Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 13:25:27 -0400 (EDT) From: "John T. Farmer" <jfarmer@goldsword.com> To: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: jfarmer@goldsword.com Subject: Re: Looking for... Message-ID: <199810051725.NAA25032@sabre.goldsword.com>
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Sun, 04 Oct 1998 02:52:32 -0500 "Jeffrey J. Mountin" said: >At 09:27 AM 10/2/98 -0400, John T. Farmer wrote: >>>One has to wonder why you want such an odd creature. >>The typical use of such a beast would be in a small office to allow 1 or >>2 people to dial into the office network. I've also looked for such >>a creature for use in specialized networks such as remote access to >>plant control systems. > >Certainly, but why not go either/or. Unless you plan to use the office >network for internet access. And I do understand that those using may >not have ISDN and some may not have a modem, but what are Andrew's needs. Since he asked in a general way, I'm not really sure what his parameters are. I could design a solution, but I'd need some more info. >>In both of these examples, there were compelling reasons to _not_ >>connect the lan to the Internet or use a VPN through the Internet. > >VPN <shudder> Yeah, but it appears to be "The next big thing" (tm?). I get questions about it frequently, both for remote dialup to home office and for branch office to home office. >What's wrong with the OR-U for access? Don't know about the Netgear >stuff much, excecpt that it works well and can be had with ethernet, >unlike the 3Com Impact I use at home. Ther is a 4 port version, but >what Livingston has is the ability to filter and can use PAP for access >control. Not certain if either can be applied to the phone port on the >OR-AP version. Different users can have different filters as well. > >No matter what it appears that 2 pieces of equipment are required or a >considerable amount of money and more ports than you need, as you suggest >in another message. > >We are missing the point that is this is hanging off a FBSD box, the >serial ports and a 2nd NIC could be used for less than a MP-8 or 1800. Depending on the needs, this can work well and a low cost. Had a client that wanted to be able to dial directly into his office lan both from home and on the road. Also wanted to be able to have one of his employees dial-in also. Client had ISDN at home, x2/v.90 modem in his laptop. Employee had 33.6 modem. We brought an ISDN BRI circuit to his equipment closet where we had a FreeBSD box doing several other tasks. Strapped a Courier 33.6 to the POTS port of a Courier I-modem, programmed them for incoming calls, and connected to the 2 motherboard serial ports. Was it the most elegant solution? prob. not. Did it do what the client wanted? Yes. Total install cost was ~$600. Another approach we've worked on for other clients did use VPN with the remotes dialing into our modem pool and being tunnelled on their office dedicated link back to their lan. Again, special requirements. John ------------------------------------------------------------------------- John T. Farmer Proprietor, GoldSword Systems jfarmer@goldsword.com Public Internet Access in East Tennessee Office: (423)691-6498 for info, e-mail to info@goldsword.com Network Design, Internet Services & Servers, Consulting To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
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