From owner-freebsd-isp Fri Aug 16 10:20:41 1996 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id KAA01249 for isp-outgoing; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:20:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from genghis_khan.dbeach.com (genghis_khan.dbeach.com [207.18.68.2]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id KAA01243 for ; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:20:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from naief@localhost) by genghis_khan.dbeach.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA25370; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 13:16:31 -0400 Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 13:16:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Network Admin To: Joe Greco cc: andrew@pubnix.net, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: News provider feeback In-Reply-To: <199608161606.LAA15378@brasil.moneng.mei.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, 16 Aug 1996, Joe Greco wrote: > > Does anyone what any expieriences (good or bad) with the Pagesat system? We use it, and have had no problem with it what so ever. Even though we are in Florida and get a lot of rain, it seems that data is only lost during hard rain only (I mean hard) which usually does not last long. The feed is quit sizable and has good coverage. I do not think you will win an award for best connceted news site if you relay on Pagesat alone but you will have a news feed that will make your clients happy (assuming you get the average ISP clients we do here ;-) The only hardware you have to worry about (plus what a news server needs offcourse) is the serial port. We found that using built in ports do not work, you keep losing data (tty-level buffer overflow messages will fill your screen,logs). Its better to use an independent serial card (vs built in the motherboard), or a Hayes ESP type card. Ahh one more thing, when they tell you that you can set it up by yourself, take that with a grain of salt. Maybe again because we are in Florida (which makes it hard to locate the satallite, and requires a bigger dish), I still think that setting the dish up would not be easy and might require you to hire a pro to do for you :-( > > Does it work with FreeBSD? Yes it works, the software that they give compiles with no problem and works very good, All you have to do is choose the OS and what device you want and compile. You will get two programs psfrx and psnews and a shell script to uncompress and feed the news. > > > > Regards, > > I've heard it works fine, particularly if you offload the serial port > onto a different box :-) How do you mean, please if you have time elaborate on how this can done some more. > > However there is the bandwidth issue, as always.. Is that good or bad ? I think that although the Pagesat system requiers more money upfront, it will pay for itself very quickly. And if you are running an ISP you should remember that clients will complain about slower access (to the net) much faster than a news feed that is not super extensive. > >... JG > Naief