If there are topics that you would like to see addressed please feel free to provide us your suggestions; we would like this newsletter to provide useful and relevant information for our users. Note: Some content links are authenticated and only available to Customers and Partners of Nortel.





Customer Manual Recovery Program
Nortel is constantly striving to improve the delivery of technical support services. This newsletter article focuses on a program to provide Customers and Partners with training and tools that will more effectively help you resolve emergencies prior to ... More



Training - The Key to Success
Training is the key to ensuring engineers provide Partners and Customers with fast and accurate resolutions to their technical problems. Recently Nortel's Global Product Support teams have put a focus on training... More

Technical Support Requests for Nortel Commercial Tools
Nortel Commercial Tools are the various online tools which enable Nortel customers and partners to quote, configure and order Nortel products. If you experience any technical problems with these tools please send your support request to ask@nortel.com. Your email request ensures clear communication on both the issue and your contact information and will go directly to the agent who can resolve your issue. When submitting your support email, please include your contact information, tool name and the description of the issue.

Remember: Use ask@nortel.com to ensure your Nortel Commercial Tools technical support requests are processed as effectively as possible.

Lifecycle Bulletins Transitioning to Technical Support Website
In an ongoing effort to provide efficiency and a one-stop shop for our users, Nortel began transitioning all End-of-Life and Manufacture Discontinued Product/Software bulletins to the Technical Support web site as of June 1st. During this transition it is recommended that users utilize the general search capabilities located at the top right of every Nortel web page when searching for an EOL/MD bulletin. Once the transition is complete to the Lifecycle Management section of the Technical Support web site a News and Announcement article will be posted to our web site.




New Nortel Converged Office - Nortel CS 1000/Microsoft OCS 2007 Training & Certification Opportunities
Unified Communications simplify connectivity challenges by streamlining networks and integrating services & applications, including voicemail, email, IM and conference calling. In support of Unified Communications, a new "Nortel Converged Office - Nortel Communication Server (CS)1000/Microsoft OCS 2007 training & certification curriculum" is available to ensure you have the knowledge you need to get the most out of your solution. Why make it hard when you can make it simple?

Buy the VoIP Technologies Self-study Guide!
Looking for a reference on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)? VoIP Technologies, your complete guide to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), provides a comprehensive foundation of VoIP technology, as well as the knowledge necessary to successfully support any VoIP product. The guide will also prepare the reader for the related certification exam.

http://www.nortel.com/corporate/news/publications/nortel_press/voip_tech.html

Buy The Business Communications Manager 50 Self-study Guide!
This guide has been designed for individuals involved in the sale or installation and configuration of Business Communications Manager 50 systems. The guide will also prepare the reader for the related certification exam.

http://www.nortel.com/corporate/news/publications/nortel_press/bcm50.html




Technology Briefs - Tips and Tricks

1. Provisioning an Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) on an OM3500 shelf using dissimilar line optics
   When configuring an OPTera Packet Edge (OPE) in an OM3500 shelf the east and west facing optical interfaces (OC-n) supporting the RPR do not have to be of the same type. For example, the east facing interface could be an OC-48 and the west facing interface could be an OC-12, but the cross-connect bandwidth configured for the RPR must be the same in each direction (e.g. STS-3c to the east and STS-3c to the west).
2. Configuring the OME6500 to accept external alarms using the SONET/SDH-J access panel
   The OME6500 allows input telemetry pins on the SONET/SDH-J access panel to be used in conjunction with Normally Open (NO) relays to raise alarms from external environmental sensors. Determining which telemetry pins to use isn't always straight forward. Here are some things to keep in mind when identifying the appropriate pins to use... More
3. Prioritizing WLAN Client Traffic Using Wireless Multimedia Extension (WMM)
WMM, or Wireless Multimedia Extension, is a subset of the 802.11e standard that provides Quality of Service (QoS) in Wireless LANs. Because wireless networks are a shared medium, similar to an Ethernet hub in a wired environment... More
4. CS1000 R5.5 MobileX
   An integral component of Nortel's Fixed Mobile Convergence strategy, CS1000 R5.5 introduces Mobile Extensions, or MobileX. MobileX extends enterprise voice services to the mobile user... More
5. CS1K FAXS (PKG-195)
   Allows the passing of in-band Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) digits to an external device after answer, these digits can represent the originally dialed number (DNIS) of the call... More
6. Nortel Application Switch (NAS) - Downgrading "E" models to pre 22.0.8 code is dangerous
   Recently a customer had asked if it was possible to use 22.0.2 code on their newly acquired 3408E Nortel Application Switches. Due to standardization requirements within their organization... More
7. Nortel Application Switch (NAS) VPN Flood
   VPN flood feature is used to support VPN traffic from main office to branch office with redirect filter, RTS enabled and cache disabled. With this feature, traffic originating from the main office will be forwarded to the correct branch office VPN router. NAS checks the session table and if the session is not found and filter's action is redirect, NAS will send the packet to all real servers in the group. With vpnflood enabled even though the destination was not identified by the NAS, traffic will be forwarded to the correct VPN gateway.
   /cfg/slb/filt X/adv/cache d
   /c/slb/filt 1/adv/redir
   vpnflood ena
   
8. VPN Gateway Web Authentication
   VPN gateway now supports external web authentication which can be used for portal, IPsec, and Net Direct login. The following authentication schemes are supported: basic, digest and Nortel Lan Manager (NTLM) Basic authentication is the original and most compatible authentication scheme for HTTP and the least secure as it sends the username and password unencrypted. Digest authentication is significantly more secure than basic authentication as it never transfers the actual password across the network. The NTLM authentication method authenticates towards a Windows server, Samba or Novell server.
9. ERS5500 Virtual Link Aggregation Control Protocol (VLACP)
   The ERS5000 supports Virtual Link Aggregation Control Protocol, VLACP to provide improved link resiliency between switches. The ERS5500 uses a unique global VLACP Multicast MAC address... More
10. ERS4500 Spanning Tree Protocol (SPT) Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU) Filtering
    The ERS4500 support STP BPDU-Filtering; however this feature is disabled by default on all switched ports.
    
