Discussion:
ISDN to Demon, not connecting, tried EVERYTHING!
(too old to reply)
Chris Wilson
2003-12-30 19:41:16 UTC
Permalink
I have had an ongoing problem connecting via BT Home Highway and an
internal ISDN card to Demon. It started well over a year ago, and I was
then using my old PC, running NT4 SP6 and an Asus internal PCI ISDN
card. The machine would connect fine to Freeserve and 2 other ISP's. To
Demon it halted IMMEDIATELY after attempting to dial with the error:

Error 651: The modem (or other connecting device) has reported an error

The machine can re dial a hundred times, same thing. I have been in
touch with Demons service desk at least 8 times over this. In the end,
after re making umpteen connectoids and trying every ISDN number listed,
the problem remained. Dialling in via the same machine and an analogue
port on the BT Home Highway wall adaptor and my trusty US Robotics
Courier external modem worked fine, to Demon and other ISP's. ISDN to
Freeserve is a multi times a day exercise with zero problems.

I then moved house. Same problem. No connection via ISDN to Demon, on
all or any number, whilst the modem still worked OK. Demon then said it
must be a faulty ISDN card, which, as it worked successfully to 3 other
ISP's, seemed a suspect conclusion. I was going to update to a new PC
anyway, so more months passed, and I grabbed my Demon mail via
Freeserve. I now have ENTIRELY new hardware, not a single item or cable,
including internal ISDN card and external cable, remains from the old
set up. I felt hopeful, but not certain, that my problems were over.
Hell and damnation, exactly the same problem. I have held a Demon
account for many years, and have had a successful ISDN2 connection from
the old address for a long time. I want to get a Domain name and mail
forwarding from Demon, but whilst I cannot connect via ISDN this seems
pointless. ADSL out here in the sticks is about 2 years away. Can anyone
offer any help at all? I have just had a desperate word with support,
who are "escalating" the problem. I wondered if starting afresh with a
new host name would serve any purpose, it's something I want to do
before I get the Domain name sorted anyway...?

My OS now, on this brand new PC, is Windows 2000 SP4. I still connect to
Freeserve via the (new) internal ISDN card fine, and to 2 other ISP's
that friends have allowed access to their user names and passwords for
test purposes. Is there any way to log just what Windows is doing to a
file? I seem to recall being able to do this with NT 3.51, but that
would have been with an analogue modem I think?

Any help gladly received, thanks, and a very happy new year to all.
--
Best regards,
Chris.
Dave Liquorice
2003-12-30 22:44:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chris Wilson
I have had an ongoing problem connecting via BT Home Highway and an
internal ISDN card to Demon. It started well over a year ago, and I
was then using my old PC, running NT4 SP6 and an Asus internal PCI
ISDN card. The machine would connect fine to Freeserve and 2 other
ISP's. To Demon it halted IMMEDIATELY after attempting to dial with
Error 651: The modem (or other connecting device) has reported an error
Haven't we just been through this loop with no conclusion? google...

Why don't you ask that kind Mr Gates to fully explain what that
cryptic error message really means?

Digging on Google reveals that it is tied up with PPP over Ethernet,
and a probable bug in Windows but should "go away" after a reboot
after installing the protocol and redials should work anayway.

