Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 11:10:01 -0600 From: William McVey <wam@sa.fedex.com> To: hm@kts.org, archie@whistle.com (Archie Cobbs), phk@FreeBSD.ORG, isdn@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: If they US contingent wants ISDN4BSD... Message-ID: <199901311710.LAA14694@s07.sa.fedex.com> In-Reply-To: Message id <m106srP-00000fC@bert.kts.org>
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>Archie Cobbs wrote:
>> Or better yet, somebody should give him ssh access to a machine
>> that's connected to a real ISDN line and has a Teles card in it...
>> With $499 PC's for sale, that'd probably be cheaper :-)
I believe I've made that offer. I'm unsure what is specifically
meant by "real ISDN" line, but I've offered console access (via
serial interface) to one my machines with a Sportster ISDN card in
it connected to a (U interface?) isdn line.
Hellmuth Michaelis wrote:
>Take volume IP internet access charges and telephone costs ("hey,
>please write down the panic output and press reset ....") into
>account and you'll end up with something horrible expensive
I can't speak to the IP access charges you would incur associated
with such a development effort (more than $950?); however, I would
imagine telephone costs should be minimal if we are talking about
console access to a machine that is configured to break to the
kernel debugger (and hence allow a warm boot) upon receiving a
`break'. In the rare cases that a power-cycle is necessary, I have
available device that can allow remote power control (for details,
see the pow-r-switch device at
http://www.blackbox.com/catalog/09switches/394.PDF) of the computer
in question.
>for that solution - phk's idea is much cheaper, easier and faster
>(also, such a device is just needed for the development time, after
> that it may go back to where it came from. Debugging should be
> no problem with that $499 setup).
I'll check with some of my telco acquaintancs to see if I can get
an equivalent ISDN emulator loaner device. I'm not holding my
breath. Since I would have no use for the device after the
development is done, I can't justify to myself (nor to my wife)
the cost of purchasing the device mentioned to get my ISDN working
(not when the same money can buy me more than 2 years of cable
modem access). This of course assumes I would have to buy the
machine by myself... I wouldn't be opposed to contributing to a
pool of money to fund this device. If a pool of money was collected
to assist in the development of the US ISDN protocols, would that
pool of money be better to put towards buying the ISDN emulation
device, or towards a bounty/reward posted at the Free Software
Bazaar* (ie a direct monetary contribution to the developer(s) who
do the work)?
>Not to talk about that the one in the US will probably not pick up
>his phone anymore after 10 such calls at 3 o'clock in the morning
>US time.
In cases where remote access to a machine's serial console and
power control is insufficient (lets say you need a new card put
into the device), what kind of response time would you need? I
would imagine it would be a very rare event when console access
and remote power capabilities would be insufficient to support
remote machine being worked on. I know for the machines I support
in Europe and Asia, the combination of serial consoles and remote
power management allows pretty much complete control of the machine,
up to changing hardware configs.
>Having written, bootstrapped and debugged the i4b stack, i am quite
>shure that developing a US stack remotely with such a setup makes
>no sense at all (for me).
Well, I'm definitely in no position to argue that point. Please keep
in mind my offer if you decide that you'd like to try doing the remote
development option.
-- William
* http://visar.csustan.edu/bazaar/
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