ISDN Troubleshooting

Author: James Saunders Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 20:58:00 CEST

1. Check The obvious physical things

Check the cable, plugs etc. FYI the cable should be a straight through CAT 5 cable, not a crossover or rollover.

2. The ISDN NT1 (BT box mounted on wall) has a little green LED on it's front
If this light is not on, then chances are ISDN is not active on that line. (Although I have visited one site and noticed that the little NT1 LED was not working, but ISDN was active)

3. Check the Bearer Channel LED's

On WIC cards these are marked as "B1" and "B2", and on ISDN built in routers such as 801's these are marked on the front as "CH1" and "CH2". On the Cisco 801 there are also "RXD" and "TXD" lights showing whether there is any ISDN traffic.

4. Confirm that the ADSL interface is seen

Using "show version" and visible to the router: router#show version ... 1 FastEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s) 1 ISDN Basic Rate interface(s) <------------ Yes?

1 ATM network interface(s) 1 Virtual Private Network (VPN) Module(s)

5. Confirm that the ISDN interface is not "shutdown"

router#sh ip int brief Interface BRI0 IP-Address unassigned OK? Method Status YES NVRAM Protocol

administratively down down ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

interfaces are down by default

router#conf t router(conf)#int BRI0 router(conf-int)#no shutdown router(conf-int)#end

4. Confirm if you have an IP

All ISDN installations will use a dialer interface to dial out, this interface will normally be given an IP address once connected, so confirm whether the dialer interface has an IP:

router#sh ip int brief Interface BRI0 Dialer1 IP-Address unassigned 217.34.5.190 OK? Method Status YES NVRAM YES IPCP up up Protocol up up

note: if you enter "sh int bri0" this does not always tell you the full truth about the interface status, it may say spoofing: router#sh int bri0 BRI0/0 is up, line protocol is up (spoofing) You are better entering "sh int bri0:1" to show the status of each channel: router#sh int bri0 BRI0:1 is up, line protocol is up ... LCP Open Open: IPCP, CDPCP ...

5. Check ISDN status

The "show isdn status" and "show isdn active" commands can be used to find out whether the ISDN interface was able to make any phone calls and whether any phone calls are currently active: router#sh isdn status Global ISDN Switchtype = basic-ni ISDN BRI0 interface dsl 0, interface ISDN Switchtype = basic-ni Layer 1 Status: ACTIVE Layer 2 Status: TEI = 117, Ces = 1, SAPI = 0, State = MULTIPLE_FRAME_ESTABLISHED TEI = 118, Ces = 2, SAPI = 0, State = MULTIPLE_FRAME_ESTABLISHED Spid Status: TEI 117, ces = 1, state = 5(init) spid1 configured, no LDN, spid1 sent, spid1 valid Endpoint ID Info: epsf = 0, usid = 2, tid = 1 TEI 118, ces = 2, state = 5(init)

spid2 configured, no LDN, spid2 sent, spid2 valid Endpoint ID Info: epsf = 0, usid = 4, tid = 1 Layer 3 Status: 0 Active Layer 3 Call(s) Activated dsl 0 CCBs = 0 The Free Channel Mask: 0x80000003

Total Allocated ISDN CCBs = 0 The lines to look out for above are "Layer 1 Status" = ACTIVE and "Layer 2 Status" = MULTIPLE_FRAME_ESTABLISHED router#sh isdn active -------------------------------------------------------------------------------ISDN ACTIVE CALLS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Call Type Calling Number Called Number Remote Name Seconds Seconds Seconds Charges Used Left Idle Units/Currency

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out In

---N/A--4567

1234 1234

7978 Unavail 5592 Unavail

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Showing calls made in or out!?

6. Make a test call

You can test to see if the router is able to make a phone call by issuing the "isdn test call" command, one idea could be to dial your mobile number: router#isdn test call interface bri0 0788xxxx483

00:05:46:

BR0/0 DDR: Attempting to dial

0788xxxx483 If the line is OK then the router should dial out. It could also be useful to dial your mobile phone if you do not know the phone number of the ISDN line.

7. Debugs
Checking Username and Passwords for PPP are correct: router#debug ppp authentication

... 00:05:46: ... 00:05:46: 00:05:46: BRI0:1 CHAP: I RESPONSE id 3 len 28 from "router1" BRI0:1 CHAP: I SUCCESS id 3 len 4.!!! BRI0:1 CHAP: I CHALLENGE id 3 len 28 from "router2"

Checking ISDN events: router#debug isdn events ... 00:05:46: 00:05:46: ... Checking Q931 events, this debug command displays ISDN call setup and teardown messages: router#debug isdn q931 ... 00:05:46: ISDN BR0: RX <- DISCONNECT pd = 8 callref = 0xAE <---Not Good! ISDN Se1/0:15: Event: received NL_REL_IND ISDN Se1/0:15: CCPRI_ReleaseCall(): bchan 31, call

00:05:46: ...

Cause i =0x829F08 - Normal,unspecified or Special intercept,

Checking Q921 events, to display data link layer (layer 2) access procedures that are taking place at the ISDN interface D channel: router#debug isdn q921 ... 00:05:46: 00:05:46: 00:05:46: ... ISDN BR0/0: RX <- RRp sapi = 0 tei = 64 nr = 0 ISDN BR0/0: TX -> RRf sapi = 0 tei = 64 nr = 0 ISDN BR0/0: RX <- RRp sapi = 0 tei = 64 nr = 0