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Using the Orbitor 500 for Small-Office Internet Access

Article Number: H005
Article Type: HowTo
Modified: October 29, 1999

SUMMARY

Providing Internet access to your staff members in a small office environment is almost a mandatory requirement of operating a business today. The question becomes what is the best way of offering Internet access to these people without breaking the bank?

This article will address not only this question, but it will also outline the specific steps of implementing this solution. You will find that the Orbitor 500 is ideally suited to this task and offers a comprehensive suite of features including the NetSafe firewall that will address your security concerns.

This article is a very detailed step-by-step account of what is required to configure the Orbitor 500 from start to finish. It covers the configuration of parameters in different scenarios offering insight into other application support, all with an eye towards optimizing Internet access for your users.

Please note that the Orbitor NetWizard, a JAVA-based applet, simplifies installation of the Orbitor 500 significantly. It removes many of the intermediate steps detailed herein. However, this article intends to show the various features and how they are used to achieve specific functionality, and therefore contains many more additional steps than what you might need during actual installation.

MORE INFORMATION

Application Overview

The Orbitor 500 ISDN Bridge/Router provides an ideal solution when the need arises to connect a small group of users to the Internet. This product also includes a set of cost-saving features that will allow these network users to connect to the Internet using a standard single-user ISDN dial-up account.

Alternative approaches would require a dedicated Internet access connection costing hundreds of dollars per month, or an individual dial-up account for each user, also costing hundreds of dollars per month. Both of these solutions are generally prohibitive for many small businesses.

Using the Orbitor 500, a dial-on-demand solution can be implemented using a single-user ISDN dial-up account, providing concurrent access to all users in the small office, while preventing unnecessary multiple single-user charges.

Preparation

The specifics of what is required to implement such a solution will depend upon the service providers in your area. It probably won't be much of a surprise that the most difficult part of completing this application (or any application involving telephone company and ISP resources) is obtaining the right service in your location. To simplify the process, the list below should provide a bit of guidance to get you started and on your way.

  • Contact your local Telephone service provider and obtain an ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) service for your office. A Basic Rate Interface provides two individual 64Kbps channels, called B-channels.
  • Contact your local Internet Service Provider (ISP) and obtain a single-user ISDN dial-up account. Unless you will have a local Email server, you may wish to order individual Email accounts from the ISP at the same time.
  • Of course, you'll also need one Orbitor 500.

Once you have received these services, you should now have the following information available to you.

Received from the Telephone Company:

  1. The ISDN Directory Numbers (Telephone Numbers) for the BRI that has been installed.
  2. In North America, SPIDs (Service Profile Identifiers) are used during line registration. There are two of these required (one for each channel). SPIDs are not used in most all other regions.

Received from the Internet Service Provider:

  1. The account Username and Password that will be used during dial-up for authentication.
  2. The ISDN telephone number to call for Internet Access.
  3. Email Server address--also called POP and SMTP servers.
  4. The IP Address of the DNS located on the ISP network.

Armed with this information, you are now ready to begin the installation.

Configuration

The configuration of the Orbitor 500 lies in three specific areas. They are:

  1. The ISDN line configuration
  2. The Remote Site configuration, and,
  3. The IP Router configuration

Each of these items will be outlined below.

Your Orbitor 500 ISDN Bridge/Router will require version 05P.04.01.01 or later of the operating code. You may obtain the version number of the software installed in your unit by viewing the upper right-hand corner of the Orbitor Main Menu through a telnet or console session.

Connect to the console port of your Orbitor 500 and log in to begin the configuration session. Details on this can be found in the 'Orbitor 500 Remote Ethernet Bridge/Router Installation and Applications Guide' that came with your Orbitor 500.

You should now be at the 'Main Menu'

This configuration assumes the Orbitor 500 ISDN Router is new and previously unconfigured. If you are following these steps on a previously configured unit, a 'Hard Reset' should be performed prior to starting this configuration to take the unit back to factory defaults.

Please note that if you have a pre-existing configuration, you should backup the configuration before proceeding with this step.

The 'Hard Reset' function can be located from the 'Main Menu' under the 'Diagnostics Menu'.

