Anyone here know anything about ISDN?

[Elvis]

I'm thinking of getting ISDN where I live. DSL and Cable aren't available. WiMax is a few years away. Satellite has too much latency for VPN applications.

I would appreciate any recommendations on equipment, ISP's, etc.

Thanks...

[Blackadar]

Wow, hadn't seen a request for ISDN in years.

ISDN is two regular phone lines - 64k each - that can be bonded together to form a 128k circuit. There's also a separate 16k signaling circuit, which is the reason why you see ISDN advertised at 144k.

If it's doubling as your regular phone (usually it does), when you get a call, one of the circuits "switches" to become a phone line and your bandwidth drops to just one 64k circuit.

Your ISDN provider should provide you the equipment. That stuff changes and I'm no longer familiar with what's new on the market. Also, are you getting IDSN - or IDSL (DSL via an ISDN circuit)?

[chinaski]

had ISDN for a couple years starting waaaaay back in 96. depending on what they are going to charge you is where I stop to make my judgement. Back then i paid out the ass for the service. I imagine now finding a isdn router will be much cheaper, but I still could see them charging a buttload for the service. the tech is just so old and the speed gain isnt that great, i say track down those 56k 'shotgun' modems :)

[Elvis]

Just plain old ISDN, I believe.

I'm thinking of getting a Cisco ISDN router - so I can easily share the connection. I'm just wondering if anyone has actual experience and current knowledge.

At best, my dial up only connects at 26.4 at my house - so ISDN will be a huge improvement.