Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: Configuring Dialer Profiles

Telepresence and Holography / Holograms - November 2008

Editor’s viewpoint on their differences, likenesses and future...

We all just recently viewed an historic CNN holographic interview on an historic Election Night. CNN stated this type of imaging has never been done before on National TV and I believe that. I haven’t seen anything like it. The live interview caught me by surprise and sure had the “wow” factor attached to it didn’t it? Here’s a link to the actual interview.

CNN Hologram Video

The question now has to be asked. Is it Telepresence?

I’m no expert on the subject but I’m going to throw my hat into the ring, go out on a limb and say yes, I believe it is. Although I know many video conferencing purists are rolling their eyes and grabbing their guns right about now with my statement.

While I do know that Telepresence still hasn’t been universally defined (Houston, we have a problem), here’s how I see it…. Broken down to its simplest form - “tele” (through electronic means) and “presence” (present). This is how I’m justifying my opinion by lumping holography and Telepresence together. Just as Telepresence is surely an offshoot of video conferencing, holographic imaging (like we viewed on CNN) surely has to be considered an offshoot of Telepresence. The interviewer was “telepresent” from Chicago and beamed into the CNN Election Headquarters. She was most assuredly - “telepresent”. There was negligible latency, the imaging was fantastic and both interviewers were rehearsed on what they would say. I’ve just recently read that CNN actually “downgraded” the experience to make it “movie” quality and not as good as it could have been. Maybe they thought us mere mortals would be shocked if they showed their complete hand. I have a feeling it was so big to them, they didn’t want it to get upstaged by the historic election. I’m willing to bet we’ll see the “true” power of this technology in the upcoming weeks and months when they can put the pedal to the medal and show it off without having it sidetracked.

What an amazing time for this technology (all differences and opinions aside). Telepresence Doctors, nurses, teachers, schools and healthcare (healthpresence) will benefit from the recent gains in this state-of-the-art industry whether holograms, Telepresence or holography. Airlines also have to see the threat to a portion of their business travel. Hell, who wants go through security and fly to Miami for a two-hour conference when you can look them in the eye via Telepresence?

Beam me up Scotty! Simply amazing…!

Visit the free Telepresence Forum for more information and discussion

Your Editor and Administrator - L II
"Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" TM

The most common method of configuring ISDN is with dialer maps, but dial information can also be configured on a logical interface. To pass the CCNA exam, you must know how to configure and troubleshoot both dialer maps and dialer profiles.

Dialer Profiles allow different dialing information to be configured onto logical interfaces. The logical interfaces may have different dialing destinations, different remote router names, etc., but they?ll be using the same physical interface.

Dialer strings are used on dialer profiles. Note that each logical interface has a different IP address, a different remote router to dial, and a different dialer string, but they will be using the same physical interface to dial out. The commands dialer pool and dialer pool-member are used to link the logical and physical interfaces. The number following each command must match for the logical interface to correctly bind to the physical interface.

R1(config)#interface dialer0

R1(config-if)#ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.0

R1(config-if)#encapsulation ppp

R1(config-if)#dialer remote-name Remote0

R1(config-if)#dialer pool 1

< places logical interface into dialer pool >

R1(config-if)#dialer string 5551212

< number dialed to contact router Remote0 >

R1(config-if)#dialer-group 1

< links logical interface to dialer-list 1 >

R1(config)#interface dialer1

R1(config-if)#ip address 172.16.1.2 255.255.255.0

R1(config-if)#encapsulation ppp

R1(config-if)#dialer remote-name Remote1

R1(config-if)#dialer pool 1

R1(config-if)#dialer string 5551234

R1(config-if)#dialer-group 1

R1(config)#interface bri0

R1(config-if)#no ip address

< With dialer profiles, IP addresses are assigned to logical interfaces. >

R1(config-if)#encapsulation ppp

< The encapsulation type is place on both the logical and physical interfaces.>

R1(config-if)#dialer pool-member 1

< The number associated with this command should match the number configured with the dialer pool number on the logical dialer interfaces. >

R1(config-if)#isdn spid1 0835866101

R1(config-if)#isdn spid2 0835866301

When configuring dialer profiles, the encapsulation type should be placed on both the physical BRI interface and the logical dialer interfaces. The SPIDs are configured on the physical interface as well.

Configuring dialer profiles can be a little tricky at first, and the best way to master this skill is to get real hands-on practice in your own CCNA / CCNP home lab or a rack rental service. Either way, hands-on is the best practice. Best of luck in your CCNA studies!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com ), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, and The Ultimate CCNA and CCNP Study Packages. For a copy of his FREE "How To Pass The CCNA" or "CCNP" ebook, visit the website and download copies! Our new RSS feed gives you free Cisco questions and tutorials daily!

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To learn more about Telepresence, the revolutionary new style of immersive video conferencing; visit these websites:

Telepresence - "Ride on the Next Plane of Existence" - Telepresence
Telepresence Web Portal - Telepresence Internet web portal
Telepresence Report - 24/7 breaking Telepresence related news and information
Via Telepresence - Video conferencing via Telepresence
Telepresence Forum - Free user discussion forum for everything Telepresence related
Telepresence Today - Telepresence information and editor qualified headline news
Telepresence Resource Directory - Telepresence web resource directory
Telepresence Tube - Telepresence videos, pictures and more