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Aaron Martone
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:14 pm    Post subject: Dual Dialers & Reserved Communications Settings Reply with quote

We have a 2 dialer / 5000 pager license. It's setup as such.

Dialer 1 - Ext. Serial 56K on COM 1
Dialer 2 - Int. US Robotics 56K on COM4

I wanted to see how the Dual Dialers would function. So I went to recipients and sent my friend a message; very quickly I sent myself one as well. I thought that the way it would work now is that it would receive the first message, and send that to Dialer 1, and then see the second, and since Dialer 1 was busy, send it out to dialer 2.

Oddly enough, Dialer 1 took care of both messages. We received the page at just about the same time; so I thought that PageGate "intelligently" saw that both messages were sent around the same time, and to conserve time and resources, sent out those messages together.

If this is the case, how can I test Dialer 2's functionality? I was told that PageGate will use load balancing to make sure that one modem isn't "overstressed". I was checking the LOGS of each dialer, and only Dialer1 was doing work.

Secondly, I was wondering what the exact meaning of the Dedicated Communications settings that you can place on each dialer. Can you explain what this does? The ? help didn't clarify it much for me.


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Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Posts: 4351

PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:27 pm    Post subject: Dual Dialers & Reserved Communications Settings Reply with quote

Here is roughly how PageGate determines what messages go to which dialers:

When several messages are queued up, the first priority is for each dialer to connect to a unique carrier. Because multiple messages can be sent to a carrier in a single dial-up connection, it is most efficient to have additional dialers working on differnet carriers, instead of more than one working on the same carrier.

If all the messages left in the queue are for the same carrier, PageGate looks to its 'Dial Threshold' setting. If more messages are in the queue than its value, then additional dialers will connect to the same carrier, to assist in message delivery. The 'Dial Threshold' setting can be found under 'Connectors' -> 'Global' -> 'Settings'.

You could try to reproduce your test by setting the 'Dial Threshold' to 1 and then send 2 or three messages in a row. You should see both dialers connect out to deliver them. Usually a 'Dial Threshold' settings less than 10 doesn't make much sense because one dialer may have most of the messages delivered by the time the second connects.

You can test the redundancy between the dialers by simply unplugging the phone line to one dialer. It will fail on that dialer, and then deliver the message on the other dialer on its next try.

The 'Dedicated Carrier' settings forces a dialer to only deliver messages to a single carrier. This is typically used when a special phone line with special billing rates is connected to the dialer for connecting to a carrier with long distance charges. Also, some people use it when they have lots of carriers, and they want to make sure that the messages for a specific carrier are delivered with priority, while the other dialer(s) work on the messages to the many other carriers.

The 'Direct Connect' setting is used if you have a serial cable connected from the PageGate computer directly to a paging terminal (no modems used). This setting is commonly used with in-house paging systems for carriers, hospitals, etc.


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Aaron Martone
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2003 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. As always, prompt, courteous and CORRECT Technical Support.

You just don't see that kinda thing nowadays. Good to see a company still values it's customers the way they should be! Thanks for the info; everything works as you've stated! :D


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