Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 02:33:57 -0400 From: Mike Tancsa <mike@sentex.net> To: Vincent Poy <vince@mail.MCESTATE.COM> Cc: isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Some advice needed. Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19970411023357.00b84100@sentex.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970410231123.11771t-100000@mail.MCESTATE.COM > References: <3.0.1.32.19970411002810.00a6f100@sentex.net>
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At 11:17 PM 4/10/97 -0700, Vincent Poy wrote: >On Fri, 11 Apr 1997, Mike Tancsa wrote: > Hmmm, isn't there anyway to track down a external modem at all? I >mean if there was a problem, I should be able to turn the modems speaker >on and just listen to see if the modems are in fact connecting or not or I >can just try dialing in using a modem myself. Remember, people are dialing in 24hrs a day... Having people always monitoring the modems will cost you money...Connecting? At what speed though... Modems dont always fail 100%. They can start to become problematic and give lower connection speeds that the others. With external analog modems, you dont have any way of tracking this. Once you have 50+ modems, snooping around them starts to become a real pain, and again will cost you money... You want something that is easy to manage. Think about it. If your staff member has to spend 2hrs trying to find a bad modem, that modem just cost you his/her hourly wage. You have to figure stuff like this into your operating costs. Digital modems are far easier to manage, which translates to a lower operating cost... > > As for users, what I want to do is similar to what wenet.net does >with their setup which I don't know what it is. I have no idea who wenet.net is... >All I know is that when >it connects, I get the Unix login prompt on the screen but it's the main >server at the NOC and not at the pop and then they can enter just the >login name for shell access or enter their login-ppp and get ppp. This is easy with a terminal server setup. Also, you want to be able to do PAP/CHAP so that your users dont have to use login scripts. > As for phone lines, what speed is a PRI exactly? A PRI is a type of ISDN service that offers 23 B channels at 64 kbs and one D channel at 64 kbs..You can sort of think of it as a bundle of 24 telephone lines basically... But they are digital so that they can carry both analog (regular modem connections) and digital (ISDN connections). Modern terminal servers do all the necessary demuxing of the line so that you basically plug in one cable from the telco into the back of your your terminal server that contains all 24 of your 'telephone' lines. You dont have a bix block of 24 phone cords like you would going into 24 analog modems. Its just a T1 that your customers dial in on. The PRI has nothing to do with your outbound net connection. You might want to read up a little on it in the ISDN FAQ. >Since the >machine will most likely have a T1 or 56k line going there since there are >customers who need dedicated services so probably a T1. For the terminal >servers, isn't Annex 3 any good anymore or do they cost a lot more than >the Livingston's and the others you have mentioned? Dont know what Annex has done recently... I thought they were bought up by one of the big players... Like I said, I like and use Livingston stuff... ---Mike ********************************************************************** Mike Tancsa (mike@sentex.net) * To do is to be -- Nietzsche Sentex Communications Corp, * To be is to do -- Sartre Cambridge, Ontario * Do be do be do -- Sinatra (http://www.sentex.net/~mdtancsa) *
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