From owner-freebsd-isp Thu Dec 26 18:23:23 1996 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id SAA25049 for isp-outgoing; Thu, 26 Dec 1996 18:23:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from i-gw.dalsys.com (i-gw.dalsys.com [207.42.153.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id SAA25044 for ; Thu, 26 Dec 1996 18:23:18 -0800 (PST) Received: (from smap@localhost) by i-gw.dalsys.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) id UAA10512; Thu, 26 Dec 1996 20:23:13 -0600 Received: from future.dsc.dalsys.com(199.170.161.3) by i-gw.dalsys.com via smap (V1.3) id sma010510; Thu Dec 26 20:23:10 1996 Received: by future.dsc.dalsys.com (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/8.6.12) id AA65212; Fri, 27 Dec 1996 02:29:16 GMT Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 02:29:16 +0000 (CUT) From: Richard Stanford X-Sender: richards@future.dsc.dalsys.com To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Cc: Jacob Suter , freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG, Allen Hyer Subject: Re: Multi port serial cards In-Reply-To: <29247.851651567@time.cdrom.com> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Thu, 26 Dec 1996, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > ugh... 50 modems on a unix box? Ugh!!! > Actually, it seems a lot of folks are starting to have success with > configurations like this, and they don't need to run radiusd and > multiply their accounting headaches as a result. Well, less accounting headaches at first. Once you grow beyond the capacity of one UNIX box to support (or just want a little redundancy) using Radius greatly decreases your accounting headaches. > Admittedly, a portmaster is more plug-n-play (to an extent anyway) > just as a Cisco is more p-n-p as a router, but sometimes cost is > a consideration. :-) Cost -- considering that fully loaded PM3s from Livingston work out to be around $330 a port, leasing for $13 per port, per month, from Livingston, I don't think that cost is as much of a consideration. Price is for full digital modems supporting 64k ISDN and analog connections up to 56k (if and when). Admittedly, you can go UNIX, Serial ports, and, say, Sportsters for less, but when you add in the price of a decent modem (say Courier) you will be spending close to the same price. The Livingston chassis is also NEBS compliant, supports auto-configuring hot-swappable modem cards, et cetera. Is it for everyone? No, of course not. That's why there are several options out there. It's at least worth taking a look at, though. Now if there was only a stable, tested Radius enabled telnetd out there ... anyone have one of these they wouldn't mind sharing? -Richard