asterisk users - Aug 2003 - BRI newbie queries.

Knowing very little about Basic Rate ISDN and having spent the last 
couple of hours educating myself, I thought I would seek some more 
informed comment. Please go easy if this is blindingly obvious :)

I have a ZyXEL Prestige 100 ISDN Router, a stand alone relic from when 
we used to access the Net  via ISDN.

It has an ISDN BRI input, a 10BaseT ethernet connector, an RS232 
connector for administration and a couple of RJ11s to connect analog 
phones. I can find no reference to this unit on I4Linux lists or the 
CAPI site.

Am I write in assuming that I cannot access the the ISDN data from 
Asterisk, via the ethernet port?

Assuming this to be the case, are there any cards to avoid from an 
Asterisk point of view when looking to purchase?

Thanks,

Richard

-=> On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 12:08:10 +1200, Richard Scobie
<r.scobie@clear.net.nz> said:
> I have a ZyXEL Prestige 100 ISDN Router, a stand alone relic from
> when we used to access the Net via ISDN.
Like you said, this is a do-it-all router.  I had an Ascend Pipeline
that was almost the same.  As far as I know, none of these can provide
Voice traffic over ethernet.  Voice calls can be handled only on the
POTS jacks (if your router provides those).  The router handles all
the ISDN-side and gives you TCP/IP, so it's not really a BRI interface
you can get to.

Fortunately, a 'pure' BRI PCI card with a U interface is pretty cheap,
especially on eBay.  I've seen several go for just a dollar.

I've had nothing but trouble with my Dynalink S/T PCI card, which is
based on the Winbond chipset.  It is supported by HiSax/Linux drivers,
but I couldn't get Linux ISDN (vbox) to work with it.  It gets ISDN
messages, but could not complete a call.  It could very well be my
fault.  I'll try Asterisk next.


If anyone knows of a box that will actually route raw ISDN BRI traffic
(including voice) over Ethernet, I'd sure love to hear about it!

For that matter, any recommendations on a PCI card with S/T interface
that works with National ISDN (NI-1) under Linux/Asterisk?  I recently
ordered a BT Speedway card to see if it works any better than the
Dynalink.  If it has the same problems, then I know it's just my
own dumb fault. :)

-Steve