Remote Users

[danthephoneman]

Hi All,

I have a customer, who wants a BCM 50 with 6 remote 1230 phones.In the past when I would set up remote users I would use a BSR222 for each remote user and a 1010 at the head end. Since the 1010 is discontinued and with the realese of 5.0 is there another way to do this that is a little more cost effective?

 

[telcodog]

Use another BSR222. They can handle 10 simultaneous VPN tunnels.

 

[danthephoneman]

thanks for the response.

I have never set up a 222 with remote users, always used a 1010. Did not know it was possible on a 222.

You have any info on how to configure the remote users,it seems some settings are missing when I look in the 222 or maybe I am just not looking in the right place.

 

[telcodog]

That's a little easier said than done. I have to admit that until you get on to Nortel's logic in configuring these things, that it can (and will be) a very frustrating exercise. But once they're up andrunning, there are very few issues with them.

First thing to do is configure the WAN connection. It will be different depending on what type of internet connection you have (ADSL, Cable DSL, PPPoE etc). Obce that;s done you need to configure your own LAN settings. This is where it ca get a bit confusing. You have to have your entire network laid out ahead of time. If you have say 4 remote sites (not users)you may want to set up 4 subnets ie:

Your location 10.10.11.X
Site 2 10.10.12.X
Site 3 10.10.13.X
Site 4 10.10.14.X

Then you have to set up the VPN tunnels. You have to set up a tunnel to every other location from every BSR in your network, so each one would have 3 tunnels established all the time.

Each of those BSRs comes with a CD that has the manual on it. As with all Nortel documentation, it's difficult to understand but if you take your time, and scratch your head a lot, you'll eventually figure it out, especially if you're used to working with a 1010.

If it gets too confusing, give me a way to contac you and I can probably walk you through it. Once you do one, they're pretty easy to do. It's just figuring out that first one that drives you crazy.

Good Luck.

 

[danthephoneman]

Thanks for the info,

I will probably need to set this up around the end of December. This gives me some time to figure it out.

Thanks again.

(Currently working my way thru Cisco UC trainning,and I thought Nortel's Docs we difficult to understand!)

 

[telcodog]

I'm going on the same Cisco course in a couple of weeks.

 

[gm85]

The other option is using Cisco routers and a Dynamic Multipoint VPN. With a DMVPN, you would designate one of the routers as a HUB (Most likely the router attached to the BCM) and the other routers at the remote sites would be configured as spokes.

The benefit to a DMVPN is the spokes can dynamically establish the VPN connection from spoke-to-spoke whenever a remote user calls another remote user. All you have to worry about is the configuration between the Spoke and the Hub.

With any type of VoIP setup, there needs to be route between the remote sites if you have remote sites talking to each other. This is where I find a DMVPN can really help.

We use a DMVPN at work and it really works well. All remote sites have dynamic IPs and the employees can call other employees at other remote sites without any problems.

 

[danthephoneman]

telcodog: GOOD LUCK!

gm85: Do you know what model cisco routers support DMVPN? and what Cisco device would you use for the remote ip phones,keep in mind these are not softphones they are i1230 sets.

 

[danthephoneman]

gm85,

the other option for this customer is a UC540, will that also support DMVPN? Cisco is saying the new version of it's SMB phones are going to support a VPN device built in to the phones but I do not know if they are GA yet.

 

[gm85]

Danthetelephoneman:

We use a 2811 connected in front of our BCM. The 2811 has a static IP address.

We have 6 remote sites: 5 are using 871s and 1 is using an 1811. All the remote sites have a dynamic IP address. The phones we use at our remote sites are i2004 and 1140e models.

We use the DMVPN not only for Voice, but for access to data at our main office as well.

Routers that I've used in the past have been the 830, 870, 1800, 2600XM and 2800 families of routers.

I would, however recommend avoiding the 830 and 2600XM devices as their onboard encryption performance is somwhat limited.

My have not had much experience with Cisco's Unified Communications System. The UC520 does support DMVPN (so the UC540 probably does as well). I'm not sure of what type of VPN the phones would support, but whatever it is, it obviously would be compatible with the UC540 system.

 

[danthephoneman]

Thanks for the info.

 

[trebur]

I could help with second user phones to make it easy. robert 07774 495495