Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!psuvax1!news.cc.swarthmore.edu!netnews.upenn.edu!news.voicenet.com!news From: Marines! (Marines!) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Alternative to Expensive Multiport Serial Boards...? Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 07:41:04 GMT Organization: Voicenet - Internet Access - (215)674-9290 Lines: 41 Message-ID: <4c7oep$riv@news.voicenet.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: philly221.voicenet.com X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent v0.55 Would this idea work? I have been debating the issue of adding several analog dialups to our companie's LAN. The multiport boards from Boca, Digi, etc seem to be used by many, but why couldn't you simply use INTERNAL modems on an inexpensive DX2-66 board? Let's say 4 internal modems. For this setup, you need a motherboard, 8Megs RAM, case, e-net card, and a floppy drive (oh yeah, you need the modems). Shopping mail-order, you're looking at $400-500. I'm thinking that you could do a floppy-based netboot, so a harddisk shouldn't be necessary, right? OK, simply connect the dots, assign the IRQ's, an voila', a modem bank that (I think) is SIGNIFICANTLY more fault-tolerant, and cheaper than the equivalent multiport board; that requires a host to plug into anyway. If your Boca board or driver fails, you're hosed. You could have 64+ users pretty pissed over some lame thing that went wrong. Plus, mpsb's bring serial cable hell. external modems have crappy AC adapters that get tangled, fail, become unplugged, etc.... ugh! In my case, I'm fine. If one modem box goes down, I have several more that are probably still up (assume 64 modems). Also, there is less chance that the plain serial driver is busted in F-BSD. What am I missing here? Networks that can install a *free* Unix OS on a bunch of low-end machines really have no need for multi-port serial cards. They can setup a more reliable, cheaper dialup solution by forgoing the mpsb solution, and keeping it SIMPLE! M