From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 17 08:09:40 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0160516A4D6 for ; Mon, 17 May 2004 08:09:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mxb.saturn-tech.com (mxb.saturn-tech.com [207.229.19.99]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C88AC43D5E for ; Mon, 17 May 2004 08:09:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from drussell@saturn-tech.com) Received: from mxb.saturn-tech.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mxb.saturn-tech.com (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id i4HF9vvi091444; Mon, 17 May 2004 09:09:57 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from drussell@saturn-tech.com) Received: from localhost (drussell@localhost)i4HF9tmt091441; Mon, 17 May 2004 09:09:55 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from drussell@saturn-tech.com) X-Authentication-Warning: mxb.saturn-tech.com: drussell owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 09:09:55 -0600 (MDT) From: Doug Russell To: Troy Settle In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20040517090120.C91225-100000@mxb.saturn-tech.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org cc: 'Chris Cook' cc: 'Evan Sayer' Subject: RE: Modem Pool X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 15:09:40 -0000 On Mon, 17 May 2004, Troy Settle wrote: > I agree with Shawn. While FreeBSD /can/ terminate dialup connections, it's > not a very fun thing to do. You're limited to v34, and probably 16 or 32 > max connections. For the price of the multi-port serial board and modems, > you can have a much nicer solution. Anyone terminating more than 2 or 3 > dialup connections directly on FreeBSD boxes is either crazy, or has had > their system running for more than a few years. > > > If you want to support anything other than 28.8k modems (i.e. > > 56k modems), > > you'll have to have your inbound lines as DS-1/PRI lines. Evan, If you are looking for a smallish system, and you want to be able to handle digital connections (including 56K analog dial-ups), you can also use ISDN lines (BRI) if they are available in your area (should be available anywhere) to be able to add lines two at a time instead of 24 at a time with a T1 (PRI). Here in Calgary, the rotary (hunt group) is included in the ISDN line cost. For hardware, you'd need anything from a few of the S/T interface version of the USR I-Modem with external NT-1s (using the regular U interface version with the built-in NT-1 won't work when you want to put two separate modems on the two separate B-channels on the ISDN line) to something like the USR Modem Pool/8 or MP/16 with multi-port serial cards, if you want your FreeBSD host to actually act as the ppp server. A better solution is to get an old USR Netserver/8 or Netserver/16, which is a modem pool with an internal 486SX machine that does the server job for you and has all 16 serial ports on-board. 3Com also made the RAS1500 based on the same technology, but I've had reliability problems with them. My original one died when the first caller called in after a firmware upgrade (luckily about a month before the warranty expired), and the replacement flaked out about a year later. It seems to have a bad SRAM on the board, but I've never hunted down the problem chip... I'm using my Netserver/16 instead. Obviously, other companies made similar systems.... These are examples. Later......