Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 17:13:57 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeff Lynch <jeff@mercury.jorsm.com> To: Jacob Suter <jsuter@uranus.intrastar.net> Cc: "John T. Farmer" <jfarmer@sabre.goldsword.com>, rewt@i-Plus.net, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG, jfarmer@goldsword.com Subject: Re: Digital Modem choices Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.970915164957.16726C-100000@mercury.jorsm.com> In-Reply-To: <199709152054.UAA05300@uranus.intrastar.net>
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On Mon, 15 Sep 1997, Jacob Suter wrote: > > vendor (Phylon Tech. at http://www.phylon.com/) looking for help in > > writing & testing FreeBSD drivers for their cards. Currently they have > > W*nNT support. From the looks of it, it (as well as other vendors cards) > > > use the MVIP bus (as used in voice-mail pc's, Computer based Telephony > > apps, etc.) to tie things together. But it looks like it's is/will be > > possible to buy/build your own "ascend" replacement soon using FreeBSD... > > But the issue is, would you want your FreeBSD box to catch on fire like > Ascends like to do? > > I've heard stories of several charred Ascend boxes... And if you can't > afford a PM3, you just got no excuse to be an ISP (IMHO). > > JS > This is different hardware, so the fire comment is silly. Anyway, I think there's great potential in something like this. Too bad the largest obstacle, IMHO, will be perception rather than quality. Lots of computer geeks and service providers are religious about their modems. You could spend lots of time and energy dancing around when someone points their finger at your equipment. I would consider such a solution only if there were LARGE cost savings over industry accepted solutions (arguably like USR, Ascend, Livingston). For example, when someone blames our modems, when we state we use USR, they just might back off and go out and buy a new modem. Try that with a roll-yer-own terminal server product. The PC and Freebsd costs are rather small. But I've seen pretty high prices on these voice boards, although I don't know about this specific one. If the vendor is listening, some of us would probably be willing to purchase a well integrateable solution, but make it MUCH lower total cost or stick with your current market. OTOH, price it low enough to put a real dent in the market share of overpriced integrated modem/ts and keep the interoperability and quality standards very high. If you make it worth our while to take the risk, the rewards could be great. ========================================================================= Jeffrey A. Lynch, President JORSM Internet email: jeff@jorsm.com Northwest Indiana's Full-Service Provider Voice: (219)322-2180 927 Sheffield Avenue, Dyer, IN 46311 Autoresponse: info@jorsm.com http://www.jorsm.com
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