From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 26 08:55:47 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A640416A4CF for ; Wed, 26 Nov 2003 08:55:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from ptb-relay02.plus.net (ptb-relay02.plus.net [212.159.14.213]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C4F2943FF5 for ; Wed, 26 Nov 2003 08:55:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from simong@desktop-guardian.com) Received: from [81.174.227.186] (helo=desktop-guardian.com) by ptb-relay02.plus.net with smtp (Exim 4.24; FreeBSD 4.9) id 1AP2x1-000FbG-Ae for freebsd-isp@freebsd.org; Wed, 26 Nov 2003 16:55:39 +0000 Received: (qmail 39023 invoked by uid 1006); 26 Nov 2003 16:58:04 -0000 Received: from simong@desktop-guardian.com by dtg25 by uid 82 with qmail-scanner-1.16 (clamscan: 0.54. spamassassin: 2.55. Clear:. Processed in 26.218009 secs); 26 Nov 2003 16:58:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO dtg17) (192.168.0.17) by 192.168.0.25 with SMTP; 26 Nov 2003 16:57:28 -0000 Message-ID: <01a301c3b43d$dbe99930$1100a8c0@dtg17> From: "Simon Gray" To: "Wm Brian McCane" References: <20031125120037.V26497-100000@fw.mccons.net> <1069854998.681.1.camel@laptop.irrelevant.org> Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 16:53:21 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Multiport Serial X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 16:55:47 -0000 > > A customer with a server running about 20 dumb terminals plus some PCs on > > a network, wants to put a box in a satellite office to run 4 or 5 > > terminals and a printer. They also would like a new report system and we > > are looking at setting up a box with about 32 modems hanging off it's > > backside for faxing and dumping directly to onsite modem/buffer/printer > > units. Might be easier to run an isdn30 setup (rather than banks of serial ports with modems hanging off them). The eicon diva server pri cards allow up to 30isdn channels per card. You could always start off with 8 channels on, and as required just request more channels from the telco. I think the maximum server cards you can have per machine is 3 or 4 (allowing around 100+ isdn channels per box). Now i've not done this under bsd, but under windows you can communicate with each isdn channel through the drivers as if it were a standard com port using the at commands, which makes life much easier. (You could use a lower level and talk directly to the card if you wanted to. We use these in our java phone servers, they work well. Definatly easier than a big stack of modems, plus you can terminate the call without ever answering it (useful for protecting against potential war dialing etc..) Not sure how well supported these cards are under freebsd tho, might be worth a look tho (quick look in google found quite a bit >> http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=diva+server+freebsd << ) HTH Simon