by We are trying to determine the best (and least expensive) way to connect
a remote Unix (Sun) workstation to an ethernet network using TCP/IP. We have
a need for a permanent synchronous (leased-line) connection that will allow the
remote workstation to function as though it were connected directly to the
local network coax. A dialup connection is not adequate - we need a 24-hour
permanent connection.
The link will be supporting ascii and binary messages going mostly *to* the
remote system, with an occasional message coming *from* the remote system, both
via TCP/IP sockets. The i/o rate will be fairly low most of the time (an
interactive administrative application that sends requests and gets status
results). Very infrequently (once or twice a week), the link requires a
download of an ascii file between 50K and 1MB in size.
I am only vaguely familiar with leased-lines, bridges, routers, and SLIP, and
know nothing about point-to-point protocol. My questions are:
1) What are the alternatives for connecting a remote workstation *directly
to an ethernet network* (i.e., not through a local serial port or internal
bus card on a workstation)? I realize that a serial port solution appears
to be much cheaper, but they make the remote connection totally dependent
on the local workstation, and we'd like to avoid that (redundancy, etc.).
I am looking for product and company names, descriptions, pricing and
supported communication links that will meet this requirement.
2) What is point-to_point protocol? Is it a replacement for SLIP? Are these
protocols independent of the nature of the phone link (synchronous vs.
dialup)?
3) Does anyone know what "Basic Rate" (ISDN standard) is? It appears to be
a synchronous-type link that is fairly standard outside the U.S.
4) Will our existing software, written to use TCP/IP socket connections, work
unchanged with these solutions?
I have contacted Telebit about their Netblazer product; it seems to be a viable
solution, but costs almost $4,000 per node ($8,000 for our setup, although we
may be able to use their Sbus synchronous card in the remote workstation, which
lowers the cost to $900 at one end). I talked to Microcom, but their bridge
requires a PC at each end and is priced around $6500 per node. I also saw a
posting here about Rockwell/CMC and their Nethopper, but it supports dialup
only (for $1995 per node).
For the record, this will be installed in Japan (both local network and remote
node).
Thanks for any/all help/info you can provide. Please reply via email.
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Rich Baughman / Boston Technology / Wakefield, MA