Viable FreeBSD Network Access Server projects...?

[Andy Holyer]

On 9 Jan 2005, at 00:11, Martes Wigglesworth wrote:

>
> From: Martes Wigglesworth <martes.wigglesworth at earthlink.net>
> To: Christian Hiris <4711 at chello.at>
> Cc: "heath, Chia Hui Chen" <heath0504 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Viable FreeBSD Network Access Server projects...?
>
> Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:59:56 +0300
>
> Also, to supply, 56K service, would I be able to use the multi-modem
> approach, or do I need to have the DSL with digital "modems" and all
> that jazz?  I am reading about the digital "RAS" setups, and all the
> info sites that I am using seem to fall off, just after the analog
> explanations. They seem to have a good definition of the RAS system
> however, they fail to demonstrate how one may build one, using the
> digital cards, to service analog dialup traffic.
>
It's perfectly possible - in fact I did exactly this at my first ISP, 
Pavilion Internet in Brighton, 10 years ago. Multiple serial boards are 
available, and just look like several /dev/tty connections. Set them up 
to run PPP, and put a modem on each of them and you're going. It looks 
ludicrous (we resorted to velcro-ing the dial-up modems to the wall of 
the machine room), but yes, it does work.