ISDN Line Configuration

The first step will be to configure the ISDN line parameters of the Orbitor. Please note that the exact steps may differ depending upon your region and ISDN switch type.

You will need the information that your ISDN provider has issued to you during the installation of the ISDN BRI.

Choose 'Quick Start' and select 'ISDN Setup',

Select 'Set Switch Type' and enter the switch type given to you by the Telephone Company. In North America it is almost always 'NI-1', while in most other regions it will be 'NET3'. 

	Enter the Switch Type
    	Enter the 'Dial Prefix' 
		(this is only necessary if you have 
		 to dial '9' to get an outside line)

If the switch type is NET3, you may skip the next three steps. The Directory numbers are not required, and SPIDs are not assigned.

    	Enter the 'Directory Number 1'
    	Enter the 'Directory Number 2'
    	Enter the 'SPID 1' and 'SPID 2' 
	* Do not use spaces or dashes while entering these
	  numbers.

IP Configuration

The IP configuration of the Orbitor may be set through the Quick Start menu.

Tab back to the 'Quick Start Menu'

Choose 'IP Address' and assign the IP address that will be used as your Internet gateway address. This will also become the address of the router itself and will be used by the client workstations to gain access to the Internet.

You will also be asked to supply the 'size of subnet mask'. This information will be available from your Network Administrator. If one is not available in your organization, you will have to devise an IP addressing standard for your office. You will also have to assign IP addresses to all other local workstations and servers.

Remote Site Profile Configuration

The remainder of the configuration will focus on the parameters necessary to connect to the Internet, the numbers to call, and the security parameters required to log into the ISP network. The steps listed below are described in detail so please follow them closely.

  1. Tab back to the 'Configuration Menu' and choose 'WAN Setup', then choose 'Remote Site Setup', then choose 'Edit Remote Site'.

    You will be prompted for 'Remote site id or alias'.

    Enter a name that will reflect the use of the connection, such as 'ISP' and press 'enter'. * Remember this name (it is case sensitive), you will need it in later steps.

  2. You will be at the menu entitled 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 MENU'

  3. You will be immediately prompted for the 'Remote site type (interoperable or spoofing)' Enter 'Interoperable' and press 'enter'.

  4. Choose 'Connection Set-up', then 'ISDN call set-up', then 'ISDN number' and enter the ISDN number provided to you by your ISP.

    This is the number that your Orbitor 500 ISDN Router will call when accessing the Internet. If two numbers were provided by your ISP, enter the second number under 'Alternate ISDN number'. Again, do not enter spaces or dashes in the phone number.

  5. Tab back to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 MENU' and choose 'Activation Set-up', then select the 'Inactivity timer' option.

    Enter the time (in seconds) that you want the Orbitor 500 ISDN Router to wait before dropping the connection to your ISP.

    This should be several minutes. When there is no Internet activity to be passed over the ISDN line, the Orbitor 500 will wait the selected amount of time before disconnecting from your ISP. This feature can save on connect charges depending on how your local telephone company charges for ISDN service.

  6. From the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 PROTOCOL SET-UP MENU' menu you may also disable 'Bridge parameters', and 'IPX parameters' (if your unit supports this), they are not needed for Internet access.

  7. Tab back to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 PROTOCOL SET-UP MENU' and select 'IP parameters'.

    Choose 'IP Routing'

    Select 'Auto Default Route' to activate this remote site as the default route.

  8. Tab back to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 PROTOCOL SET-UP MENU' and select 'IP parameters'.

    Choose 'NAT enabled' to enable Network Address Port Translation.

    This is the feature that allows multiple users to access the Internet simultaneously, and is key to the operation of this application.

  9. Tab back several screens to the 'WAN SET-UP MENU' menu, and select 'IP address connect'.

    Select 'Edit IP address entry', and you will be prompted to ' Set the IP address connect entry id' -- Type '1' then press 'enter'

    You will then be prompted to 'Set the IP Address ' -- Type '0.0.0.0' then press 'enter'

    You will then be prompted for 'Remote site alias or id' -- Type the name that you entered in step 1 above then press 'enter'

    Select 'IP address connect' to activate the feature that you just configured.

    IP Address Connect provides the Dial-on-Demand functionality required in this application.

