Ascend Frequently Asked Questions

Update: 25 June,1997
The FAQ has not been revised for an excessively long time, and sadly should be considered an obsolete resource. Those parties interested in taking on the maintanence of a user-contributed Ascend FAQ should feel free to adopt any useful information in these documents; I place my text on the subject into the public domain (although other contributors still retain copyright on their words).

All html files are also available via FTP, in ftp://ftp.shore.net/members/dreaming/html/.

I sincerely apologize for the abandonment of this project over the past couple of years; it was helpful and educational for me (and hopefully others).


Table of Contents

0. Acknowledgements
1. Introduction -- What's Ascend, anyway?

1a. Okay, what's ISDN?
2. The Ascend User's Mailing List
2a. Mailing List Archive
3. What ISDN equipment does Ascend make?
3a. Pipeline 50
3b. Pipeline 50 HX
3c. MAX
3d. MAX 4000 [MAX HP]
3e. Pipeline 400
3g. Pipeline 25 [available 1 July]
4. Where can I purchase an Ascend ?
5. How should a BRI be provisioned for a Pipeline 50?
5a. What about AT&T Multipoint, and the AT&T "type sets" (A/B/C/D/E)?
5b. Should my BRI channels be provisioned as CSV, CSD, or PSD?
6. What ISDN terminal adapters are compatible with Ascend's?
6a. Cisco 2500 series with BRI
6b. Digiboard Datafire / PC-IMAC
6c. Combinet
6d. Gandalf
6e. 3Com Impact / AccessWorks
6f. Sun on-board BRI with PPP (SunLink, Morningstar)
6g. IBM WaveRunner
6h. ISDN*Tek PC-card
6i. ISC Securelink II PC-card
6j. Motorola BitSURFR
6k. Telebit NetBlazer
6l. Notes on Windows NT
7. Does my computer need anything special to connect with Ascend equipment?
8. Can I use a digital (ISDN) phone and a Pipeline 50/50HX on the same BRI?
9. Can I use an analog (POTS) phone and a Pipeline 50/50HX on the same BRI?
10. Should I route or bridge IP between two Pipeline 50s?
11. How does Ascend measure current line utilization?
12. Filtering overview
13. My connection won't stay down! Help!
13a. Novell "spoofing"
14. Does Ascend support third-party security extensions like SecurID?
15. How can I set up my Ascend router as an Internet firewall?
16. How can I protect against IP spoofing attacks?
17. I'm seeing terrible performance in my Novell IPX file transfers. Why?
18. I'm seeing really odd routing table entries. Why?
19. I want to assign IP addresses to my workstation dynamically. ... How?
20. How can I prevent incoming telnet console connections to my unit?
21. How can I log and account for calls?
22. Does the Ascend support Caller-ID/ANI authentication?
23. How can I debug a problem? What are all the debug commands?
24. What's RADIUS? How can I use it?
25. How can I make an outbound call with a RADIUS profile?
26. How can analog dial-in users modify their own RADIUS passwords?
27. I sometimes get "LAN security error" violations. ... Why?
28. Why do I see lots of CRC errors? Why is my line so slow?
29. Can I use an Ascend router/bridge to hook up to the Internet?
30. How does Ascend support Frame Relay?
31. What's a digital modem board, and how does it work?
32. SNMP
33. How can I upgrade system code or configurations remotely?
33a. How do I save/restore configurations over the network?
34. What can I do if my new software upload gets screwed up?
35. Some info on software release 4.4B

Reference Material

Here's a plain text version of the entire FAQ, for those who don't feel like navigating the table of contents.

The plain text FAQ is also available via anonymous ftp, at

ftp://ftp.shore.net/members/dreaming/ascend-faq.txt

The HTML FAQ is mirrored locally in Australia, by Raymond Overdijk, at
http://www.netro.com.au/store/ascend/faq/
[Netro, "Your Internet Connection"]

This document is copyright 1995 Derek D. Lichter. Last modified 31 August 1995. Individual contributors retain copyright over their words. I have attempted to contact other authors whose writing is quoted herein, and obtain permission for using excerpts of their work (if I have missed contacting you and you wish to give (or withdraw) your permission, please contact me).

Other legal issues should be satisfied by The Disclaimer.

This document is neither affiliated with nor supported by Ascend Communications, Inc.