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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!feed1.news.erols.com!panix!news.panix.com!not-for-mail From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) 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: 13 Nov 1996 18:23:05 -0500 Organization: Panix Lines: 41 Message-ID: <56dl8p$rje@panix2.panix.com> References: <56cfhc$h8b@access5.digex.net> <56d1m9$9ba@server05.icaen.uiowa.edu> Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com NNTP-Posting-Host: panix2.panix.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.admin:50310 comp.protocols.ppp:15873 comp.unix.questions:91180 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:30980 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:4849 In article <56d1m9$9ba@server05.icaen.uiowa.edu>, Doug Siebert <dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu> wrote: >briang@access5.digex.net (Brian G.) writes: > >>I am looking for the best Reliability/Performance/Price (in that order) >>OS for handling a large number of SLIP/PPP connections (Don't want >>a terminal server - this is a wierd application). > >>Also, I am seeking suggested configurations (CPU, RAM, DISK, etc) for a >>system capable of handling up to 1000 connections (possibly more) at a time. > > >Just finding a Unix machine capable of handling 1000 simultaneous serial >connections will be a really hard. 1000 TCP/IP connections is easy, but >serial is going to require a lot of external hardware, and I'll bet it is >very expensive, and requires a very high end system to be expandable enough. >Maybe you can do it with PCs, they probably have cards that'll do maybe 8 >serial connections per card, so a few _dozen_ PCs could do this. Do you >really want to manage a few dozen PCs in this way? I wouldn't. There are a number of ISA and PCI-bus intelligent serial cards which will handle either 16 or 32 serial ports per card. If you shop around, you might even find one that uses the Cirrus Logic chipset which can do PPP in the UART and DMA TCP/IP packets into memory for you. Load a PC up with such cards, and you're at at least 100 ports per system. What, do you think that PCs only have one slot? >You will do a LOT better getting enough terminal servers to handle 1000 >connections and then a separate Unix box or boxes of whatever type you like >to handle the "weird application" of which you speak. Maybe. If you can do it all in one piece, why spend the dough on the terminal servers? The real question is how many serial ports he can put in a PC before the thing has such a tremendous interrupt load that it can't get anything else done. -- Thor Lancelot Simon tls@panix.COM There's nothing like rancid bear fat to keep you happy. -Perry Metzger