*BSD News Article 65148


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From: unger@raindrop.seaslug.org (Thomas Unger)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: ISDN
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 23:49:00 GMT
Organization: Wet Weather Consulting
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <Dp7JHo.n7.0.raindrop.seaslug.org@raindrop.seaslug.org>
References: <4ivo5k$jq3@sundog.tiac.net> <315AFE74.41C67EA6@FreeBSD.org> <peter.828238209@jhome.DIALix.COM> <4jois1$97m@bluesprings.in-brb.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs103-7.u.washington.edu

In article <4jois1$97m@bluesprings.in-brb.de>,
Lars Hentschke <nuggets@bluesprings.in-brb.de> wrote:
>There are many serial Cards, which uses 2x speed or 4x speed. 
>I'm using such a Card with 230kbps an a Zyxel Elite (ISDN), which is also
>capable up to 460kbps over the serial line.
>Most of the external ISDN-TA's (with 2 B channels) can do more than 115200.

Well, the external adapters are attractive.  I could share it between
computers.  But then I'm giving away a bit of bandwith (which I'm
paying for monthly).  

I could get a faster serial card.  That would allow me to pick up the
extra bandwith and maybe reduce the number of interupts.  Running ppp
on a 28.8 modem over a serial port at 57600 the interupts come often
and I think I'm noticing a drag on the system.  Hopefully a serial
card with a larger buffer could solve that problem.  But how does the
serial card know when to interupt?  It can't always wait till the
buffer is full.  Maybe some kind of timeout, could be quite short.
But probably won't be as good as a custom board.

Another issue is all the additional services that one gets with ISDN.
My vauge understanding is that you get a couple voice lines in the
bundle.  So I could potentially get rid of the two POTS (plane old
telephone service) lines that I have, making the cost of ISDN look
more reasonable.  But then, don't I need some sort of adapter to get
two voice lines out of the ISDN service?  Do some ISDN modems have
that while other's don't?  

I have yet to find a good source for information on ISDN service.
Checked my phone company web pages and just got a lot of jargon.
Maybe I should call them on the phone...


Tom.