Re: How many modems ?
On Mon, 22 Sep 1997 10:49:22 -0400, Jason Costomiris wrote: On Mon, Sep 22, 1997 at 03:05:35AM -0500, Dave Cinege wrote: : Do yourself a favor, if you want a terminal server, buy a terminal server. : : If you need a good number of modems, pick up a used Livingston PM2 or : PM2e. If you need to support a large userbase, consider a PM3 : or an Ascend Max. : : Why? My linux RADIUS termserver works great. Runs solid state out of ram, : boots off a floppy. (Or a flashram card if thats what you wanna use) Linux isn't exactly optimized for use as a terminal server... I'd rather concentrate on QoS, instead of concentrating on the cheapest solution around. It's not even really that much cheaper. Consider what it costs to build... Linux Server [1] - $3000 Cyclades 48 Port [2] - $3402 48 Modems ($125 * 48) - $6000 Another Linux Server[3]- $2000 - Total $14402 I would be happy to sell as many 48port termservers that you want for $1800 each. That's a far cry from $5400. I'm a hardware dealer, but I'm sure if you did enough work you could build something yourself for close to this price (or even less). Hey I'll even give you a 48 stack of nice little multitech modems (what I use myself) for $5520. ($115, tiny, connect speed leds, made in the USA, 10 year warranty) I'm not joking eitheryou can hold me to these prices. You'll not find me openly offering these items yet, only because the router project has a little ways to go before it it is usable by non-linux admins. (The shell and web config utils are coming soon) Livingston PM3 w/50 Modems $11800 Linux Server [4] -$2000 -- Total $13800 Oops, the digital solution (i.e. the PM3) is cheaper. Here in Bell Atlantic-land, PRI's cost $435 a month. Livingston has support for NFAS coming shortly, so you can use 47 B channels over a pair of PRI's. You also have 3 hot spares in the PortMaster. Take a look at what the POTS lines cost you with the Linux+Cyclades solution, and you'll see that it's not worth it, since with PRI, you can also provide ISDN services. There are PRI solutions for linux right now, but nothing for K56. (that, I've found) I do expect to see such a solution for K56 over PRI and BRI within the next few months. As an added bonus, the PM3 is a nice, small rack mountable unit. That Linux solution would be a monstrosity of cables, power strips, and home-grown racks to keep the modems from falling all over themselves. Probably a fire hazard too. Is it worth $5500+ to you to not go out and buy some zip ties? Granted you are not going to find a cleaner set-up then the PM3 right now, but that is only because of their propritary digital modem pool cards. Once an ISA/PCI hardware solution is out for that, this argument is dead. You are also dealing with the same thing if you go with a PM and an external modem setup. That reminds meanother reason I use those multitechs is they take +9VDC. When I get enough I'll just get one (or several for redunancy) big power supplies. If there is enough demand I'll offer such a solution to my customers. As for the case, any minitower will work just fine. For what I build I use a case that is as wide at a baby motherboard and about 8 inches high. It's smaller then a PM. Linux is a wonderful OS. It's great at being a server for numerous applications, including classic Internet related services, as well as file print (Samba and Netatalk), databases (mSQL, MySQL, Flagship, others), workstation applications (CAD, software dev), and network management (scotty + tkined, SNMP, sniffit, tcpdump). It *can* also be used as a router or a terminal server. However, it certainly does not excel at either task. Not if you haven't done your homework ; [1] A studly enough box to support 48 modems. Depends on dump or smart serial board. Smart, 486 66 should be comfortable, dumb, pentium class...maybe 100. 16MB should be OK. With the price of memory it won't kill you to throw in 32 either. [2] According to the Cyclades web site [3] You'll need another one to handle mail, web, dns, etc... You always need that. [4] As advertised recently in the isp-services mailing list. Anything you could build and sell for $2K I wouldn't classify as a server. : P - http://www.psychosis.com/emc/ Elite MicroComputers 908-541-4214 http://www.psychosis.com/linux-router/ Linux Router Project -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How many modems ?
On Tue, Sep 23, 1997 at 07:41:52AM -0500, Dave Cinege wrote: : [1] A studly enough box to support 48 modems. : : Depends on dump or smart serial board. Smart, 486 66 should be comfortable, : dumb, pentium class...maybe 100. 16MB should be OK. With the price of : memory it won't kill you to throw in 32 either. Ahh.. answering the phone is one thing. You need the studliness to handle the pppd's and the routing. Articles I've read suggest having 2 MB RAM per modem, after OS overhead.. What has your experience been? : Anything you could build and sell for $2K I wouldn't classify as a server. : : P Oh, but you didn't see the newsbeast I built last weekend... P-200 128 MB RAM Pair of 2940UW's bus0 - HP C3325A (2GB) OS swap HP C3325A History HP C3325A Logs more swap bus1 - 4 x HP C3331A (4.3G ea) md0 for /var/spool/news If I didn't buy that bucket o' disk, and built a 'normal' server, it would have run about 1900... -- Jason Costomiris | VMS is about as secure as a poodle [EMAIL PROTECTED] | encased in a block of lucite http://www.jasons.org/~jcostom/ | about as useful, too. #include disclaimer.h | --some guy I read on Usenet -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How many modems ?
