This is probably the WORST advice I have heard _ever_. As any
engineer that works at an ISP will tell you. Making NT route is the
_worst_ idea in the history of bad ideas. Support nightmare. Don't be
cheap, buy a router.
Gene, are you getting kickbacks from these companies or something?
Your advice is so far from the basis of reality I just have to wonder.
Jonah
|
|If your willing to consider an ISDN bus card rather than a stand alone
|router, you can let Microsoft MLPPP stack handel the bonding and
|authentication. Windows 95 can be used as a dial-up server but NT is a
|much better platform.
|
|I know both Teles and Eicon make cards that are ISA or PCI Bus. At least 3
|ISDN cards can reside in a single PC. There are even 3X and 4X BRI cards
|that could yield you 9 to 12 BRI's per system. Both Eicon and Teles load
|low level drivers into NT that treat the ISDN cards as network adapters and
|you can make the individual B-Channels available as Wan-mini-ports with all
|Microsoft services available. For most dial-in/dial-out situations Windows
|RAS (Remote Access Server) will handle all your needs.
|
|Another neat thing that both Teles and Eicon do is load a set of Virtual
|Modems. These appear as installed devices and can be used as V.120, V.110,
|FAX, 56K, and even V.32. This enables you to choose how each
|dial-up-networking-icon will connect to the remote user. The V.32
|emulation even lets you call from an ISDN line to a plane old analog modem
|(still about 14.4 but higher speeds are coming).
|
|Finally the Eicon and Teles cards load a protocol stack known as CAPI 2.0.
|This is a very powerful tool that allows you to run a number of software
|packages that talk to the CAPI. You can use voice applications that are
|integrated into your sound card and speakers. A number of EDI software
|packages use CAPI for automated file transfers between automotive
|manufacturers with sophisticated tracking and record keeping functions.
|You can get very elegant and write your own applications in C++ that let
|you do advanced Networking functions like Bandwidth on demand and AO/DI.
|CAPI has been an open standard in Europe for years and a lot of development
|was even done in the public domain with shareware and freeware programs
|available all over the internet and BBS communities.
|
|In your simple model you could run NT server with two Teles or Eicon single
|BRI cards.
|Teles has their low end cards onsale for $ 99.00 each and Eicon has a
|special for TIUG members in the low hundreds. With both manufacturers you
|can go through several upgraded cards that add pots or additional features
|but most of these cards are under $ 300.00. Some have built in U
|interfaces as well as S/T so you can pretty much choose what you want.
|
|This is tuly the tip of the iceberg. If you have a large network or are an
|ISP you can jump from the lower end cards to vendors like Xircom (Formerly
|PRI) or Promptus. These manufacturers have single BRI cards but they
|specialize in multiple BRI cards and PRI/T1/E1 cards in single and multiple
|flavors. These guys have low level drivers for most every UNIX system as
|well as OS/2, NT and they cover all busses even VME.
|They can break the limit barriers of conventional PC systems and I've even
|seen a setup with 50 dual T1 cards residing in a single machine. They also
|supply a complete API so developers can take full controll of all the
|layers and services available in ISDN.
|
|There is a link for "MORE INFORMATION" on the TIUG web page (www.tiug.org)
|that will lead you to Dan Kegal's excelent web page on ISDN vendors and
|equipment. You can find the vendors I mentioned and many more from there.
|I'm certainly not limiting the possible vendors to Eicon or Teles, I'm just
|using them as an example.
|
|
|> TIA,
|>
|> Butch
|>
|> Butch Kemper | Free sound advice available
|> Brazos Internet Consulting Group | "95% sound and 5% advice"
|> 409-361-2324 | Refunds cheerfully provided
|>
|
|Good luck and let us know how your poroject proceeds.
|
|Gene
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|J. E. "Gene" Chesser chesser@tiug.org
|http://home1.gte.net/gchesser/ 915-646-2116
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|Texas ISDN Users Group http://www.tiug.org/
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Jonah Barron Yokubaitis | Austin|San Antonio|Houston
President | Dallas|Fort Worth|Boerne
Texas.Net | Georgetown|Dripping Springs
http://www.texas.net | Making 56k affordable