Path: menudo.uh.edu!barrett From: aberney@octopuce.alphanet.ch (Alan Berney) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: ISDN Master Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm Date: 27 Mar 1994 22:51:59 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 266 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <2n52mf$r8d@menudo.uh.edu> Reply-To: aberney@octopuce.alphanet.ch (Alan Berney) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: hardware, ISDN, networking, Zorro II, commercial Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu PRODUCT NAME ISDN Master rev.2, WilhelmTel V1.187 BRIEF DESCRIPTION This is the first board for Amiga that allows you to connect your computer to an ISDN network. It turns your Amiga into a powerful phone answering machine and high-speed ISDN modem. WARNING: Before using this product, be sure it complies with the FCC regulations in your country. Also contact your phone company. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: BSC buroautomation Address: Lerchenstrasse 5 W8000 Muenchen 50 GERMANY Telephone: + 49 89 357 130-0 FAX: + 49 89 357 130-99 E-mail: Available on request LIST PRICE About DM 900.00 SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE ISDN phone line (contact your phone company). Amiga 2000/3000/4000. Hard disk strongly recommended. Phone handset (not included) would be very useful. SOFTWARE AmigaDOS 2.0 or higher COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 3000/25, 2MB Chip RAM, 8MB Fast RAM 1 internal 880K floppy. 1 Quantum 500 MB internal hard drive. 2 Quantum 100 MB internal hard drives. 1 Sony CD-ROM. AmigaDOS 3.1. INSTALLATION Software installation is done with Commodore's Installer program. It is very easy to install, and the installation script is very well documented. The version of the software in the box is 1.0, but there are many patches available almost everywhere, or directly from BSC. The card is a bit hard to plug it in, as the dial does not fit in the opening. You have to remove the guide for the card. The "jumpers" are set for USA regulations - you may find in the manual the correct positions for European standards. Once the software in installed, you have to set it to the network type you're using. The board has been successfully tested in the USA, France, Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain. It might work in many other different countries, although nobody has tested it. WHAT IS ISDN ANYWAY?? ISDN is to an analog phone line like what a CD is to an LP. An ISDN line has almost no line noise, and it allows you to transfer data at a much higher rate than on regular analog lines. ISDN allows you to use, on a single line, a telephone, faxes (class 4 or lower), visual-conferences, high-speed data transfers, etc. HOW DOES THIS WORK? (Note: This may slightly vary from country to country) ISDN allows you to transmit informations "digitally" instead of the regular "analog" way. With each phone line, you get 10 different phone numbers. You may set one different phone number per device connected to the network. For example, you may have a telephone, a fax, a BBS and an answering machine, all on one line, without any conflict. ISDN lines may carry two communications at the same time. Information is transmitted via two B-channels (binary) at 64 Kbits per second each. There is also a D-channel (data) at 16 Kbits per second which carries information such as Caller-ID, tax information, busy signal, etc... THE HARDWARE In the box, there is one ZORRO II ISDN board, one printed manual, one 3.5" disk, and a special wire to connect the card to ISDN. On the card, there are about ten chips (surface mounted), 7 jumpers, two connectors for ISDN-IN and ISDN-OUT, one connector for a phone handset (not included), a CINCH connector for Audio-in, and a dial to set the gain. DIGITAL MODEM ISDN-MASTER does not allow you to connect on "regular" analog modems, but you may connect to any other ISDN compatible device. The software supports X.75 and V.110 protocols. X.75 goes up to 64000 baud (!!), and V.110 goes up to 38400 baud! The "bscisdn.device" emulates a Hayes-compatible modem and may be used as replacement for the "serial.device". As there may be two connections at the same time, one card has two "units". The transfer rates are around 7800 cps (tested with TERM 3.4) I also tried to connect from unit 0 to unit 1 and make a transfer, and I got the same results! There is NO CPU wait time!! WILHELMTEL SOFTWARE I had to "borrow" my neighbour's handset to do this test. The software (WilhelmTel) is a commodity which loads when booting. It contains four "elements": - Digital Phone - Phonebook - Answering machine - Phone taxes DIGITAL PHONE This software allows you to use your Amiga as a regular phone, with many useful options, such as: - Seeing actual phone taxes. - Having two conversations at the same time. - Conference mode (you hear both callers, but they can't hear each other). - Mute with AUDIO-IN, allows you to play music to the callers directly from your HIFI. - Redial, Caller-ID, etc... PHONEBOOK You may store the most frequent callers, so when they call you, their name pops up instead of the phone number. You may choose for each entry if you want to hear the ring or not, or even to send a "busy" signal for "unwanted" callers!!! ANSWERING MACHINE This is the strong part of the software! You may record any conversation, you may record the "welcome" message, you may even record one personalized message per caller, etc... The quality of the samplings are simply PER-FECT!!! The size of a sample is 8 Kbytes per second recorded! You may listen to the samples either with the handset or through the Amiga speakers. PHONE TAXES Prints out a list of all incoming and outgoing calls, and prints the total money spent. CONFIGURATION FILES You may create your own "ringers." You also may define a ringer and a message per phone number, and even one special message if the disk is full. DOCUMENTATION It comes with printed German manual and German AmigaGuide file. The guide is well done, although I couldn't understand much, but the printed manual is not clear at all. The board is fairly easy to install and you won't need the manual too much. LIKES - FAST transfers without going down on CPU rates. - Phone/answering machine option. - Quality of samples. - Software really easy to use. - Mute with injecting an audio source. - Samples may be converted into IFF with a special software (not included). DISLIKES - German manual, not complete. - The board is not approved by any phone company. - The answering machine software is not "programmable" (it will be soon...). - The software does not accept faxes or regular modem calls. BUGS None - the software is still in BETA test and the programmers are VERY friendly and help a lot. Further BETA versions are available directly from the authors as soon as they are released. VENDOR SUPPORT VERY GOOD! Everyone is friendly, they are helpful and they speak English.... WARRANTY 1 year CONCLUSIONS A very good product. You've got to have it! When I ordered this card, I was expecting to get only an ISDN modem. It came with this phone/answering machine software and I was really glad to have it! ISDN is getting more and more popular, and not only for big companies. With this card, just about anyone can connect to this wonderful network. Make a step into the 21th century! COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 Alan Berney. All rights reserved. Translated/adapted for c.s.a.reviews by Alan Berney. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews