Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 16:55:25 -0500 (EST) From: Brian Tao <taob@io.org> To: Greg Lehey <lehey.pad@sni.de> Cc: Chris Lambertus <cmlambertus@ucdavis.edu>, hackers@freebsd.org, jkrause.padg@sni.de Subject: Re: Microsoft "Get ISDN"? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960314164438.4638A-100000@cabal.io.org> In-Reply-To: <199603140810.JAA25804@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de>
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On Thu, 14 Mar 1996, Greg Lehey wrote:
>
> You *can* bond the B channels (though not in the current FreeBSD
> implementations),
Depends on the hardware. I have a cheap little Bitsurfr which
will bond it's two B's, and all my FreeBSD box sees is an ultrafast
PPP connection out the serial port.
> 1. They're more expensive
The difference is probably the same as internal vs. external
modems. Bell Canada is selling Bitsurfr's for CDN$300 when you sign
up for a residential BRI. That's only about 20% more than a good
28.8kbps analog modem.
> 2. In my experience, they're *much* less reliable.
I haven't had any problems with my ISDN hookup so far.
> 3. They require to be connected by an async line. Considering that
> 128 kb/s ISDN translates to 160 kb/s async, it's evident that
> you can't keep up the same speed. In addition, conventional "El
> Cheapo" serial interfaces lose data at this speed.
Could be... I haven't tried running with both B channels yet,
although my serial port is running at 115.2kbps.
> 4. You can't run raw IP over them, mainly because of (3).
I suspect most people would be connected via PPP.
> 5. You can't use them for connect on demand. The board solution can
> allow the system to disconnect after a certain idle time, and then
> reconnect when another packet arrives (from either side).
ijppp does this for me, and the Bitsurfr also has something called
"persistent DTR" which auto-dials stored number #0 if carrier is lost.
> 6. I'm not sure about this, but I believe call setup is slower.
It takes two seconds from the time I manually dial the number and
the time I see the "login:" prompt.
--
Brian Tao (BT300, taob@io.org)
Systems Administrator, Internex Online Inc.
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't"
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