*BSD News Article 83080


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From: Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.protocols.ppp,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Re: Best Unix for SLIP/PPP Server- Best Reliability/Cost?
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 16:03:49 -0800
Organization: Whistle Communications
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Brian Somers wrote:
> 

> 
> It would be better to have something like a terminal server translating your
> traffic to something more "expandable" like network traffic.
> 

at the price of old 386 machines 

it would be a better idea to set up 
a separate box for each 16 ports or so, and run them off
a special
"terminal server" floppy ,
maybe with a memory filesystem as is done on teh boot floppy.

I'm sure you could make the following configuration work just fine:

16 ports of SIO
4 MB ram
1 floppy
1 ethernet card
1 ancient 386(sx?) machine

you could stack these infinitly to get a very expandable solution..

the 16 ports of IO would be the most expensive part

julian