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From: macwhiz@phoebe.accinet.net (Rob Levandowski)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD and ISDN -- final analysis?
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 08:09:27 -0500
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In article <5obd62$18v@news.gvsu.edu>, behrensm@river.it.gvsu.edu (Matt
Behrens) wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> In my quest to figure out if FreeBSD & ISDN really is possible, I did a
> little research first (even R-ingTFM, believe it or not) :) and have come
> up with two conflicting information sources.
> 
> 1. The FreeBSD handbook states that ISDN is possible simply by hooking it
>    up to the serial port and using PPP, albeit limited to 115Kbps.
> 
> 2. Joerg (my apologies if I mispelled the name, I am a product of the
>    American public education system after all) ;) said in a post about a
>    month ago that ISDN needed the BISDN package, which was in a state of
>    incompleteness due to a need for complete rewrites right now.
> 
> Which is correct?  I have a customer who wants a machine built, wants to
> move to ISDN at some point in the future, and would prefer FreeBSD over
> Linux because of the stability.  Thanks!

There is a third way, which may be more desirable in many cases.  Instead
of going with an ISDN terminal adapter approach, you could instead use an
ISDN-to-Ethernet router, such as an Ascend Pipeline [25|50|75].  In that
case, the FreeBSD box simply needs a supported Ethernet card.  I have a
Pipeline 75, and (phone company nonsense excepted) it wasn't hard to set
up, and it works beautifully.  Best of all, it's trivial to hook multiple
computers into the same ISDN connection this way.

Having seen friends try and get various ISDN TAs to work with various
Intel-based operating systems, I must say that I've become a strong
proponent of ISDN routers. :)

-- 
Robert Levandowski
macwhiz@phoebe.accinet.net