I have a single NMS CG6060 board with two T1 trunks, configured as PRI (ISDN), one for incoming calls, another for outgoing calls.

I had configured everything as suggested by NMS Support and the board starts just right; the trunkmon utility shows both trunks as synchronized (frame sync OK), though I'm using the internal oscillator as the board's clock (STANDALONE/OSC).

I configured the answering application in TeleFlow Server to answer calls from the first T1 channels (1-23) and it starts just fine, expecting calls in the "Wait for Call" step.

However, when I dial the T1's pilot number, a 'busy' signal is heard... the call does not get through to any channel.

Is there a way to test the channels for incoming calls, other than a TeleFlow application? Maybe a NMS test app out there?

Thanks in advance.

The NMS utility ctatest will allow you to perform some testing with NMS without involving TeleFlow at all. Refer to the "Natural Access Developers Reference Manual"(p/n = 9000-6423-26) for detailed documentation on the ctatest utility. Don't attempt to use ctatest while the TeleFlow Server service is running.

That said, I am going to guess that you don't have isdncta running. For both TeleFlow and ctatest, isdncta starts and monitors the D-Channel(s) on your trunk(s). isdncta is started on the command line.

You need to run one instance of ISDNCTA for every D-channel that exists in your configuration(one for each trunk), as follows:
ISDNCTA -b {board#} -a {NAI} -o {variant} -c {country}

The details for what to supply in the command string are:
{board#} = NMS board number (zero-based)
{NAI} = Network Access Identifier or TRUNK number (zero-based)
{variant} = protocol variant, by number
{country} = country, by number
Use ISDNCTA -? to see a list of variant and country numbers.

Example: Start the D-channel on board 0 (the first board), NAI 0 (the first trunk) using the National ISDN 2 variant (-o 20) for USA (-c 1):
ISDNCTA -b 0 -a 0 -o 20 -c 1


When you are interested in testing your configuration with TeleFlow, I would highly recommend using the AnswerTest application. It has a minimal number of steps to answer a call and play messages, and as such, there is very little to go wrong in the application. AnswerTest should be available in your TeleFlow installed directory (By default, this will be here: C:\Program Files\TeleFlow\Applications\AnswerTest\AnswerTest.TAP)

Hello - This case seems very similar to ours at the moment. I have done all of the below (short of the AnswerTest), but NMS utilities fail. I can send output and config files via email, if I may. But the bottom line is that the telco sees no D-channel communication. I have phoned NMS, and they tell me to contact you guys - please help!!

Thanks,
Susan

Maybe NMS thought you wanted help getting TeleFlow to answer the phone? For TeleFlow, it makes sense, of course, but just getting clean communications for ctatest should be well within their realm. Ah well...

Please post whatever CG config file you are currently using, along with your oamsys.cfg.

Make a point of asking the Telco what ISDN protocol variant you should configure for on the circuit, without mentioning which one you are configured for/requested. You might have to just "try" all of the likely variants anyway, but start there.

Post the idsncta command line string you are using.

Also, please run trunkmon, and copy the window contents into this thread.

We fixed it - the main CT Access Daemon needed to be started. Apparently, these command line utilities should not be closed, as it seems like closing the window stops the services? Am I correct in saying this?

But we were able to test inbound and outbound calls, and now we are tweaking sound and delivery settings.

Thanks a lot for your help, Chris, and enjoy your weekend.

The only command-line utility you should require to have everything running is isdncta, as it is responsible for starting and monitoring the D-Channel(s) on your trunk(s).

Since you probably would prefer to have a system that doesn't need to remain logged in all the times, you can use a little "trick" to make that command-line utility run as a service.

Download the service wrapper utilities from the following link: TeleFlow service utilities

You can unzip them anywhere you like, although the instructions for the service wrapper assume "C:\Program Files\TeleFlow"(which will already be in the Windows path). The instructions are in the text file included in the zip: "TeleFlow_as_a_Service.txt"

That file also has some general pointers for running TeleFlow as a service, including how to get NMS to start with Windows.

We'll download and give the tools a go. It sounds to be exactly what we need... Though we have to run the CT Access Daemon as well as the isdncta util.

Thanks for your help!

Actually, if you follow the instructions for updating oamsys.cfg(also in the text file), that should take care of CT Access Daemon.

Yes, I was reading that...

But we will worry about this come Monday.

Of course, the weekend fast approaches... have a great one!!

Finally, I was able to use the "isdncta" & "ctatest" programs from NMS to answer incoming calls and place calls.

Then I configure (using TeleFlow Config) the TeleFlow server to use the AnswerTest.app reconfigured as an NMS Solution. It starts up just fine (every channel remains in the Wait for Call step).

Then I call the T1's pilot number again, just as I did when the ctatest showed the "incoming call" events and the "ac" command picked up the call... but all I hear is the 'busy' signal and no channel seems to receive the incoming call.

It's like if TeleFlow is still missing something, some initialization or startup procedure to correctly bind to the T1 link, considering NMS diagnostic programs work just fine.

I'd appreciate any suggestion to diagnose now using TeleFlow's programs.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Just like the NMS ctatest utility, TeleFlow requires you to run isdncta to handle the D-Channel communication.

You also don't want ctatest running when you start or are running TeleFlow.

Geez! Didn't know that...

Is there some kind of NMS Win32 service that handles that or should I always run the isdncta program before starting TeleFlow Server?

You'll always need it running, but here's some pointers on how to handle it: