eric@picard.sbi.com (Eric Ho) (05/14/91)
Just wondering if there're ethernet/modem vendors out there that are planning to make boxes that would take ip packets off a regular phone line - e.g. it'll be nice if telebit modem have thick ethernet connectors in addition to RS232 connectors. This also means that the modem will need to handle SLIP/PPP well between what is flowing on the phone line and what is going on in its builtin ethernet card. Alternatively, a Cabletron box for instance can take RJ11's in addition to regular thick ethernet connectors. This also means that the cabletron will have modem cards built into the box and they'll be able to handle SLIP/PPP. If this is possible, this'll really make wide-area networking easy and hopefully more affordable (e.g. you just buy this modem and hook it to your Sun's ethernet connector at home or your X terminal at home and when your home's phone line eventually turns fiber-optic one day, all you need to change is 1 or 2 cards in your modem). It'll be nice if these new modems can also handle signals on cable-tv in addition to regular phone line signals - this means that you can subscribe to an "ethernet" channel with your local cable-tv company and you'll have a high-bandwidth local area network at some $20 a month - i.e. instead of getting signals of your favorite movie on HBO, you get signals for your IP packets from your neighbors. I guess that this latter feature will be a bit far off for current modem vendors. Oh well... -- ========================================== + Eric Ho Email: eric@sbi.com + Salomon Brothers, Inc. [SISS] Phone: (201) 896-4356 ==========================================