ISDN Switch Simulator on the Cheap?

smartmux wonders: "I've starting working on earning a CCNA certification, and part of the requirement for this cert and the 'professional' level cert is to know and understand how to install ISDN BRI circuits. Getting the Cisco router equipment to configure is easy and relatively cheap, but real ISDN lines or an off-the-shelf ISDN simulator is way too expensive. I'm not a *nix guy, so I thought I'd ask here -- is it possible to take an old PC, a couple of ISDN network cards, and an open-source PBX (like Asterick maybe) and make a simple ISDN switch to let my two routers talk?"

Comments

Why not rent some time somewhere?

[Opusnbill7]

There are companies who rent time on systems that have all of the elements you might see on the test available. Here is only one of many examples http://www.thebryantadvantage.com/Rack%20Rentals.h tm/. Just do a google search for "rent time cisco ccna" and you'll have plenty of options appear. Probably a better use of time than setting up systems just for testing...but that's just my opinion.

mISDN and PBX4Linux can do this

[geirt]

Well, you guessed right, Linux can do this!

A few links:
Linux 2.6 and mISDN HowTo
PBX4Linux

Have fun!

Re:Complain to Cisco

[anticypher]

Who uses ISDN in a new installation anyway?

Me, for one. Not exactly a new installation, but I just converted a bunch of E1 lines from R2 signalling to ISDN. It took about 4 hours, 3 of which were experimenting and testing to make sure the signalling was correct, then about 10 minutes to switch over each E1 and monitor call reliability. Next week I have to bring a whole system over to SS7, and start to convert the far end from R2 to ISDN. It's a standard Cisco job.

I'm not a big fan of the Cisco certs, but Cisco does know what is out there in the market. If you are naive enough to think the world is only DSL lines then I don't want you anywhere near my kit. When I see someone has earned their certs coupled with some equivalent work experience, I know they aren't going to break a network when I show them something new (meaning old and well established). The world is full of X.25 circuits, SNA, appletalk, ISDN, SS7, IpSec tunnels, but you will never have a real job working on Cisco with a bad attitude and obvious bias not to learn what's needed.

the AC