Security

When connecting to the ISP, authentication of your router will be requested by the ISP router equipment. You will need to configure the User Name and Password that the ISP has presented to you when you subscribed to the service. This information must be configured in the Remote Site in order that the Orbitor can authenticate properly with the ISP.

You may tab back several screens to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 MENU' menu.

Select 'Security parameters' and set the 'Outgoing user name' to the username that the ISP account is setup in.

Set the 'Outgoing PAP password' to the password associated with the login username, and at the same time, set the 'Outgoing CHAP secret' to the same password.

Saving the Configuration

At this time, you should save the configuration that you've just completed. The Orbitor 500 will automatically commit the configuration to memory after approximately 20 seconds of console idle time. However, you may also force a configuration save by following these steps below:

Press the '=' key to return you all the way back to the 'main menu'.

Select 'Save configuration' to save the configuration.

It is always prudent to follow this step explicitly.

Considerations

Depending upon your Internet Service Provider, there are various features that may or may not be of interest in your application, but should be considered nonetheless. The following section outlines those specific items that you may wish to consider.

Using Compression

Most ISP's do not offer compression for use when connecting to their network. However, this may be a value-added service your ISP may extend to you. If so, you will want to make sure that it is enabled. If not, you can disable this feature completely.

Tab back to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 MENU' menu and choose 'Protocol set-up',

Choose 'CCP parameters ' and then choose 'Compression' to disable compression.

Of course, if your ISP provides this ability, you may enable it instead.

Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol (BACP)

BACP is not normally a protocol that ISPs will offer, since most ISDN ISP connections will occur over a single B-channel. As such, it can be disabled.

Tab back to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 PROTOCOL SET-UP MENU' menu and choose 'BACP set-up', Choose 'BACP' to disable the Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol.

These features are not supported by most ISP's and therefore should be turned off.

Secondary B-Channel Activation

If you have purchased dual B-channel access from your ISP, you will want to enable the activation of the secondary B-channel.

Tab back to the 'EDIT REMOTE SITE 1 MENU'.

If your ISP service supports two simultaneous B-channel connections to their service, follow the steps below, otherwise you may skip this section.

  1. Choose 'Connection'.
    Once this option is selected, you will be prompted to select one of either 'single_link', 'dual_link', 'threshold'.

  2. Select 'dual_link' to always activate the second channel.
    Choose 'threshold' to activate the operation of the second channel via traffic levels.

Microsoft Networking Issues

There are various issues that may come into play when accessing the Internet from a workstation that uses Windows Networking. Although they are easy to accommodate, they can have unnecessary influence on the operation of the Internet connection.

The major issue that influences the operation will be use of the ISP's DNS. Windows networking may use the DNS to perform local Name resolution even when it is not necessary. WINS may use the DNS just for this purpose, and therefore can cause activation of the ISDN link to the Internet even when there doesn't appear to be a reason.

To prevent this, this traffic may be filtered without ill-effect to the operations of the local Window's networking environment, or the use of the Internet. To filter this traffic, follow these few steps:

Press the '=' key to return you all the way back to the 'main menu'.

Select 'Configuration'
Select 'Filter set-up'
Select 'IP router pattern filters'
Select 'Add pattern'

You will be prompted with, enter 'global, lan, Remote site id or alias'
Type the name that you entered in step 1 above then press 'enter'

You will then be prompted for 'pattern filter'
Type 'msbrowse' and press 'enter'

You will then be prompted for 'pattern ID number (from 1 to 64)'
Type '1' and press 'enter'

The filter, now activated, will prevent unnecessary activation of the Internet connection when WINS is enabled on each workstation.

Using the NetSafe Firewall

If you wish to further secure your network from unauthorized intruders, you may enable the NetSafe firewall feature. This facility prevents access to your local LAN resources by anauthorized users on the Internet.

REFERENCES

For further information on specific feature use or configuration, you may consult the Orbitor 500 Installation and Applications Guide, the Orbitor Reference Manual, and the following Knowledge Base articles.

HOWTO: Use IP Address Connect for Easy Connection to your ISP
INFO: Orbitor NetSafe Firewall Tips§
Keywords: ISDN, ISP
Product: Orbitor
Model: 500

Copyright © 1998 Develcon Electronics Ltd.  All Rights Reserved.