From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Mar 14 15:13:07 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id PAA09876 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 14 Mar 1996 15:13:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from who.cdrom.com (who.cdrom.com [204.216.27.3]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id PAA09870 for ; Thu, 14 Mar 1996 15:13:00 -0800 (PST) Received: from cabal.io.org (cabal.io.org [198.133.36.103]) by who.cdrom.com (8.6.12/8.6.11) with ESMTP id PAA09200 for ; Thu, 14 Mar 1996 15:12:53 -0800 Received: (from taob@localhost) by cabal.io.org (8.7.4/8.7.4) id QAA04734; Thu, 14 Mar 1996 16:55:25 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 16:55:25 -0500 (EST) From: Brian Tao To: Greg Lehey cc: Chris Lambertus , hackers@freebsd.org, jkrause.padg@sni.de Subject: Re: Microsoft "Get ISDN"? In-Reply-To: <199603140810.JAA25804@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk 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"