From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Sep 15 09:12:42 1995 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id JAA17786 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 15 Sep 1995 09:12:42 -0700 Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id JAA17776 for ; Fri, 15 Sep 1995 09:12:36 -0700 Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id JAA01227; Fri, 15 Sep 1995 09:10:51 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199509151610.JAA01227@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: Looking for ISDN PRI solutions To: brian@MediaCity.com (Brian Litzinger) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 09:10:51 -0700 (MST) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <199509150915.CAA02119@easy1.mediacity.com> from "Brian Litzinger" at Sep 15, 95 02:15:08 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 3779 Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk > I realize that at first glance this message might be more appropriate > to a different forum, however, I've already been to those forums and > know those answers. Personally, I recommend *against* ISDN. Mostly because the tarrif's allow them to start charging outrageous connect charge rates (upwards of $600/month for a 1/2 circuit, if connected 24/7). Amancio Hasty is probably one of your best bets. He runs an ascend pipeline and talks about it all the time. 8-). In an interesting related note, TCI is installing fiber optic to the home lines in 100,000 homes in Southern California. This is phone and cable and full ethernet speed to the net. If you can get in on that, it seems a good deal. Contact TCI for more information (not me). AT&T has been running tests of data delivery systems on the East Coast using POTS lines. Apparently, if you are in a location with a DV100, DV200, or 5ESS or better switch, they have a card that goes in place of the ISDN card in the switch and does 6Mb/S out an 4Mb/S in. Until the inter-LATA connections go in, though, the back channel will be limited to 64k (ISDN) speeds at the switch (ie: the 4Mb/S is not going to be available immediately). For those who follow HDTV standards, this is sufficient forward channel for 2 HDTV video-on-demand sessions simultaneously, assuming the US's digital HDTV standards. They give you a card for your machine when you get this. If the primary reason you are doing this is site-to-site at ISDN speeds and downloads from the net, this might be an option. Contact AT&T for more information (not me). Both of these would probably be bad for putting up a web server (for instance) but so would most ISDN. > Basically, my company is about to spend tens of thousands of dollars > purchasing ISDN router equipment. We have had in for evaluation > Combinet, Ascend, Network Express, CISCO, and have been relatively > dissatisfied with the results. If neither of the above is an option, there are two other options that aren't necessarily "real" ISDN. The first is Frame Relay. I recommend Frame Relay over ISDN where possible because it is impossible to put a connection/connection duration tarrif on Frame Relay, whereas most phone companies intend to bill time on ISDN. I prefer flat rate. If you go to Yahoo on www and look under ISDN, go to the ISDN page, and look at the tarrif chart, you'll be able to see if this is for you or not. The second option uses ISDN equipment and depends on you sharing a switch between your locations. You get Centrex lines between your locations, and use ISDN DOVBS (Data Over Voice Bearer Service) modems to connect at 64k between the locations. Centrex is a flat rate not tarrif'ed service. In some US West areas, they call it "Centron" or otherwise vary the name so as to increase your phone bill by upping their literature and training costs (at least that the reason I suppose they have for non-uniform naming). > So what am I looking for? > > I want a card or a router/bridge that allows us to offer PPP > connections via ISDN B channels. > > I want to drag in a 24/30 B channel PRI and plug it into my FreeBSD box. There was a recent post to the list about an Isoethernet card. Although not released yet, it supposedly supports regular ethernet and 96 B channels simultaneously. It looks like just the ticket, but you'd need to write a driver. > I then want software that allows me to run PPP over each of the > B channels to whomever might dialin and has the appropriate > authorization to connect. I also want a log of connection times. Consulting or in house programming required. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.