Very Computer

by **bamb** » Fri, 23 Oct 1998 04:00:00

Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect to
the internet with 1 linux box? I am going to hope to have it connected
at all times 24hrs. a day to the internet (via ISP) with incoming and
outgoing traffic. I am thinking of the Courier V.Everything analog
business modem, Is this a better modem for this kind of a connection,
with no incoming calls , just incoming and outgoing internet traffic.
Thank for any advice
bambam

by **David Wilbur** » Fri, 23 Oct 1998 04:00:00

Quote:> Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect to
> the internet with 1 linux box? I am going to hope to have it connected
> at all times 24hrs. a day to the internet (via ISP) with incoming and
> outgoing traffic. I am thinking of the Courier V.Everything analog
> business modem, Is this a better modem for this kind of a connection,
> with no incoming calls , just incoming and outgoing internet traffic.
> Thank for any advice
> bambam

The courier sounds good to me. I haven't ever seen any evidence of
their existance, but if internal couriers exist, avoid them. Heck,
avoid all internal modems and only consider externals. They are
*alot* easier to deal with, configuration wise, and internals tend
to have more problems in general with things like noise. As far
as speeds go, I'd actually recommend a 33.6k. 56k isn't really
that great, and my experience has been that 33.6k is better,
especially when you say that there is going to be incoming traffic.
You probably already know this, but I'm gonna say it anyways: Look
to see if DSL, cable modem, or even ISDN is available inexpensively
in your area. Alot of DSL and cables modems rival T1 speeds. Some
even surpass them, and they tend to do so at prices that are *alot*
cheaper than a T1. If you find that your workgroup does anything
but the lightest network traffic, you'll be sitting there waiting
for alot of your time. If your business relies on the internet for
it's business, you may find that the extra productivity gained from
better bandwidth could more than pay for the cost of the connection.

-Bug

--
* David Wilburn, a.k.a. "Bug"
* JMU Computer Science Student
* Boycott naugahyde! Save the naugas!

by **Phil DeBecke** » Fri, 23 Oct 1998 04:00:00

> > Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect to
> > the internet with 1 linux box? I am going to hope to have it connected
> > at all times 24hrs. a day to the internet (via ISP) with incoming and
> > outgoing traffic. I am thinking of the Courier V.Everything analog
> > business modem, Is this a better modem for this kind of a connection,
> > with no incoming calls , just incoming and outgoing internet traffic.
> > Thank for any advice
> > bambam

> The courier sounds good to me. I haven't ever seen any evidence of
> their existance, but if internal couriers exist, avoid them. Heck,
> avoid all internal modems and only consider externals. They are
> *alot* easier to deal with, configuration wise, and internals tend
> to have more problems in general with things like noise. As far
> as speeds go, I'd actually recommend a 33.6k. 56k isn't really
> that great, and my experience has been that 33.6k is better,
> especially when you say that there is going to be incoming traffic.
> You probably already know this, but I'm gonna say it anyways: Look
> to see if DSL, cable modem, or even ISDN is available inexpensively
> in your area. Alot of DSL and cables modems rival T1 speeds. Some
> even surpass them, and they tend to do so at prices that are *alot*
> cheaper than a T1. If you find that your workgroup does anything
> but the lightest network traffic, you'll be sitting there waiting
> for alot of your time. If your business relies on the internet for
> it's business, you may find that the extra productivity gained from
> better bandwidth could more than pay for the cost of the connection.

Well, my experience leads me to recommend exactly the opposite. I like
internal modems as you don't have to worry about your serial UARTs being up
to the task of handling a high-speed DTE connection (since any decent
internal modem will have a suitable UART). I personally use a 3Com/USR
V.90/X2 56K internal for my IP Masq router/firewall and love it. As far as
the 56K issue - I notice a huge difference in speed. I don't know how you
could say that 33.6k is better than 56k - the difference is empirically
verifiable and quite obvious. If you tune your connection properly - use
IRQtune to set the modem serial interrupt to a high priority, set the port
speed to 115200, set a low MTU/MRU, say 552, and a small receive window of
8192, you'll get great performance even with several simultaneous users.

So, if you're going to use a phone line modem, I'd recommend a 56k
internal. Just my $0.02.

Phil DeBecker

by **Rod Roar** » Fri, 23 Oct 1998 04:00:00

>... I like
>internal modems as you don't have to worry about your serial UARTs being up
>to the task of handling a high-speed DTE connection (since any decent
>internal modem will have a suitable UART)....

Well you can't hardly buy a motherboard these days without a pair of 115K
serial ports. I routinely recommend external modems, for low noise and
ease of troubleshooting. Maybe it comes from my old mainframe days... the
more blinking lights, the better. :-)

-- Rod
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset Systems Home of the $500 Linux Computer
http://www.sunsetsystems.com/

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Very Computer

Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect internet with 1 linux box?

Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect internet with 1 linux box?

Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect internet with 1 linux box?

Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect internet with 1 linux box?

Modem advice_What modem for an office of 5 computers to connect internet with 1 linux box?