Check the configuration settings between the ISPs that work and Demon,
get that fine tooth comb out... Can't see why you want to have PPP
over Ethernet loaded anyway unless that is the cack handed way doze
handles an ISDN card.
--
Cheers ***@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
Malcolm Muir
2003-12-31 09:51:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Dave Liquorice
Post by Chris Wilson
I have had an ongoing problem connecting via BT Home Highway and an
internal ISDN card to Demon. It started well over a year ago, and I
was then using my old PC, running NT4 SP6 and an Asus internal PCI
ISDN card. The machine would connect fine to Freeserve and 2 other
ISP's. To Demon it halted IMMEDIATELY after attempting to dial with
Error 651: The modem (or other connecting device) has reported an error
Haven't we just been through this loop with no conclusion? google...
Why don't you ask that kind Mr Gates to fully explain what that
cryptic error message really means?
Digging on Google reveals that it is tied up with PPP over Ethernet,
and a probable bug in Windows but should "go away" after a reboot
after installing the protocol and redials should work anayway.
Check the configuration settings between the ISPs that work and Demon,
get that fine tooth comb out... Can't see why you want to have PPP
over Ethernet loaded anyway unless that is the cack handed way doze
handles an ISDN card.
And make sure you have set PAP authentication and not CHAP !
--
Malcolm S. Muir D e m o n
Sunderland 322 Regents Park Road
England London N3 2QQ
Chris Wilson
2003-12-31 14:21:08 UTC
Permalink
Post by Malcolm Muir
And make sure you have set PAP authentication and not CHAP !
By connecting via a modem I have set compression to none in the web
based tool for resetting passwords, under Advanced. It was set to Stac.
No difference. in the connectoid the option for PAP was and still is
ticked. demons helpful support are now at a loss and suggest I contact
the ISDN PCI card makers (www.mri.co.uk) to see if they can help. 2
cards failing to connect.... hmmm. Only other option short of living
with an analogue modem is to dig out my old Ascend Pipeline 25 router,
which I know used to connect to demon fine, but I am way out of my depth
configuring the thing unless explicit instructions are available. I lent
it someone and it is now set to connect to U-Net.

Thanks for the tip though Malcolm. Happy new year for later!
--
Best regards,
Chris.
The Natural Philosopher
2003-12-31 22:28:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chris Wilson
Post by Malcolm Muir
And make sure you have set PAP authentication and not CHAP !
By connecting via a modem I have set compression to none in the web
based tool for resetting passwords, under Advanced. It was set to Stac.
No difference. in the connectoid the option for PAP was and still is
ticked. demons helpful support are now at a loss and suggest I contact
the ISDN PCI card makers (www.mri.co.uk) to see if they can help. 2
cards failing to connect.... hmmm. Only other option short of living
with an analogue modem is to dig out my old Ascend Pipeline 25 router,
which I know used to connect to demon fine, but I am way out of my depth
configuring the thing unless explicit instructions are available. I lent
it someone and it is now set to connect to U-Net.
Thanks for the tip though Malcolm. Happy new year for later!
Just a thought, but I and others had some BT->demon ISDN interconnection
problems. The symptoms were basically getting a disconnect as soon as
the attempt to connect was made. Modems to the same number worked...

This was before any pap/chap stuff hgappened.

I'd ghave a go with teh pipleine if I were you.

Somewhere there is a complete setup for these on the net - try google on
demon isdn pipeline configuration or somesuch.

If that blows up, its a BT/demon problem, not your kit.
Paul Terry
2003-12-31 07:21:17 UTC
Permalink
Idle Timeout : 540
VJ Header Compression enabled (ticked box)
MTU 1500
Link Compression Stac
Is that OK?
I'm not an ISDN user, but I recall there are compatibility issues when
using compression on NT and Win2k systems. I'd try switching off Link
Compression or at least experiment with other options such as Draft-9.

The experts in demon.service.isdn will doubtless be able to help and so
I have x-posted this there.
--
Paul Terry
David Bolt
2003-12-31 08:16:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by Paul Terry
Idle Timeout : 540
VJ Header Compression enabled (ticked box)
MTU 1500
Link Compression Stac
Is that OK?
I'm not an ISDN user, but I recall there are compatibility issues when
using compression on NT and Win2k systems. I'd try switching off Link
Compression or at least experiment with other options such as Draft-9.
IIRC, the software compression scheme used by NT(4?), and later
derivatives, are incompatible with those offered by Demon, so turning it
off is probably a good idea. My guess[0] is that the connection is
failing because Windows is insisting on using compression and not
dropping back to an uncompressed link.


[0] it's a guess since my ISDN card is in a Linux box and I've no
intention of removing it from there and removing a card from my Windows
box just to check it out[1].

[1] More importantly, I wouldn't want to connect a Windows box onto the
net without a firewall in-between. Even fully patched, I don't trust
Windows, or a software firewall, enough to risk it.

