RRAS Demand Dialing: make it only dial out? 1

[Seaspray0]

This is the setup: Win2k Domain controller with DHCP and DNS. The LAN consists of a few clients on 2 subnets....

--[modem DC nic]--clients--[nic router/SUBDC nic]--clients

I can use RRAS with NAT to route through the modem on DC to the internet, however the modem will accept incomming calls as well which I do not want it to do (inbound and outbound). I only want an outbound connection to be established when manually brought up from the server through RRAS (a situation similar to ICS with it set not to demand dial). This is a lab setup for student training so ICS is not the solution (DHCP needed on the server). The modem must either not answer or respond to atleast 6 rings. I've found no settings in RRAS to configure the modem with an ATS0=0 string. Any ideas on how to stop the modem from answering the phone?

 

[PorkyPete]

Dear Seaspray(0)
I have a similar problem and it is driving me nuts too. However I may have a crude but effective answer. I couldn't find a way to program ATS0 = 0 either but the MS website gives details of a registry entry called NumberOfRings for NT4/W2K. However this didn't work for me so I started thinking about another program getting in first before RRAS. Having played with Win2K Fax Services this seems to work but I'm still fully researching it. Basically start Fax Services and set the fax answer mode to manual. When the line rings the fax monitor pops up to ask if you want to answer it as a fax. Ignore it and answer the phone normally, then hang up. Fax services goes back to monitoring and RRAS never wakes up. The popup is annoying and I don't think you can nail it, but if it is on a server, who cares?

As I say, not completely sure this works yet but I'll keep you posted. By the way I'm using Win2k Advanced Server (SP4) and 2K and XP clients.

 

[Seaspray0]

You are the only one I know who has come up with an answer for this. I didn't even find anything on setting the ring count. Where in the registry is it supposed to be?

 

[PorkyPete]

Dear SeaSpray

Sorry for late reply:
The reg key is as follows:
Add a REG_DWORD value of NumberOfRings to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RasMan\Parameters

The value can be from 0 - 20: 0 means "don't answer"

This ruse supposedly only works if RAS is using TAPI (no idea how you find this out - think NT3.51 uses the Modem.ini file and NT4 and W2K use TAPI for modem control)

However I tried this and it made no difference and I don't appear to have a Modem.ini file on any of my NT4/2K machines, so I pursued the Fax Services idea. This seems to work sometimes and not others. Basically I think RRAS is one of Microsoft's "Orphan Children" ie pretty unstable and they couldn't be bothered to finish it properly (anyone from MS reading this: Do it properly or don't do it at all)

Sadly, after wasting the better part of 5 months on this, I have given it up for lost and have put modems in the two machines that need internet access - its not what you want to hear, but I sleep better at night now.

If you really want to shorten your life, the information you need to pursue it (although its a bit half baked) is in the following MS knowledge base articles (

http://www.microsoft.com

- then Support, Knowledge Base):

145879 - How to set the number of rings for RAS auto-answer in Windows NT4/W2K

221308 - NumberOfRings=0 does not work for RRAS auto answer in Windows NT4

170825 - RAS auto-answer behaviour in Windows NT

150808 - Disabling support for unimodem modems in remote access

101878 - Windows NT RAS server port reset

Good Luck!

 

[Seaspray0]

The other solution which I found works is to front end the internet connection with another machine. Any OS that will do ICS will work fine. It also gives you the ability to better firewall the connection. It looks something like this:

[internet]
!
!
[computer with ICS, firewall]
!
!
[server]
!
!
[clients]

You have to make sure your DHCP on the server doesn't listen on the NIC going to the computer with ICS. Unfortunately, having a spare computer to front end the connection is a luxury for me. The other solution was to not use the DHCP on the server and let the computer doing the ICS hand out the addresses. This was limiting since the ip range is a class C of 192.168.0.x being give out. You put everything on one subnet. The server requires only 1 nic this way too. There were other issues to deal with like the computer doing the ICS doesn't hand out the DNS address to your DNS server. Alot of info had to be put in manually. Either way it's not as pretty as having the server doing the dialing.

 

[PorkyPete]

Dear SeaSpray

I'm glad I'm not alone in all this! I did think of doing some of the stuff you're suggesting but in my case the only "spare" I had was a decrepit Pentium 75MHz. As one of the main reasons for wanting a single internet connection was to only apply amd maintain one copy of Norton IN Security this was a no hoper (I did try and steam was coming out of the P75 - a sad sight!)

The whole fudging around ICS (which does work brilliantly - well done MS), when trying to use separate DNS and DHCP servers, also looked a bit hairy so I didn't pursue it - you're a braver man than I!

On a final note, if you have broadband, lots of companies make router/modems which are dirt cheap and have firewalls in-built. However I'm in the sticks so have to make do with damp string. That got me thinking and one company does make a router/dial-up modem for 56K use. I can't remember who it was (Belkin?) but that too might ultimately solve the problem. I did investigate but couldn't find it for sale in the UK. If you are in the US (or indeed anywhere less technogically backward than dear old blighty) this might be worth a few dollars of anyones cash.

(Anyone from D-Link, Netgear et al reading this: Could make your next million, boys, any takers? Two surefire sales here I suspect)

Regards