>> Work has generously agreed to buy me an IDSN terminal adapter and
>> even pay the monthly fee for the IDSN service.
>If cost is no object then something like an ascend 50 or 25 is a great
>way to go. It uses ethernet and does its own routing. This is
>really good if the ISDN box you are dialing into supports compression
>with it. Costs $700-$1250 though.
>I am personally looking for a cheaper solution since I will be paying
>for my own.
Proteon's new GT70 router is less expensive, and it's performance
is quite good doing compression, multilink PPP, etc. Cost is not all
that bad, either. List price (which will, I'm sure, be discounted by
resellers) is $995, and that includes data compression and IP routing
for an unlimited number of clients, and your choice of integrated NT1
(for direct connection to the ISDN phone line) or S/T interface if
you want to use your own NT1 and hook up other ISDN gear to the same
line. Proteon's web pages are at http://www.proteon.com/.
Ascend either makes you pay extra for compression, IP routing, or limits
the number of workstations that can be serviced by the router.
The GT70 has no trouble keeping 2 B channels (128Kbps channel) full with
2:1 or better compression, and when running X applications across the line
(X clients on my Sparc at the office, X server on Linux) I generally see
close to 4:1 compression (says more about X, I suspect, than the router).
Other things to consider are dial on demand in the router, unless you're
going to use Centrex service to fix the line costs.
by