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1. Amiga and ISDN

Amiga and ISDN

Amiga and ISDN - is this possible? And if yes, how? I will show some possibilities in this article.

The easiest way is to use an external terminal adapter, comaparable to a modem, connected to the NTBA of the Telekom. The NTBA is the ISDN connection itself. It has two 8-pin Western-Digital connectors and one internal connector, where you can connect an cable with 4 wires directly.

There are several terminal adapters (short TA) available on the market. All of them can be used on the Amiga without problems. You only have to make sure that your TA understands the so called AT-commands. Some TA's don't. These can only be used with special software, which is only available for Windows 9x and maybe MacOS. I would reccomend the "Elsa Tango 1000", since I use it myself.

Also recommended are the "Databox Speeddragon" and "Databox Powerdragon" from Hagenuk. These devices are already small local telephone exchanges, because you can also connect analog devices to them. A big advantage is that there is Amiga software available for configuration and phone cost monitoring. It is called "DragonTools" and is available from Aminet.

There are many more external TA's you can buy, but as I said, make sure they understand AT-commands. When using external devices, you also have to take into consideration that a lot of data has to be transfered over the serial interface. The speed of the internal serial interface of the Amiga isn't very high and also depends on the processor usage. I strongly recommend an interface card for all Amigas without a 68060. With an 060 it is possible to use the internal interface without stressing the CPU too much.

Another possibiliy is an internal ISDN card for the Zorro slot. Here are also several available, like ISDN-Master I and II, ISDN-Blaster and more. I myself don't like them, because they have no optical feedback for the connection status. The advantage is that you bypass the serial interface. Some of the cards can also be used as a telephone. For this purpose you can connect a receiver. For the popular cards in the Amiga market there are several drivers and software available.

Another option would be the installation of a local telephone exchange. This is especially useful in houses with one or more families. You can phone internally for free then. I'd like to recommend for example the exchanges "Istec 1003" and "Istec 1008" by the company Emmerich. Why? Because there is a very good Amiga software available, which is also Freeware. It is called "UFT-Istec" and you can get it from Aminet, too. The configuration of the exchange is dead easy and also allows to monitor the phone costs.

But to go online, you will also need a TA in this case. Used Istec exchanges are sold at very good prices, just take a look at "Ebay".

I hope I made things a little more clear about "Amiga and ISDN". I wrote this article because recently there were many questions in the *AC# forum. If you want to know more, feel free to write me an email.

Gerd Engelmann