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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!hpg30a.csc.cuhk.hk!night.primate.wisc.edu!caen!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!torn!uunet.ca!uunet.ca!news.junction.net!not-for-mail From: michael@junction.net (Michael Dillon) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: What is best UNIX & hardware for ISP? Date: 14 Dec 1994 23:19:33 -0800 Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction, Vernon B.C., Canada Lines: 66 Message-ID: <3coqm5$4ob@okjunc.junction.net> References: <riceD0oLKx.455@netcom.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.junction.net In article <riceD0oLKx.455@netcom.com>, Eric Reid <rice@netcom.com> wrote: >I am thinking of setting up a local ISP and would like to get some input >on the best OS and hardware to use for this purpose... Is BSDI worth the >$995 for the source or should I just stick with Linux or FreeBSD (note: I >know nothing about any of these operating systems... any info is >appreciated).. Go with BSD/OS from BSDI. It's much cheaper than Linux. I know this from the bitter experience of running my ISP on Linux for 3 months. We are in the process of switching to BSD/OS right now. Even with Linux kernel 1.0.8 there are too many things that take hours or days to track down and fix, if it is even possible. > What is the hardware best suited for this? Should I go >for a P90 or stick with a 486/66? Stick with 486's They are powerful enough and you don't have to deal with buggy leading edge hardware like the PCI-bus Pentium motherboards and the floating point bugs... >How much RAM and disk space (IDE or SCSI?) SCSI. Too many problems with IDE handling bigger than 520 megabyte drives and with SCSI it is a snap to add a decent DAT tape backup that will handle 4 gigs or so. Make sure the news server has at least 16 megabytes of RAM but user machines can get away with 8-12 megs of RAM. Don't try more than 16 megs unless you are using an EISA bus machine (which is a good idea but really demands that you use an EISA SCSI host adapter and network card). The NE2000 clones are OK but some people have problems with them and swear by 3C509's > Which Multi-port board should I go for? Digiboard intelligent multiport boards. Check with them for models and details. But you might want to go with a terminal server like the Livingston Portmaster which also handles SLIP and PPP accounts for you seamlessly. >Is the RISCom/N2 >good if I go with BSD/OS or should I go for an external router (If the >former, should I get the N2-S or N2-D?) ? definitely go with an external router like the Livingston IRX, or the new R series Portmasters that are a combined terminal server and router. > Should I go for Rackmount >modems or just regular externals? get USR Courier v.34bis modems and get somebody to build a custom power supply to plug them into so you can get rid of the plug-in bricks which are failure prone. > How many? One for each phone line.... :-) This you must determine based upon the size of your market area. -- Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022 C-4 Powerhouse BBS: +1-604-546-2705 RR #2 Armstrong, B.C. Internet: michael@junction.net Canada Compuserve: 71532,137