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

Re:Complain to Cisco

[tmasssey]

I nearly lost my biggest client for exactly the same problem.

They had (and theoretically still do have) an ISDN videoconferencing solution. However, they almost never used it. Then one day, the big boss (the actual owner of the 1,000-person international company) came and wanted to VC back to headquarters in Germany. Didn't work. The problem was the same as above: the LD service on the ISDN line was misconfiugred, and we could not make International calls. So not only was it a problem that prevented it from working, but it was a problem completely outside of my control. All I could do was wait for SBC to do their, ahem, magic...

He went ballistic. I was nearly terminated on the spot.

The great part of the story was that we knew he was coming over for a month before, and that there was a chance that he'd want to use it. I bugged the client a *number* of times to test the system all the way to Germany and make sure that it worked, but they didn't want to spend the time and money to do it. Due to some internal issues, they were way over on IT budget and didn't think it was important.

Fortunately, others (not the person I directly answered to, either) explained that I had tried to test the system, but was told not to. Within a year, there was a significant shakeup and a number of people were terminated, including the person I answered to. In fact, I've been part of that company at that location longer than anyone currently employed there! :)

The VC system is still in place, but it has not been used once since that event, over 3 years ago. However, every couple of months, I still test the system...