Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 09:59:21 +0100 (MET) From: hm@altona.hamburg.com (Hellmuth Michaelis) To: jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com (Joe Greco) Cc: lehey.pad@sni.de, cmlambertus@ucdavis.edu, hackers@freebsd.org, jkrause.padg@sni.de Subject: Re: Microsoft "Get ISDN"? Message-ID: <m0txVM1-00001eC@ernie.altona.hamburg.com> In-Reply-To: <199603141610.KAA22055@brasil.moneng.mei.com> from "Joe Greco" at Mar 14, 96 10:10:38 am
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[Connect ISDN via terminal-adaptors/ISDN-"modems"/IP-ISDN routers/PC cards]
>From the several possibilities to connect (to the Internet) yourself via ISDN
all have their good sides and drawbacks.
PC cards: With (active or passive) PC ISDN cards you usually have access
to _ALL_ services offered by ISDN: datacommunication, telephony,
video, X.25, videotext/cep/btx, and, and, and ....
Drawback: change architecture, change hw/sw; finding good sw
is not that easy.
PC cards emulating a com port or emulating an NE2000 don't
fall in this category !!!
IP-ISDN routers: you "only" get IP/IPX/etc. packets thru your ISDN link,
you cannot do i.e. native ISDN computerized telephony.
Good: change architecture, keep router.
Terminal-adaptors,
ISDN "modems": You have neither direct access to _any_ native ISDN service
nor direct IP capabilities but have to go thru serial ports
with all their drawbacks. No standardized access like a
standard set of Hayes commands, no standard access to
protocol configuration, etc, etc. IMHO the worst choice of
all three. Good: change architecture, keep adaptor. There
are some ISDN adaptors which connect to the SCSI bus avail-
able, these seem to have not all of the drawbacks mentioned
above, i.e. they allow better configuration.
IMHO, if one just needs IP connectivity, one should buy a ISDN-IP router. I
recently saw an ad for the new Cisco Pro line which starts with the Pro 750
which contains all you need for IP connectivity for ~1000 USD.
If you want more than IP connectivity, get a ISDN card for your hardware, but
make shure you get the "right" software!
If you cannot afford an IP router and there is no hw/sw combination available
for your platform, try go afford an IP router or change your platform so you
can buy a suitable hw/sw combination for your platform. I would not even think
about buing a TA/ISDN-"modem" ....
A friend tested a Zyxel, and the experience was desastrous. The CAPI did not
run, it only did X.75 (which noone uses here, IP is (for 99%) done transparently
in HDLC over here, so any equipment not capable to do this is useless here!)
and so on and so on. Same experience with terminal adaptors, they are simply
awful, interoperability seems to be a non-existing word for the manufacturers
of such devices.
Just my .2 <whatsoever>,
hellmuth
--
Hellmuth Michaelis hm@altona.hamburg.com Hamburg, Europe
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nstall BSD ?
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