From owner-freebsd-hardware Thu Oct 2 10:36:44 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id KAA10733 for hardware-outgoing; Thu, 2 Oct 1997 10:36:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from misery.sdf.com (misery.sdf.com [204.244.210.193]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id KAA10725 for ; Thu, 2 Oct 1997 10:36:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: from tom by misery.sdf.com with smtp (Exim 1.71 #1) id 0xGpAD-0002xP-00; Thu, 2 Oct 1997 10:35:49 -0700 Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 10:35:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Tom To: Richard Foulk cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Multiple serial ports In-Reply-To: <199710020640.UAA04547@pegasus.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Richard Foulk wrote: > } Actually, there are several vendors of terminal servers that will do > } 4 to 16 serial ports in the <$1500 range (some much less than that!). > } The downside is the number of control lines available, sometimes the > } maximin port speed, and some of the "routing" type features. Check out > } Lantronix, Equinox, Chase, Stallion, some of the cheaper DEC boxes, etc. > > Quirky and slow. I've tested the Stallions and sent them back, and heard > others doing the same with other cheap boxes. > > They may be able to run one port at a reasonable speed, say 9600 > or 19200. More than that and they bog down and get jerky and slow. > Just one printer connection and a single interactive telnet session at > the same time becomes unbearable. > > And, do any of them have modem control? Ugh... why bother with this stuff? You can get a used Livingston PM2e/30 with 30 RS-232 serial ports (full control lines), full PPP/SLIP (including auto-detection of PPP) and routing capabilities (including OSPF) for $1500. They can run all 30 ports at 115200 simultaneously. > Richard Tom