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From: Joe Greco <jgreco@solaria.sol.net>
Message-Id: <199703242240.QAA19919@solaria.sol.net>
Subject: Re: reliable modems?
To: stefan@exis.net (Stefan Molnar)
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 97 16:40:41 CST
Cc: spork@super-g.com, richard@pegasus.com, freebsd-isp@freeBSD.ORG,
        freebsd-hardware@freeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970324171954.6035B-100000@tarpon.exis.net> from "Stefan Molnar" at Mar 24, 97 05:23:16 pm
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> > I'm sitting about 30 meters from a room where there are TWELVE HUNDRED
> > Courier modems.  A local ISP used a bit of creativity and developed a
> > nifty way to set up arrays of 120 Courier modems, complete with phone,
> > power, and network wiring for the four Portmasters on each array.
>  
> > It's a bit scary to see 120 modems all powered by a single step-down
> > transformer (10 identical racks).  The modems kick off a bit of heat,
> > too.  On the other hand, it's very easy to debug, and is a relatively
> > inexpensive per-port solution to the problem.
> 
> We are doing the exact same thing.  I think they are cooler looking with
> a big old transformer do it all.

More chance for carnage if anything goes wrong, though.  :-)

> > It's quite impressive to see a telco demarc for 1200 analog lines.
> 
> That I would like to see, but I will stick with all the fiber lines.

You need copper for standard Couriers.  (However, the local telco long
ago gave up trying to provide copper, they buried a LiteSpan 2000 in the
back room...  so there's only 50 feet of copper between the modems and
telco equipment).

... JG