Gatekeeper question/help clear up my confusion

Hi,

I'm currently a year into my position as a hybrid videoconferencing/network analyst and some of the equipment we use seems to be out of date. I wasn't involved at any aspect during the initial configuration/design and purchasing - also the people that were involved are no longer with the company.

Here is the scenario thats playing out in front of me.

We have a potential customer that is looking to purchase equipment from a company that we do not typically deal with. The company I am contracted to, has a deal with Tandberg to buy at a discounted rate (think several thousand dollars of savings) - the company that the customer is dealing with, is basically an A/V installation company.

That company asked through our customer if we have a gatekeeper and the software we're using. I grabbed some information from the show ver that indicates our Cisco 3725 router is running a feature set of ENTERPRISE PLUS/H323 MCM.

So when I am implementing a new site, I go into gatekeeper mode on this router and add the subnet the new site is going to be on (via zone subnet command)..and on the endpoint I go to the IP settings and H323 settings and add the IP address of this 3725 to the gatekeeper options and boom, it can communicate on our network.

Back on topic... the company responds to the customer, "OK……as I suspected, it’s not a gatekeeper, it has gateway functionality, along with all kinds of other things, but not a gatekeeper."

So what is happening here, am I confused or is this company just being pushy and trying to make a sale through? I would prefer the customer in question deal with us directly to avoid any unnecessary costs, etc.

here is my showver (its running older IOS version)

gk1.ca#show ver
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) 3700 Software (C3725-JSX-M), Version 12.2(15)T16, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: Cisco - Shortcut
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 19-Apr-05 21:51 by ssearch
Image text-base: 0x60008954, data-base: 0x61EB6000

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.2(8r)T2, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
ROM: 3700 Software (C3725-JSX-M), Version 12.2(15)T16, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)

gk1.ca uptime is 40 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours, 33 minutes
System returned to ROM by power-on
System image file is "flash:c3725-jsx-mz.122-15.T16.bin"

cisco 3725 (R7000) processor (revision 0.1) with 252928K/9216K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID JMX0745L3E5
R7000 CPU at 240Mhz, Implementation 39, Rev 3.3, 256KB L2 Cache
Bridging software.
X.25 software, Version 3.0.0.
SuperLAT software (copyright 1990 by Meridian Technology Corp).
TN3270 Emulation software.
2 FastEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity disabled.
55K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.
31744K bytes of ATA System CompactFlash (Read/Write)
125440K bytes of ATA Slot0 CompactFlash (Read/Write)

Configuration register is 0x2102

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Comments

Knives Out

Also, I found this - this article equipment seems to be dated as it doesn't even mention this being able to run on the 3700 series router.

Cisco Multimedia Conference Manager
(from The Cisco IP/VC Product Family Overview [IP Videoconferencing Solution] - Cisco Systems)

The Multimedia Conference Manager (MCM) is a component of Cisco IOS® software. It functions as a high-performance H.323 gatekeeper and proxy, enabling network managers to control bandwidth and priority settings for H.323 videoconferencing services based on individual network configurations and capacities. The MCM is available across a wide range of Cisco router platforms, including the Cisco 2500, 2600, 3600, and 7200, and the MC3810 multiservice access concentrator.

The above paragraph basically, tells me that it is running gatekeeper software (without saying it about the 3700 series router)

Note: we also have a separate device, a Cisco IPVC 3540 to allow for ISDN calls.

pitviper

According to the feature navigator on Cisco.com you should be able to use the 3725 as an h.323 gatekeeper with its current IOS:

H.323 Gatekeeper Functionality for IP to IP Gateway
Gatekeeper Support for H.323 to H.323 IP to IP Gateway

The gatekeeper doesn’t have to be Cisco IOS based. I guess the best thing to do would be to map out the features that you require and compare.

Knives Out

Everything runs fine at the moment and serves our needs.

I was just wondering why that a/v company who knows nothing of our internal infrastructure would try say its not a gatekeeper to a customer who is potentially purchasing Tandberg endpoints from them.

pitviper

Knives Out wrote: »

Everything runs fine at the moment and serves our needs.

I was just wondering why that a/v company who knows nothing of our internal infrastructure would try say its not a gatekeeper to a customer who is potentially purchasing Tandberg endpoints from them.

It definitely is a gatekeeper – Not sure if other companies offer more robust features or vendor specific options, as I’ve never researched it. Sounds like a sales pitch to me though.

mikej412

Knives Out wrote: »

I was just wondering why that a/v company who knows nothing of our internal infrastructure would try say its not a gatekeeper to a customer who is potentially purchasing Tandberg endpoints from them.

Well what do you know -- I Googled and there is a Tandberg Gatekeeper available.

Probably worth a look to see if it provides any additional features before jumping to conclusions that the other company is just trying to increase their future "service" revenue stream.

Knives Out

mikej412 wrote: »

Well what do you know -- I Googled and there is a Tandberg Gatekeeper available.

Probably worth a look to see if it provides any additional features before jumping to conclusions that the other company is just trying to increase their future "service" revenue stream.

Yeah there is a Tandberg Gatekeeper - I haven't completely looked into it but I think its bundled in with another device for recording video conferences, I think its called VCS - all I know is when we bought our new MCU is that was too expensive so they didn't include the gatekeeper or the VCS package.

I ended up finding out today that the customer is only looking for an endpoint to join our organization's centrally hosted video conferencing services. We've had a couple other customers experience sketchy stuff with this a/v installation company like not including maintenance contracts to obtain software updates despite being purchased and incomplete installs at remote sites etc. It just kinda annoyed me they tried to undermine the organization I work for.