From owner-freebsd-isp Sat Oct 14 12:39:31 1995 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id MAA16286 for isp-outgoing; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 12:39:31 -0700 Received: from rustic (newt5.planet.net [204.117.105.5]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id MAA16281 for ; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 12:39:27 -0700 Received: (from jlc@localhost) by rustic (8.6.11/8.6.9) id PAA16746; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 15:43:01 -0400 Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 15:43:01 -0400 Message-Id: <199510141943.PAA16746@rustic> From: "Johanan L. Codona" To: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org Subject: Starting an ISP! Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Boy this is a quiet list! I know that there are at least thirty of you out there, so let's talk! After a great deal of discussion, some friends of mine and I have decided to start our own ISP. I have been a long-time FreeBSD user and think it would be a good basis for the system. I know others are also using it, apparently with some success. I have read the "Internet Access Provider FAQ" (http://www.amazing.com) and many other sources of accumulated wisdom on the net. It seems that BSD-derived OSs are the most popular choice (because of its networking heritage), and BSDI seems to have the biggest following among ix86-based providers. On the other hand, FreeBSD ought to be a good choice, and it is certainly less expensive at the outset (and I hope overall!). cdrom.com runs its major archive servers using it, and always seem to have their limit of 300 people on! It keeps chugging away, as apparently do the ISPs that are using it. However, before we proceed, I have a number of questions that this group might help answer. Questions: * Is FreeBSD a good choice for our OS? (As opposed to BSDI, our second choice.) * What version of FreeBSD should we use? (We are looking to go "on-the-air" in about 4-6 weeks.) * We are thinking about a fast Pentium with SCSI disks for storage. What are the best choices for: - multi-serial cards - memory per user - networking cards - other hardware? * What about software? - Accounting, etc. - Misc Monitoring - Backup software - Security - User services * Do people have any FreeBSD lessons-learned they would like to share? Since we can't be fully redundant in terms of hardware, we think that getting a second disk and frequently mirroring the user and system disk (along with the usual tape backups) would be a good way to get our system rapidly back on-line in the event of a disk failure. Any comments? Anyway, let's break the ice and at least talk about FreeBSD as an ISP platform! -- Johanan L. Codona The Stekas Group codona@planet.net From owner-freebsd-isp Sat Oct 14 13:22:47 1995 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id NAA16856 for isp-outgoing; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:22:47 -0700 Received: from alpha.ftcnet.com (admin@alpha.ftcnet.com [204.174.119.252]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id NAA16851 for ; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:22:42 -0700 Received: (from admin@localhost) by alpha.ftcnet.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) id NAA16837; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:19:58 -0700 Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:19:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Bernard Klatt To: "Johanan L. Codona" cc: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Starting an ISP! In-Reply-To: <199510141943.PAA16746@rustic> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sat, 14 Oct 1995, Johanan L. Codona wrote: > * What version of FreeBSD should we use? (We are looking to go > "on-the-air" in about 4-6 weeks.) I asked this a while back and got 1 reply back that indicated the Walnut Creek CD-ROM distribution was the 'only' choice. Are there other versions available, if so, where, and what's the difference between the current Walnut Creek dist CD-ROM and an alternate ver? > * We are thinking about a fast Pentium with SCSI disks for storage. Seagate Baracuda's seem to have had heat-related reliability problems. Our Micropolis 1936 died after 5 months of use as a news server drive. We're running Quantum's now.. > What are the best choices for: > - multi-serial cards Don't use 'em (except for the first 4 COM ports, then get a Livingston PortMaster) > - memory per user > - networking cards 3Com and SMC seem to know how to make solid NIC's > - other hardware? APC's new Smart UPS products are a good choice Bernard Klatt Owner Fairview Tech Ctr Ltd. www.ftcnet.com From owner-freebsd-isp Sat Oct 14 13:58:34 1995 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id NAA17748 for isp-outgoing; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:58:34 -0700 Received: from rustic (newt18.planet.net [204.117.105.18]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id NAA17737 for ; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:58:28 -0700 Received: (from jlc@localhost) by rustic (8.6.11/8.6.9) id RAA16826; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 17:02:00 -0400 Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 17:02:00 -0400 Message-Id: <199510142102.RAA16826@rustic> From: "Johanan L. Codona" To: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org In-reply-to: (message from Bernard Klatt on Sat, 14 Oct 1995 13:19:58 -0700 (PDT)) Subject: Re: Starting an ISP! Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sat, 14 Oct 1995, Bernard Klatt wrote: >I asked this a while back and got 1 reply back that indicated the >Walnut Creek CD-ROM distribution was the 'only' choice. Are there >other versions available, if so, where, and what's the difference >between the current Walnut Creek dist CD-ROM and an alternate ver? Well, there is 2.0, 2.0.5, 2.1-stable, and the ever popular -current which can be the kernel equivalent of a bucking bronco! I had assumed that the answer would be one of: 1) Use 2.0.5 until 2.1.0 is released. 2) Use 2.1-stable until 2.1.0 is released. 