Regards,
David Bolt
--
Member of Team Acorn checking nodes at 63 Mnodes/s: http://www.distributed.net/
AMD 1800 1Gb WinXP | AMD 2400 160Mb SuSE 8.1 | AMD 2400 256Mb SuSE 9.0
AMD 2200 256Mb SuSE 9.0 | A3010 4Mb RiscOS 3.11 | A4000 4Mb RiscOS 3.11
Falcon 14Mb TOS 4.02 | STE 4Mb TOS 1.62
Chris Wilson
2004-01-01 15:46:30 UTC
Permalink
In article <7qrg2WDuXo8$***@my-ste.in-the.bog>, blacklist-***@davjam.org
says...
Post by David Bolt
Post by Paul Terry
Idle Timeout : 540
VJ Header Compression enabled (ticked box)
MTU 1500
Link Compression Stac
Is that OK?
I'm not an ISDN user, but I recall there are compatibility issues when
using compression on NT and Win2k systems. I'd try switching off Link
Compression or at least experiment with other options such as Draft-9.
IIRC, the software compression scheme used by NT(4?), and later
derivatives, are incompatible with those offered by Demon, so turning it
off is probably a good idea. My guess[0] is that the connection is
failing because Windows is insisting on using compression and not
dropping back to an uncompressed link.
[0] it's a guess since my ISDN card is in a Linux box and I've no
intention of removing it from there and removing a card from my Windows
box just to check it out[1].
[1] More importantly, I wouldn't want to connect a Windows box onto the
net without a firewall in-between. Even fully patched, I don't trust
Windows, or a software firewall, enough to risk it.
Regards,
David Bolt
I am afraid turning compression off has made no difference at all...
Sodding thing, becoming a Royal PITA, I can't believe the hassle in
getting this to work, I'll try the Pipeline on the old machine, and see
if I can configure it. Thanks!
--
Best regards,
Chris.
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
2004-01-02 02:24:20 UTC
Permalink
[demon.service.isdn added; the OP, rather foolishly, multi-posted the
same query to both groups, which has resulted in fragmentation of
replies; this would NOT have happened if he had (correctly) CROSS-posted
it to both groups.]
is from memory, sorry. The ISDN card should offer a number of
connection protocols. One is V.120 and the others I don't recall.
IIRC, v.120 is what you want to connect to Demon.
Absolutely NOT.

The ONLY protocol supported by Demon is "Sync PPP"; other protocols "may"
work, but if they do it's purely by chance and unreliable.
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} ***@dsl.co.uk
"We can no longer stand apart from Europe if we would. Yet we are
untrained to mix with our neighbours, or even talk to them".
George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1919
Jim Crowther
2004-01-02 02:59:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
[demon.service.isdn added; the OP, rather foolishly, multi-posted the
same query to both groups, which has resulted in fragmentation of
replies; this would NOT have happened if he had (correctly) CROSS-posted
it to both groups.]
is from memory, sorry. The ISDN card should offer a number of
connection protocols. One is V.120 and the others I don't recall.
IIRC, v.120 is what you want to connect to Demon.
Absolutely NOT.
The ONLY protocol supported by Demon is "Sync PPP"; other protocols "may"
work, but if they do it's purely by chance and unreliable.
That is my recollection also. At one time I had the misfortune in one
location to have an external ISDN TA that was V.120 only (Chyron IIRC).
It only worked with one number (some three years ago) at Demon, and not
for more than half-an-hour-ish at a time.
--
Jim Crowther "It's MY computer" (tm SMG)
Avoid more swen by dumping your old Usenet addresses, and
put 'spam' or 'delete' somewhere in the Reply-to: header.
Help yourself avoid the spam: <http://keir.net/k9.html>
Chris Wilson
2004-01-02 17:48:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
[demon.service.isdn added; the OP, rather foolishly, multi-posted the
same query to both groups, which has resulted in fragmentation of
replies; this would NOT have happened if he had (correctly) CROSS-posted
it to both groups.]
is from memory, sorry. The ISDN card should offer a number of
connection protocols. One is V.120 and the others I don't recall.
IIRC, v.120 is what you want to connect to Demon.
Absolutely NOT.
The ONLY protocol supported by Demon is "Sync PPP"; other protocols "may"
work, but if they do it's purely by chance and unreliable.
There doesn't seem any way of altering protocols for the card anyway...

It has now become too much of a PITA trying to get this working. It may
well be that I have unluckily managed to buy 2 cards, neither of which,
for reasons beyond me, fail to work with Demon, but as both worked with
at least 3 other, independent ISP's I am left wondering just how much
hassle is justified. I'll probably close my account, c'est la vie :-(

Thanks for the help everyone.
--
Best regards,
Chris.
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