    
    The default configurable STP BPDU-Filtering timeout is displayed in 1/100 of a second with a default value of 12000 which represents 2 minutes. The port will re-enable itself after 2 minutes provided this event has cleared; however a value of zero (0) will keep the port down indefinitely. BPDU-Filtering should be enabled on all user ports with a timeout set to zero (0) and should remained disabled on MLT ports and core uplink ports.
11. ERS8600 link-flap-detect
    The ERS8600 supports link-flap-detect; however this feature is disabled by default in version 4.1.5.4. The ERS8600 may have this feature dynamically enabled... More
    
12. ERS4500 with Bi-directional Transceiver (BX) Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFPs)
    The ERS4500 running software version 5.1.0 "unofficially" supports BX style SFPs operating at 1490nm and 1320nm. ERS4500.s interoperate with a new BX style SFP which uses only one strand of fiber to transmit and... More
13. ERS8300 Advanced Filtering
    The ERS8300 supports advanced filtering introduced in version 4.1.0 software release in conjunction with 8394SF/CPU and newer I/O modules. The ERS8300 now has a boot flag that can... More
14. NAS Custom User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Domain Name Server (DNS) health checks
    UDP based scripted health checks can be written to check content of the DNS server using binary content. Following script sends query for host name 4.3.2.1.alt and expects response address 1.1.1.1.
/c/slb/advhc/script 1
open "53,udp"
bsend "53 53 01 00 00 01 00 00"
nsend "00 00 00 00 01 34 01 33"
nsend "01 32 01 31 03 61 6c 74"
nsend "00 00 01 00 01"
bexpect "01 01 01 01"
offset "32"
depth "32"
wait "1024"

Queries
4.3.2.1.alt: type A, class IN
Name: 4.3.2.1.alt
Type: A (Host address)
Class: IN (0x0001)
0000 00 00 5e 00 01 c6 00 14 22 bb 12 f3 08 00 45 00 ..^.....".....E.
0010 00 39 9d 98 00 00 80 11 77 6a 2f 11 c6 7c 2f 10 .9......wj/..|/.
0020 01 14 0a 9f 00 35 00 25 57 79 00 05 01 00 00 01 .....5.%Wy......
0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 34 01 33 01 32 01 31 03 61 .......4.3.2.1.a
0040 6c 74 00 00 01 00 01 lt.....

15. ERS 8600 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) External Type 1 and Type 2 Routes
    When redistributing external routes into OSPF, keep in mind that the ERS 8600, by default, redistributes the routes as external type 2 routes. This may have some implications on the routing behavior within the OSPF domain since type 2 routes do not take into account the path cost within the OSPF domain. To route based on both the external path cost and the internal path cost, you should redistribute external routes as type 1 routes.
16. Communication Control Toolkit (CCT) integration with Genesys T-Server
    Setting up CCT6 to interface with a Genesys T-Server that will communicate with the M-1 via the Meridian Link Services Module (MLSM) link and provide call information to CCT that will be passed on to IVR(MPS500) correctly and allow screen pops... More

Below are answers to questions that have been asked by our users via our surveys, contact us forms, and through our technical support cases.

1. I want to get access to Nortel documentation. How do I do this?
   For Enterprise products, our documentation is available online without any requirement to register for a UserID and password. Simply go to www.nortel.com/support and select your product category or browse the products alphabetically. For other Nortel products, most technical documentation requires Nortel customers and partners to be registered. Go to www.nortel.com/register and complete the form in its entirety. Ensure that you use your company email address since you will receive a confirmation email containing important information about your login. Once you have received the email, your account is set up.
2. I thought I had an account to access Nortel documentation, but it is not working or I can't remember my password. Who can I call?
   Our customer service team at 1-800-4Nortel (option 5, 1) is there to help you with your questions about your access. Give them your contact information as well as information about your company (having a Site ID is very helpful) and they can help address your issues.
3. There are issues with the content of a document. Is there way to report these issues on the web?
   Content issues may be reported through a number of channels including www.nortel.com/documentfeedback. Please be as detailed as possible when providing information.
4. I know the document number I am looking for. How can I find that document easily?
   Use the Search Site box and enter the document number. This will give you search results with documents that match that document number with higher relevance than in the document text.
   
   
   
   
5. I want to provide feedback on the Nortel Website or your products, how can I do that quickly and efficiently?
   Completing a Contact Us Form is the easiest way to provide feedback on any number of issues. Subject Matter Experts receive comments within 24 hours of submission and are responsible to ensure that the correct department receives the feedback or resolves your issue if one exists.
6. I am in a product or solution category; can I search for a specific document here?
   To search for a specific document number from one of the Nortel product or solution pages, type all or part of the document number in the "Contains Text" box and then select the "Number" radio button. A list of applicable documents will be presented on the same screen below.