Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 16:10:21 -0600 (MDT) From: Doug Russell <drussell@saturn-tech.com> To: "John T. Farmer" <jfarmer@goldsword.com> Cc: bill@bilver.magicnet.net, chuckr@picnic.mat.net, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cheapo 56k hardware Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990427155458.11860A-100000@calvin.saturn-tech.com> In-Reply-To: <199904180252.WAA17151@rapier.goldsword.com>
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Sorry for the late reply... I forgot to send this before, and it might be mildly useful to have in the archives, since I just did basically the same thing. On Sat, 17 Apr 1999, John T. Farmer wrote: > The USR method (using BRI circuits) involves: > > 1. Find an MP/8I or 16I modem bank (new, they're $2800 to $3900. > Used you might be able to grab one $2k. They go fast on > the used market.) Unfortunately, they are now discontinued, and very hard to find. This was my first choice with a multi-port card in a FreeBSD box. The other problem is you are limited to 8 or 16 at a time. I only wanted 4, but was resolved to but an MP/8i and have 4 spare modems for later. There are then three possibilities. I could move 4 analog Couriers to the POTS interface on 4 U-interface couriers, but pay twice the analog line charge per month for those 4 POTS modems, buy 4 S/T-interface I-modems and two external NT-1s, but I can't find NT-1s for less than about $250 (Canadian, for the Motorola one)... so an MP/8 would be cheaper if I could find one... The third solution (and the one I picked, and am relatively pleased with), was the new Remote Access System 1500. Nice little rack unit, it acts as its own terminal server, has a 10baseT port, of course, plus a WAN port for frame relay, etc, and has two slots in the front that accept either a 4 port POTS modem card, or a 2-BRI ISDN card. Up to three more expansion chasis can be stacked via firewire ports on the base unit, and each one adds another PowerPC processor in the expansion unit to run that unit, and there are two in the base unit. (One for management, one to run the first two slots). The nifty thing was, it cost me the same as it would to buy 4 S/T I-modems, NT-1s, and a cheap-o $150 8-port BOCA 16550-based card. (Or, of you prefer, you get a terminal server for only a couple hundred bucks over an MP/8) I paid just slightly over $3K Canadian, which means it should be about $2K in the US. 4 ports at a time is the right increment for my little system, and at about $1K for the next modem card, it's actually reasonable. The only real problem I've had is I still haven't been able to make the thing log correctly to Syslog on a FreeBSD box. It logs stupid events that I do NOT have enabled, and doesn't log the things I do have enabled, but logging from the console port works fine! I think it must be a bug in the firmware, or I've configured something wrong, or a nutrino hit something in there. :) Temporarily, I'm just doing a cat /dev/ttyd3 > /var/log/stackconsole.log :) Works for me! Later...... <Doug> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
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