subject: Re: (usr-tc) Logging modem disconnect reasons These days I think the call reference numbers *do* match up between the ARC and NMC. There used to be some incompatibilities between the two (one would log in hex and one in decimal, or one would log big-endian and one little-endian, that kinda thing)... but I think that's all in the past. I have a Perl script that tails the Radius accounting logs, matches the ARC and NMC records up, and writes it to a MySQL table. From there it's easy to write a web page that users (or admins for that matter) can go to to view their most recent sessions and see exactly why it was they were disconnected, with both the ARC and modem reasons given (unless one gets lost, or gets logged to the other accounting server, or whatever -- this is UDP after all). You can throw other stuff in there too, like connect speed. I can't remember what fields I used to try to match them up; I think just hostname (you need a list of what arcs match which nmc's) and session-id is enough... Lemme go look at the code a sec. Hm. Weird. I matched up session-id, slot, channel, ANI, and DNIS. That's probably overkill... :) This script isn't currently up on the web with the rest of my scripts, but I could put it there or mail it if anyone cared -- I'll have to clean it up a bit (read: remove SQL passwords) first. It's as sloppy as the rest of my code but it's a starting point and saves reinventing at least some of the wheel. Mike Andrews (MA12) * mandrews(a)dcr.net * http://www.bit0.com/ VP, sysadmin, & network guy, Digital Crescent Inc, Frankfort KY Dialup/ADSL/ISDN/T1 Internet access for Frankfort KY and surrounding counties www.fark.com: If it's not news, it's Fark. (Or something like that.) On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, Jeff Mcadams wrote: > Also sprach Charles Sprickman > >On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, Jeff Mcadams wrote: > >> Yes...this is probably the best way of doing this. The tricky part > >> is correlating them with the userids as the NMC doesn't know the > >> userids, so you'll have to match these records up with the Arc RADIUS > >> accounting records to be able to correlate disconnect reasons with > >> userids. Not impossible by any means, but it does add another little > >> wrinkle. :) > > >Hmmm... I didn't even know you could do this. What common information > >is there between your normal ARC-supplied accounting record and the NMC > >info? > > Well...I'm pretty sure that slot and channel are available in both, so > that can be used to match them up. It would really be nice if there > some sort of call reference number to match between DSPs and Arcs, while > the DSPs do have a call reference number, I don't believe the Arcs know > what it is. Would be nice though. :) > > >Do you generally log to the same radius server or keep this seperate > >and match things up on an as-needed basis? > > We've only played with this and never set it up to make full use of it. > I just wish I could trade some of these square tuits for some round > ones. :/ > > >Any idea what Radiator would think of these 'extra' accounting records? > > I would hope it wouldn't have any problem with them. RADIUS is designed > to be a stateless protocol, so it *shouldn't* have any problems with > them. It should just be new records that come into the RADIUS server > and get logged or processed like any other. > -- > Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm(a)iglou.com > Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 > IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456 > > - > To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. > - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) Message posted to interested 3Com party...
by Mark Thornton 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

I posted the following message to an interested party at 3Com at their request. It will be interesting to see what the results are, especially since this isn't bogus and I am entertaining quotes to replace the entire mess. *** I have reached a decision point on the growth and maintenance of my Total Control Hubs. Over the past six months the reports of modem connection problems have increased significantly. I had been hoping that this wasn't really occuring until last evening when my wife and I were discussing our modem problems over dinner with two couples who are our best friends. They confided that they both were having very significant connection problems, basically indicating that it was not unusual for the connection to be dropped within three minutes. We were not at all pleased to learn this, particularly from them. We use a combination of quads and hiperdsp's with a hiperarc and standard nmc. The code level is one version back from what has just been released on the website. We are considering upgrading to the hipernmc, but are very reluctant to give up the quads as they support trash modems (more below) better than the hiperdsp's. I attribute this rise in connectivity issues to more of our customers upgrading their computers with systems containing new, cheap modems. We can no longer count on good USR modems being the predominate device in the field, and the new USR winmodems are almost as bad as the no-name trash. But that is what the customers are getting in their new systems. They are having real problems connecting to us, but no problems connecting to our competitors Cisco system. I also have contacts with ISP's who are dumping 3Com to move to Patton devices and Lucent devices. The reasons vary widely, some of them based in the support issues surrounding the 3Com systems, but for me I am paying attention to their success in getting reliable connections. I mentioned support issues... I assumed you knew what I am talking about. The cost of support and availability of support in terms of addressing the problems I and other ISP's are having is overwhelming, especially when we are still fighting the same issues after two years. It also seems that 3Com is shutting down methods of providing service, such as the new server, that were very effective at providing timely reponses to queries from users. Personally, I don't mind paying for support if I think I am getting some benefit and value out of it. But I really want existing issues fixed before you start modifying the system to support my competitor, the cable company, or other 'neato' features. And as for the cost of replacement contracts, I can now purchase a complete chassis, guaranteed to work, for less than the cost of the support you are offering. Or, I can buy individual modules at very affordable rates and get overnight delivery without any contract hassles (I don't want any hassles like some ISP's have apparently had). That just doesn't make sense. We are not currently on support, though we are looking at the software support option again to see if that addresses the connectivity problems. If not, it is likely that we won't be needing support on the 3Com chassis's anyway as they will be someone else's problem. Mark Thornton San Marcos Internet, Inc. 512-393-5300 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) *sigh* is anybody out there?
by Jeff Mcadams 21 Sep '00