3) Use BSDI. >Seagate Baracuda's seem to have had heat-related reliability >problems. Our Micropolis 1936 died after 5 months of use as >a news server drive. We're running Quantum's now.. I had read the same about Quantums! >> What are the best choices for: >> - multi-serial cards >Don't use 'em (except for the first 4 COM ports, >then get a Livingston PortMaster) Interesting. I'll have to look that one up. >> - memory per user >> - networking cards >3Com and SMC seem to know how to make solid NIC's I have successfully used both of these too. >> - other hardware? >APC's new Smart UPS products are a good choice Do we have support yet for its power-down interface? >Bernard Klatt Owner Fairview Tech Ctr Ltd. www.ftcnet.com -- Johanan L. Codona The Stekas Group codona@planet.net From owner-freebsd-isp Sat Oct 14 14:32:34 1995 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id OAA18674 for isp-outgoing; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 14:32:34 -0700 Received: from blob.best.net (blob.best.net [204.156.128.88]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id OAA18668 for ; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 14:32:30 -0700 Received: from geli.clusternet (rcarter.vip.best.com [204.156.137.2]) by blob.best.net (8.6.12/8.6.5) with ESMTP id OAA14104; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 14:32:28 -0700 Received: (from rcarter@localhost) by geli.clusternet (8.6.12/8.6.9) id OAA16633; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 14:30:02 -0700 Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 14:30:02 -0700 From: "Russell L. Carter" Message-Id: <199510142130.OAA16633@geli.clusternet> To: codona@planet.net, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Starting an ISP! Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk |From: "Johanan L. Codona" |To: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org |Subject: Starting an ISP! |Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.org |Questions: | |* Is FreeBSD a good choice for our OS? (As opposed to BSDI, our second | choice.) My ISP, best.com switched from BSDI to FreeBSD. They have been running it for about five months, on when I checked recently, a P5-90 256K Async box with a single NCR and 4 or possibly 5 drives. They recently moved to an SGI box (can't tell what it is since they've got hinv restricted), and I haven't noticed any improvement in stability and usability, but the SGI is more responsive under the same load. |* What version of FreeBSD should we use? (We are looking to go | "on-the-air" in about 4-6 weeks.) Right now I would install 2.0.5 from the CDROM and then sup -STABLE. | |* We are thinking about a fast Pentium with SCSI disks for storage. Best motherboard is currently the ASUS P55TP4-XE with 512K pipelined burst SRAM. Either 100 or 133 MHz Best drive on the market these days is the Quantum Atlas series, either 2.1G or 4.3G. The Seagate Hawk 4.3 is a very good deal, but a bit slower. | What are the best choices for: | - multi-serial cards There is a driver for the cyclades cards, ftp://ftp.mediacity.com/pub/brian/cyb2.0fb.shar.gz | - memory per user | - networking cards Go PCI, almost any 21040 card will do: DEC, SMC, Infotel, Cogent, Danpex. You can improve NFS performance by going 100BASE-TX between servers and client. DEC, SMC, Infotel cards work fine, in my experience. | - other hardware? | |* What about software? | - Accounting, etc. | - Misc Monitoring | - Backup software | - Security | - User services | |* Do people have any FreeBSD lessons-learned they would like to share? | |Since we can't be fully redundant in terms of hardware, we think that |getting a second disk and frequently mirroring the user and system |disk (along with the usual tape backups) would be a good way to |get our system rapidly back on-line in the event of a disk failure. |Any comments? | |Anyway, let's break the ice and at least talk about FreeBSD as an ISP |platform! | |-- |Johanan L. Codona |The Stekas Group |codona@planet.net | | From owner-freebsd-isp Sat Oct 14 15:50:11 1995 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id PAA21265 for isp-outgoing; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 15:50:11 -0700 Received: from smople.thehub.com.au ([203.17.162.10]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id PAA21260 for ; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 15:50:08 -0700 Received: (from richard@localhost) by smople.thehub.com.au (8.6.11/8.6.9) id IAA12496; Sun, 15 Oct 1995 08:45:15 GMT Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 08:45:15 +0000 () From: Richard J Uren To: freebsd-isp@Freebsd.org Subject: Re: Starting an ISP! In-Reply-To: <199510141943.PAA16746@rustic> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-isp@Freebsd.org Precedence: bulk On Sat, 14 Oct 1995, Johanan L. Codona wrote: > > However, before we proceed, I have a number of questions that this > group might help answer. > > Questions: > > * Is FreeBSD a good choice for our OS? (As opposed to BSDI, our second > choice.) > Our neck of the woods is FreeBSD vs Linux, however FreeBSD vs BSDI ? Ive never used BSDI. > * What version of FreeBSD should we use? (We are looking to go > "on-the-air" in about 4-6 weeks.) > We've had no probs with the cdrom, everything you need is on it pretty much. > * We are thinking about a fast Pentium with SCSI disks for storage. > What are the best choices for: > - multi-serial cards > - memory per user > - networking cards > - other hardware? We use xylogics' annexes to handle user logins. They do the accouting handle slip, ppp (mostly),terminal sessions, telnet etc.. . richard richard@thehub.com.au From owner-freebsd-isp Sat Oct 14 17:42:33 1995 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id RAA23990 for isp-outgoing; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 17:42:33 -0700 Received: from ifu.net (ifu.ifu.net [204.97.224.2]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with SMTP id RAA23985 for ; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 17:42:30 -0700 Received: by ifu.ifu.net (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA08770; Sat, 14 Oct 1995 20:40:39 -0400 Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 20:40:39 -0400 From: matthew@ifu.ifu.net (Matthew Bernadini) Message-Id: <9510150040.AA08770@ifu.net> Content-Type: text Apparently-To: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Rutgers Univeristy Graduate School of Management is sponsoring public opinion research via the Internet. 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