< | ^ | >

8. PPP hardware

Before even thinking of reading this document, refer to the disclaimer in part 1 of the "frequently asked questions".

8.1 Hardware that does async PPP

[Started by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) and heavily edited, to include information from the net, by i.s.] This is an INCOMPLETE list of hardware that supports async PPP, in the form of a terminal server or terminal server / router combination.

8.1.1 DECserver

Vendor
Digital Equipment Corporation
Phone: +1-800-DIGITAL (+1-800-344-4825)
SELF-DESCRIPTION
Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 13:06:19 EDT
From: Jesse Walker <walker@nacto.lkg.dec.com>

Digital Equipment Corporation's DECserver family of Network Access Servers support IP, IPX, and AppleTalk over PPP, with interoperability demonstrated with all the commonly available client implementations for all three protocols. The DECserver family includes the DECserver 90M, 90TL, 700, and 900TM. The 90M and 90TL are 8 asynch line servers, supporting speeds up 57.6 Kbps. The 700 comes in two models: an 8 asynch line version using DB25 connectors that support full modem control, and a 16 asynch line model. The 900 is a 32 asynch line server. The 700 and 900 class machines support speeds up to 115.2 Kbps. All work well with any Hayes compatible modem. All except the 90TL have a FLASH RAM option, or can be loaded either via BOOTP or MOP.

For more information about DECserver Network Access Server, contact the Digital Technical Consulting Center at 1-800-DIGITAL (1-800-344-4825) and press "1" to order or "2" to speak with a technical consultant.

8.1.2 Telebit Netblazer

Telebit
Phone: +1 800 TELEBIT
ftp information from ftp.telebit.com
SELF-DESCRIPTION
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 94 09:57:58 PDT
From: Mark.S.Lewis@Telebit.com

The NetBlazer supports 24 async lines. An individual line can be run at 115.2Kbps. A benchmark by LANQUEST showed the NetBlazer could run PPP on 24 async lines at 38.4Kbps. I don't know of any customers who run exclusively PPP on 24 lines, but I know of several that run mixtures of SLIP and PPP on 24 lines.

OPINION:
From: bjs@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian J. Smith)
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 23:35:18 GMT

A NetBlazer works flawlessly for remote site PPP/SLIP links. As a term server it doesn't fit the bill. And a bit costly.

8.1.4 Livingston Portmaster PM-11

Vendor
Livingston Enterprises, Inc: +1 510 426 0770
ftp information from gator.netcom.com:/pub/livingston/
SELF-DESCRIPTION
... have 10-, 20- and 30-port configurations. List prices ranging from ~US$2.7K to ~US$3.8K. Contact <doug@livingston.com> for more information.

8.1.5 Xylogics Microannex XL and Annex 3 (and others)

- Xylogics MicroAnnex XL	(8-16 ports - release 9.2 firmware)
- Xylogics Annex 3		(8-64 ports - release 9.2 firmware)
(up to 57600 bps)
- Xylogics Remote Annex 2000	(8 or 16 ports, 486-class processor)
- Xylogics Remote Annex 4000	(16 to 72 ports, 2 or 3 486's)
(up to 115200 bps)
- Xylogics Remote Annex 6100	(1 T1 CSU, up to 24 V34 modems, 2 486's)
- Xylogics Remote Annex 6300	(1 T1 or E1 PRI line, up to 32 V.34
				 modems, 2 486DX's, R13.0 software)
SELF-DESCRIPTION
From: carlson@xylogics.com (James Carlson)
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1993 14:28:40 EDT

Current version has IPCP and PAP. We don't have a sync PPP version yet, mostly because we don't support sync serial yet. That is scheduled for the R9.3 release, along with ATCP, IPXCP and CHAP.

We have had async PPP since our R7.0 release in October 1992 for our Annex 3 and Micro Annex XL platforms. PPP is not supported on the (now obsolete) Annex 2 nor on the Micro Annex ELS.

The Annex 3 can be customer-upgraded from 8 to 64 async serial lines, with full modem controls on each line, and two to three i376 processors. (The i376 is an embedded version of the 80386 which does not have an MMU.) The motherboard has one i376 and each serial card (maximum two) has one. Packet routing and user-level functions are handled on the motherboard, while framing and PPP/SLIP link-level processing are done on the serial cards.

The Remote Annex has the same architecture, but with a TI486SLC2 processor instead of the 80376. It's about twice the speed.

The Remote Annex 6100 ... contains a T1 CSU, a channel bank, up to 24 V.34 Microcom modems, and a high- performance terminal and communications server with two 32-bit 80486 processors. PPP with IPCP, IPXCP, and ATCP NCP protocols, and PAP and CHAP security are supported.

[The Remote Annex 6300 ...] does async PPP over V.34 dial-up and over V.120 ISDN TA dial-up, and does sync PPP over sync (56 or 64Kbps) dial-up. It also supports the LCP options over sync necessary to allow async-to-sync PPP dial-up converters (like the ZyXEL 2864 ISDN TA) to work.

OPINION
From: bjs@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian J. Smith)
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 23:35:18 GMT

I have been *VERY* happy with my Xylogics terminal servers I have to Annex II's and a Annex 3. They were designed for the Unix type person, and take 2 mins to get working on the network. Port configuration will take longer, but normally you only have a few sets of configurations "modem dialin high speed" etc. Two thumbs up to this company, now if they didn't cost so much. :) :)

8.1.6 Datability VCP 200/300 ( ??? )

Opinion
From: bjs@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian J. Smith)
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 23:35:18 GMT

I tested one of these, they come in 8-16 port configurations, a TCP or LAT or TCP/LAT version. Very VMS like, I would guess a off spring of DECservers. Cheaper than the Xylogics in Price. Didn't fit my feel due to the VMSish help and commands.

