Very Computer

by **Michael Wel** » Fri, 12 May 1995 04:00:00

<Please, Please, Please! excuse my crossposting, but this post really
aplies to all of these groups. Please email me with followups and I'll
post a summary at the end to limit the traffic on the net.>

Hello all! A Partner and I are looking into becoming a local internet
provider for our area, using linux on our machines. I have heard of this
being done, and believe from my experience that linux is very capable for
this task, but I thought I would ask the collective Linux brain trust
about this. Have you done this? How? What did you use? How many
users per machine can you have before the load gets unbearable. We are
thinking of a linux box with lots of ram and hd space on a small
ethernet, with a terminal server (please recommend brands here) and a
router to the Internet with some sort of high speed line. Is this the
best way to go? We are looking to the future, as it seems to be much
easier to add another 16 port terminal server to an ethernet than another
16 port serial board to the linux box(es). What kind of line out should
we look for? How many lines should we have per registered user? (Say, if
we had 50 users, how many total lines should we have, since all will not
be on at the same time) Has anyone done online registration? How much
do you charge for full access? Would you recommend running everything on
one linux box? We want to start up and have at the most 16 users dialed
in concurrently, and have the ussual internet features (mail, news,
telnet, ftp) on the box, plus run a www server there. Is this to omuch
load? I assume that ram is the consideration here, and we're looking at
64 or 128 megs so we dont' have to buy any later.

Sorry for all the questions, but I thought it would be better to put them
in one message instead of a flood. Please forward me an email copy of
any followups, so I don't miss them.

Michael Wells

by **Daniel Pewzn** » Mon, 15 May 1995 04:00:00

[snip]
: provider for our area, using linux on our machines. I have heard of this
: being done, and believe from my experience that linux is very capable for
[snip]
: thinking of a linux box with lots of ram and hd space on a small
: ethernet, with a terminal server (please recommend brands here) and a
: router to the Internet with some sort of high speed line. Is this the
: best way to go? We are looking to the future, as it seems to be much
: easier to add another 16 port terminal server to an ethernet than another
: 16 port serial board to the linux box(es). What kind of line out should
: we look for? How many lines should we have per registered user? (Say, if
: we had 50 users, how many total lines should we have, since all will not
...

I would highly suggest using at least two machines. One mainly for
users, and one mainly for news. I'm in the process of setting up my own
small ISP. I have a separate machine for news. I am currently using a
multi-port board in the user host for dialup, but plan on going to a
terminal server. I'm looking for a cheap 386, no monitor, to use for
one. I think it would be cheaper, more configurable, and easier to
expand a PC running Linux as a terminal server.
From what I've read, a good user/modem ration is 10 to 1. I think most
ISPs go beyond this. I'd say you could probably have 100 users per 8
ports. Also, I seriously suggest you go with 28.8 modems only, or you'll
be looking to upgrade in just a few months. Have fun!

by **Larry Brinto** » Thu, 18 May 1995 04:00:00

Michael,

We're using two 486dx2-66s with 16Mb RAM as servers running Linux and 5
as workstations all with XFree86 on a LAN. One server is running mail,
dns, and news while the other is running www, ftp, and nfs (2Gb). The LAN
is connected to a 16-port MicroANNEX XL (Xylogics) with 8 Zoom v.34
modems. Xylogics has software for Linux (to my pleasant surprise!) and works
very well. Depending on how active the users are, 8 modems will support
100-200 users. Our LAN is connected to our provider via 64Kb ISDN using
Ascend Pipeline 50. We could NOT ask for a better setup! Very smooth
running with plenty of expandability... Hope this helps.

...Larry

> [snip]
> : provider for our area, using linux on our machines. I have heard of this
> : being done, and believe from my experience that linux is very capable for
> [snip]
> : thinking of a linux box with lots of ram and hd space on a small
> : ethernet, with a terminal server (please recommend brands here) and a
> : router to the Internet with some sort of high speed line. Is this the
> : best way to go? We are looking to the future, as it seems to be much
> : easier to add another 16 port terminal server to an ethernet than another
> : 16 port serial board to the linux box(es). What kind of line out should
> : we look for? How many lines should we have per registered user? (Say, if
> : we had 50 users, how many total lines should we have, since all will not
> ...

by **Weiqi G** » Thu, 18 May 1995 04:00:00

In article

Quote:
>Michael,

>We're using two 486dx2-66s with 16Mb RAM as servers running Linux and 5
>as workstations all with XFree86 on a LAN. One server is running mail,
>dns, and news while the other is running www, ftp, and nfs (2Gb). The LAN
>is connected to a 16-port MicroANNEX XL (Xylogics) with 8 Zoom v.34
>modems. Xylogics has software for Linux (to my pleasant surprise!) and
works
>very well. Depending on how active the users are, 8 modems will support
>100-200 users. Our LAN is connected to our provider via 64Kb ISDN using
>Ascend Pipeline 50. We could NOT ask for a better setup! Very smooth
>running with plenty of expandability... Hope this helps.

I'm trying to do something similar to this, although I'm not going to sell
dial-in SLIP services. Basically, I wanted to gather 20 or so of my
"cousins", whose paying $20 a month for their dial-up services, and serve
them SLIP out of my Linux boxes. The $400 will pay for the 64K connection
(ISDN or Fractional T1, or something else that they offer.)

My questions:
1. What kind of performance will they experience?
2. What's my equipment cost (the Pentiums, the Pipeline 50s, and the
modems)?
3. What's my maintenance cost (My daily time, equipment replacement, etc.)?
4. Are their other hidden costs (Assuming I'll be dealing with only my
"cousins": they'll pay me on time, agree not to sue me, etc., and not cause
me any other undue troubles)?

Weiqi Gao

by **Nigel Bark** » Sat, 20 May 1995 04:00:00

>Subject: --- Internet Providers Using Linux?
>Date: 11 May 1995 15:47:14 GMT

There was an excellent article on doing exactly this in the current (May)
edition of the Linux Journal.

Nigel Barker

by **Christian L. Pear** » Wed, 24 May 1995 04:00:00

That helps if you subscribe. How do I get a copy of this article?

need help.

Christian Pearce

: >Subject: --- Internet Providers Using Linux?
: >Date: 11 May 1995 15:47:14 GMT

: There was an excellent article on doing exactly this in the current (May)
: edition of the Linux Journal.

: Nigel Barker