From owner-freebsd-questions  Tue May 16 16:42:59 1995
Return-Path: questions-owner
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id QAA25902
          for questions-outgoing; Tue, 16 May 1995 16:42:59 -0700
Received: from mercury.netropolis.net (mercury.netropolis.net [204.176.47.3])
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id QAA25896
          for <FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org>; Tue, 16 May 1995 16:42:57 -0700
Received: by mercury.netropolis.net; id AA15115; Tue, 16 May 1995 18:46:37 -0500
Message-Id: <9505162346.AA15115@mercury.netropolis.net>
From: "Randall O. Berndt" <rberndt@mercury.netropolis.net>
To: brian@mediacity.com (Brian Litzinger)
Date:          Tue, 16 May 1995 18:40:00 +500
Subject:       Re: Serial<->Net<->Serial pipe????
Cc: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org
Priority: normal
X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail/Windows (v1.22)
Sender: questions-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> 
> > First, on a 1 to 10 BSD scale, I am a 1.5 or so, please 
> > "flame-refrain"......
> 
> > I would like to hook up 2 pc's, in different cities, with their 
> > serial ports "net-connected". Anything that goes in one, comes out 
> > the other, and vice-versa. This will be used to let a couple of dumb 
> > terminals log on to a machine that only has serial port access.
> 
> > Telnet puts you at a login prompt, so that won't work. Has anyone out 
> > there already done something like this? Am I missing some really easy 
> > and obvious solution?
> 
> If I understand your desire, you can connect the two machines together
> with PPP or SLIP. PPP=point-to-point protocol, SLIP=Serial Line
> Internet Protocol.  Both of these will effectively network the
> two machine together.  I prefer PPP, and suggest you look at the
> excellent package /usr/sbin/ppp.  
> 
> Aftering setting up your PPP link between the two machines, you can
> have the serial terminals log into the local machine and then
> telnet or rlogin to the remote machine.  With the appropriate
> setup you can make them transparently log into the remote.
> 
> Brian Litzinger
> brian@easynet.com
> 
Brian,

Thanks for the reply. I guess I wasn't completely clear. I want to 
have two FreeBSD machines, each hooked to a local (to them) internet 
provider, each with a static IP address. One machine would have dumb 
terminals hooked to serial ports, the other would have a non-unix 
computer (that only connects terminals serial) connected to the 
FreeBSD serial ports. I am attempting to use internet access as a 
substitute for long distance direct-connect multiplexors. I want the 
dumb terminal in one city to pretend it is hooked up to the dumb 
computer in the other city. The two FreeBSD machines (and their 
internet connections) would act solely as "transport" for the data. 
In fact, there will be no "login", I want to start processes at boot 
time that connect the ports.

If this works, I can pay for the two PC's and modems in about a year 
(less, if we add another city) and after that I am just saving.

Also, by doing this (and a little extra work), I get free internet 
access to my desktop at the office and my PC at home ;-)