*BSD News Article 83115


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From: dillon@flea.best.net (Matt Dillon)
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: 18 Nov 1996 06:40:33 GMT
Organization: BEST Internet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <56p0d1$gp5@nntp1.best.com>
References: <56cfhc$h8b@access5.digex.net> <56m2q9$k1c@cynic.portal.ca> <56mi1l$6pa@nntp1.best.com> <56o21s$6ad@cynic.portal.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: flea.best.net
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.admin:50552 comp.protocols.ppp:15935 comp.unix.questions:91457 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:31194 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:4885

:In article <56o21s$6ad@cynic.portal.ca>,
:Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.portal.ca> wrote:
:>In article <56mi1l$6pa@nntp1.best.com>,
:>Matt Dillon <dillon@flea.best.net> wrote:
:>
:>>    In general, the only reason multi-port turnkey (black box) solutions
:>>    are more expensive then PC solutions is that it's a seller's market.
:>>    It actually costs a whole lot less to make a black box with a whole
:>>    slew of serial ports and an ethernet interface then it is to run them
:>>    on a PC.
:>
:>Well, there is the minor matter of writing the software that runs
:>on those boxes. (Or perhaps this is something a real `hardware
:>engineer' can whip off in a day or two.)
:>
:>cjs
:>-- 
:>Curt Sampson    cjs@portal.ca		Info at http://www.portal.ca/
:>Internet Portal Services, Inc.	
:>Vancouver, BC   (604) 257-9400		De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil.

   It takes a combination of hardware and software engineering.  That is
   certainly a factor.  But the actual software is not all that complicated.
   You don't even need to implement a TCP stack, just the PPP protocol 
   on the serial port end, standard ethernet on the ethernet end, and 
   real trivial routing to support dyamic PPP.  static IP is harder... but
   still not a huge deal.

						-Matt