On Sat, 20 Sep 1997 19:30:27 -0400, Jason Costomiris wrote: On Fri, Sep 19, 1997 at 02:09:29AM +0200, dada wrote: : How many modems can attach to my computer controlled by linux? I don't know about a theoretical maximum, however, I've seen people comfortably use 16 or 32, using multiport serial cards. However, this smells like you're going to use the box as a terminal server. Do yourself a favor, if you want a terminal server, buy a terminal server. If you need a good number of modems, pick up a used Livingston PM2 or PM2e. If you need to support a large userbase, consider a PM3 or an Ascend Max. Why? My linux RADIUS termserver works great. Runs solid state out of ram, boots off a floppy. (Or a flashram card if thats what you wanna use) Linux Router Project -- - http://www.psychosis.com/emc/ Elite MicroComputers 908-541-4214 http://www.psychosis.com/linux-router/ Linux Router Project -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How many modems ?
On Mon, Sep 22, 1997 at 03:05:35AM -0500, Dave Cinege wrote: : Do yourself a favor, if you want a terminal server, buy a terminal server. : : If you need a good number of modems, pick up a used Livingston PM2 or : PM2e. If you need to support a large userbase, consider a PM3 : or an Ascend Max. : : Why? My linux RADIUS termserver works great. Runs solid state out of ram, : boots off a floppy. (Or a flashram card if thats what you wanna use) Linux isn't exactly optimized for use as a terminal server... I'd rather concentrate on QoS, instead of concentrating on the cheapest solution around. It's not even really that much cheaper. Consider what it costs to build... Linux Server [1]- $3000 Cyclades 48 Port [2]- $3402 48 Modems ($125 * 48) - $6000 Another Linux Server[3] - $2000 - Total $14402 Livingston PM3 w/50 Modems $11800 Linux Server [4]-$2000 -- Total $13800 Oops, the digital solution (i.e. the PM3) is cheaper. Here in Bell Atlantic-land, PRI's cost $435 a month. Livingston has support for NFAS coming shortly, so you can use 47 B channels over a pair of PRI's. You also have 3 hot spares in the PortMaster. Take a look at what the POTS lines cost you with the Linux+Cyclades solution, and you'll see that it's not worth it, since with PRI, you can also provide ISDN services. As an added bonus, the PM3 is a nice, small rack mountable unit. That Linux solution would be a monstrosity of cables, power strips, and home-grown racks to keep the modems from falling all over themselves. Probably a fire hazard too. Linux is a wonderful OS. It's great at being a server for numerous applications, including classic Internet related services, as well as file print (Samba and Netatalk), databases (mSQL, MySQL, Flagship, others), workstation applications (CAD, software dev), and network management (scotty + tkined, SNMP, sniffit, tcpdump). It *can* also be used as a router or a terminal server. However, it certainly does not excel at either task. [1] A studly enough box to support 48 modems. [2] According to the Cyclades web site [3] You'll need another one to handle mail, web, dns, etc... [4] As advertised recently in the isp-services mailing list. -- Jason Costomiris | VMS is about as secure as a poodle [EMAIL PROTECTED] | encased in a block of lucite http://www.jasons.org/~jcostom/ | about as useful, too. #include disclaimer.h | --some guy I read on Usenet -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How many modems ?
On Fri, Sep 19, 1997 at 02:09:29AM +0200, dada wrote: : How many modems can attach to my computer controlled by linux? I don't know about a theoretical maximum, however, I've seen people comfortably use 16 or 32, using multiport serial cards. However, this smells like you're going to use the box as a terminal server. Do yourself a favor, if you want a terminal server, buy a terminal server. If you need a good number of modems, pick up a used Livingston PM2 or PM2e. If you need to support a large userbase, consider a PM3 or an Ascend Max. -- Jason Costomiris | VMS is about as secure as a poodle [EMAIL PROTECTED] | encased in a block of lucite http://www.jasons.org/~jcostom/ | about as useful, too. #include disclaimer.h | --some guy I read on Usenet -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: How many modems ?
How many modems can attach to my computer controlled by linux? How many do you want? Seriously! You are only limited by the number of serial ports you can get into your box. So, anywhere from 4 to 128 are common using Boca BB2016, Digiboards, RocketPorts, etc. (However, if you're looking for quite a number of dialin lines, a modem server such as the Livingston PortMaster III might be more what you're looking for. It's a much better option than a whole swack of modems sitting on a shelf. See http://www.livingston.com for more info.) Later, Kevin Traas Baan Business Systems Systems Analyst Langley, BC, Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 882-8169 http://www.baan-bbs.ca --- Linux is not user-friendly. It _is_ user-friendly. It's just not ignorant-friendly or idiot-friendly. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
RE: How many modems ?
I think you are limited to one modem per serial port. I am not sure what the limit is on serial ports but I know there is a Moxa multiport system with 128 serial ports and I THINK it might be expandable to 256. On 19-Sep-97 dada wrote: Hi... How many modems can attach to my computer controlled by linux? Regards -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