8.1.7 3com CS/2100 (10 lines max)

[Was mentioned in a posting of Peter Galbavy, summarizing suggestions other ppl. made to him about ppp-capable terminal servers. i.s.]

8.1.8 Computone IntelliServer

Self-Description
"The IntelliServer is a high-performance, expandable, TCP/IP terminal server that supports slip/cslip/ppp.


Some features include -
High performance MIPS R3000 RISC processor at 20 mips.
Expandable from 16 to 64 serial ports.
Baud rates up 115.2K baud.
Full modem control.
LCD panel with diagnostics and monitoring features.
Supports Unix syslog facility.
Shell and menu interface.
Up to 8 virtual terminals per serial port.
Several options to support printers.
Network loadable kernels with bootp, tftp.
Demand dial ppp and slip.
Firewall support using ip filtering.
Ports can be shared between logins and ppp/slip.
Remote administration using telnet.
Some commands - whodo, ps, route, tip, netstat, arp,
ping, rlogin, telnet, route, etc...

EMAIL
sales@computone.com, support@computone.com
Phone
+1 404 475 2725
FAX
sales +1 404 664 1510, support +1 404 664 1110
ftp server
ftp.computone.com
WWW server
http://www.computome.com

8.2 Hardware that supports sync PPP

Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ppp
Original-From: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti), but heavily edited by i.s.

Note that sync PPP is rather well established and it's not surprising
to see lots of vendors using it as their only sync serial line
protocol.  Various folks do various of the configuration options,
anywhere from a full implementation to very bare bones.

The price point is arbitrary.  These are list prices for the cheapest
box that has at least 1 sync PPP port that runs at 56 kb/sec plus one
ethernet.  Prices approximate, your milage may vary, contact your
vendor for details.

- Cisco
  E-mail: sales@cisco.com

- Telebit Netblazer
  Phone: +1 800 TELEBIT
  E-mail: ...@telebit.com

  NS2-1ESN + SYN35  	two EIA-232 SYNC ports and two V.35 sync ports

  NB40 + 2 * SYN232 + SYN35 + SYN530 + SYN449 	total of 10 sync ports
		(4 EIA-232, 2 V.35 ports, 2 EIA-530 ports, 2 EIA-422/449)

  SELF-DESCRIPTION

  Date: Tue, 3 Aug 93 23:55:49 -0700
  From: cslater@mondavi.sunnyvale.telebit.com (Charlie Slater)

  As of this February (93), the NetBlazer/40 supports up to 10 sync ports.
  All can be run at 128Kbps and several can be run at 2Mbps (I don't have
  any field or independent test data on how many can be run at 2Mbps, but I
  think that the answer is at least 2).

- Livingston
  E-Mail: ...@livingston.com
  IR-4		1 ethernet + 4 56K +  1 RS-232

- Morning Star SNAPlink
  E-Mail: marketing@morningstar.com
  SnapLink	SCSI-attached serial interface for Unix systems
		1 T1 + 2 56K, RS-232 or RS-449
HDLC driver for sun4c ttya and ttyb included with PPP software. Works only with SunOS <= 4.0.3c. Morning Star "haven't been able to extract the information from Sun that we need to make it work under SunOS 4.1.* or Solaris 2.*.

The HDLC driver works on NeXTs under NeXTStep 2.[12], but because of NeXTStep's interrupt structure, we can only get it up to 19200 sync.

It's also available from ftp.morningstar.com:pub/tools/sun-hdlc.tar.Z. It started as something from one of Torben Nielsen <torben@Hawaii.Edu>'s grad students, and we're required to pass along any changes we make to it. We hope that if someone gets it working under 4.1.*, they'll be nice enough to pass their changes along too."


- Imatek

Vendor:  Imatek
Product: OnRamp DSU-Router

Description: Low-Cost, Ethernet-to-56Kbps Sync, Access Router  
(with DSU/CSU, $1195!)

Base unit includes a 32-character Liquid Crystal Display (LCD),
a data entry keypad, Twisted Pair (UTP) and DB15 (AUI) Ethernet
connectors.  Front-panel menus configure addresses, routes,
netmasks, etc.  (terminal.)

Sync options include integrated DSU/CSU, V.35, or RS-232.

Dimensions: 9.5" x 7.5" x 4".

Price List
(includes IP routing software with support for PPP and Frame Relay)

Model				Cost
Router w/ Synchronous RS-232	$995
Router w/ Synchronous V.35	1195
Router w/ 56Kbps DSU/CSU	1195

Network Management SW Option 
(RIP, SNMP, Security Filters)    200

Please direct questions to: sales@imatek.com	
			    408.244.8864  (Voice or FAX)

Software Forge sync. board for IBM-PCs

Self-Description
Software Forge Ltd (part of the Racal-Airtech group in the UK) have a sync. comms card for a PC that can run PPP and X.25 over leased line, PSTN dial-up and ISDN. Standard interfaces are provided (Packet Driver and ODI). These actually emulate an Ethernet interface, so a vast range of third-party protocol stacks (IP and IPX) can be supported. Software Forge can also provide an IP Router based on the same card.

N.B. - this is a _sync_ comms card, ie it can drive ISDN at the full 64K.

Channel aggregation is also supported (RFC 1717 - "PPP Multilink").

Contact
Robin Maidment, Software Forge (Racal-Airtech group)
email: tsf@cix.compulink.co.uk
phone: +44 (0)1734 312477
fax: +44 (0)1734 311301

GlobeTrotter60

Self-description
The GlobeTrotter60 is a low-cost, 1LANx1WAN full function router that supports Synchronous and Asynchronous PPP for under 800U$. It runs routing software that has over 1200 man-years of development work, and provides full function IP routing.
bob.chance@proteon.com

< | ^ | >