21 Sep '00

My father was (just retired in June) a U.S. History teacher at the high school level, and loved to use the movie 1776 in his classes as much as he could...in that movie, there's a song called "Is Anybody There?" where John Adams reads a communique from the Commander of the Continental Army, "the honourable, G. Washington," where Washington laments the lack of response to his last 15 communique's. Adams sings the contents of the letter as the song. Some of the lyrics from the song are (this is from memory): "Is Anybody there?\ Does anybody care?\ Does anybody see, what I see?" team:/home/jeffm> telnet totalservice.3com.com 119 Trying 207.24.160.21... telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused team:/home/jeffm> Is Anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see, what I see? -- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm(a)iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) ISDN leased line on DSP?
by Jeff Mcadams 20 Sep '00

20 Sep '00

OK...this is a bizarre one.. I have a customer wanting to upgrade from 2 channel ISDN, to a 2 channel leased line type of set up (don't ask, I'm not sure why). In any case, they have an ISDN PRI into their location to support their voice traffic on their PBX. What they want to do (and apparently have an Adtran unit to do this on their end) is to pull two channels off the PRI and hand them to a cisco 1600 as a nailed up data connection (ie, no dialing). I know that you can set up an ISDN leased line connection like this, but I've never seen anyone pull two channels off a PRI to do this. *shrug* In any case...this setup is giving our mutual CLEC telephone company fits on how to do this. Being a leased line setup, my initial response was to say, "OK, drop that to me on a frac-t1 connection to my cisco 3640 down there." I *think* this can be made to work...the tech dude at the telco (who's pretty sharp and friendly) thinks he can get this delivered to my 3640 on a frac-t1... Now...I like our telco down there a lot...they're good guys, so I want to try to help them out if I can...and besides...I wanna do this setup without doing alot of really weird provisioning, as that tends to cause problems down the line. So, my question boils down to... Can a DSP be made to use two channels as an ISDN leased line connection? My thinking being that if I could peel off two channels of one of my PRIs, it might be easier, simpler, more reliable, etc. to take my two channels and patch them through the switch to these folks two channels, rather than having to add/drop mux it out somewhere, convert it to a frac-t1, and proly several other weird gyrations, to get the connection to me. Not being a telco tech, I'm not sure if this would be easier to do or not...I can't imagine it would make it harder, but who knows. But before I offered to the telco tech dude, I wanted to make sure the DSPs would indeed do this. The impression I've gotten from what I've looked at so far, is that no, the DSPs *won't* do this...but I'd like to get some confirmation from folks that know more about this than I. Thanks! P.S. Still no response from anyone of any signficance about the news server on totalservice. :/ -- Jeff McAdams Email: jeffm(a)iglou.com Head Network Administrator Voice: (502) 966-3848 IgLou Internet Services (800) 436-4456 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) E1 DSP 30 channel question..
by Steve Monkhouse 20 Sep '00

20 Sep '00

under TCM, you can set your call routing numbers and service types ( analogue / digital ).. and that seems quite fine for the first 24 channels, but when you try to assign anything over 24 channels TCM takes the info with the set command, but wont retain it... im using 6.0.23 of TCM, it recoginses the DSP as a 30 channel E1, lets me configure all 30 channels everywhere else... is there a way to assign these last 6 channels routing info ?? Steve Monkhouse - Network Engineer --------------------------------------------------------------------- EtherTech Computer Services Ph : +61-3-9768-2665 Fx : +61-3-9768-2664 http://www.ethertech.com.au - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) WTB: Hiper DSP's.
by Steve Rivera -www.wrca.net 20 Sep '00

20 Sep '00

Anyone selling bundles? Interested in cards or complete access servers. Please email what you have. Steve Rivera (VP) - w-732.833.2111 / c-732.433.5890 24Hr (www.isp-networkhardware.com) Email: srivera(a)wrca.net - Mobile Email: srivera711(a)hotmail.com Worldwide Provider of Network Hardware Since 1981. - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) HiperNMC & quad modems?
by Mark Thornton 19 Sep '00

19 Sep '00

Does the HiperNMC support quad modems? Will it support the X2/V90 functions? Do we have to enable the X2/V90 like the older NMC's? Thanks, Mark Thornton San Marcos Internet, Inc. 512-393-5300 - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) Will Hiper NMC enable v90 for Quad Modem Chassis?
by Steve Rivera -www.wrca.net 19 Sep '00

19 Sep '00

I have a customer who is looking to upgrade his NMC cards but is concerned that the Hiper NMC will not function the same as the standard NMC. Specifically, enabling the quad modems for v90 access. I have heard different opinions...Does anyone really know? _______________________ Also have for sale : 3- Hiper DSP w/ nics for $3000 each WTB: USR Hiper ARC's w/ nics Steve Rivera (VP) - w-732.833.2111 / c-732.433.5890 24Hr (www.isp-networkhardware.com) Email: srivera(a)wrca.net - Mobile Email: srivera711(a)hotmail.com Worldwide Provider of Network Hardware Since 1981. - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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(usr-tc) Comments on latest codes
by Cheryl Johnson 18 Sep '00

18 Sep '00

Before attempting to upgrade our USR chassis I thought it may be wise to ask the list of their thoughts first. Is anyone running the following software releases? If so, any input on stability or any known problems would be greatly appreciated. NMC 7.1.8 ARC 5.0.9 DSP 2.1.9 -Cheryl Network Administrator SEI Communications Data and Network Services - To unsubscribe to usr-tc, send an email to "majordomo(a)xmission.com" with "unsubscribe usr-tc" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.

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