A Core Competence Product Evaluation
Up and Running: Configuring the ISDN Card
Connect this relatively small external TA (6.4 x 5.3 x 1.5", 10.5 oz) to a serial port on your PC – installation is just that simple. No need to pry open your PC’s case or insert cards (unless you have one of those older slow speed serial ports we mentioned earlier). Of course, you do have to find someplace to plug in that clunky external power transformer…
Just install the ISDN SURFR Setup utility and let it rip. The utility will attempt to find an BitSURFR product (internal ISA card or external TA attached to one of your COM ports), refusing to go any further until it does.
ISDN SURFR Setup includes on-line hypertext help and is a big improvement over earlier configuration procedures which required an understanding of the Hayes AT command set (still accessible by clicking on the Terminal button). The Easy Configuration process requests your ISDN local access provider (telephone company), area code, switch type and version, service profile identifiers (SPIDs), ISDN telephone numbers, and (under Advanced Configuration) terminal endpoint identifiers (TEIs). This is a bit more detail than typically required to configure ISDN terminal adapters. You’ll probably need to ask your telephone company for the switch version – this may not be among the tidbits included in the information packet usually provided to residential ISDN customers. The Update Caller ID Time Stamp option instructs the BitSURFR Pro to synchronize its internal clock with your PC’s date and time – we wonder why this need be configurable at all? The File menu can be used to save your configuration or reload an older saved configuration – handy if you plan to use the BITSURFR in more than one location.
You’ll need to create a "dialer" connection to place an ISDN call to your ISP or corporate access server. Under Windows 3.11, we added a new connection to the OnNet 2.0 dialer, specifying the Motorola BitSURFR (56K) as our modem type. Under Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking, we just followed the instructions provided by the Make New Connection wizard. During our evaluation, we found that we could not dial while the configuration software was running.
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