Dialer idle timeout suggestion

[Kevin Dorrell]

I have a suggestion concerning dialer idle timeouts; is anyone from Cisco Engineering listening?

I know that the idle-timeout can be restarted by incoming or outgoing packets according to an argument in the dialer idle-timeout command.

What I would really like is to set a timeout according to whether I dialled the call or the other end dialled the call. If I made the call, I don't want to keep the line idle more than 30 seconds, 'cos I'm paying for it. If the other end made the call, I don't care how long he keeps the line open, 'cos he's paying for it.

Would anyone else find this useful? Is anyone from Cisco Engineering listening?

[rjackson]

Why dont you force them to call you back when you call them?

[Kevin Dorrell]

I would if I could, but that would be a contractual problem.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Kevin

[irfahmed]

One way to do that is use

!

Interface dialer x

...

dialer idle-timeout 30 EITHER

dialer-group 1

!

access-list 199 permit ip host 10.10.10.10 host 20.20.20.20

access-list 199 permit ip host 20.20.20.20 host 10.10.10.10

dialer-list 1 protocol ip list 199

Assume 10.10.10.10 is your host and 20.20.20.20 is remote site host.

If the link is down than data from 10.10.10.10 to 20.20.20.20 should bring the link up and reset idle timer.

On the other side if the link is already up and 20.20.20.20 send data to 10.10.10.10 than idle timer should reset also due to EITHER keyword

I am just putting an example using single host, you can use the same concept for multiple hosts or networks or protocols...

[Kevin Dorrell]

Sorry, but this isn't quite what I was after (unless I have misunderstood, which is always possible). I understand that this keeps the line open regardless of the direction of the traffic.

But what I was really looking for was a different timeout depending on who opened the line in the first place. Either end can initiate the call. But if I initiated the call, I want to chop it after 30 seconds of idle. If my partner initiated the call, he can keep it open as long as he likes.

Thanks for the posting anyway.

Best regards,

Kevin

[irfahmed]

There is no different timer which look at who opened the connection first.

You need to do it the way I explained you, which is defining idle timer based on interesting traffic flowing on the dial on demand link

[hbaerten]

How about defining two dialer interfaces, one for dialin and one for dialout? Then you can set different timers on these 2 interfaces.

Haven't tried it myself yet, but don't see any immediate reason why it shouldn't work.

hth

Herbert