[comp.dcom.lans] Communcations Servers

pliuskon@intellistor.com (Saul Pliuskonis) (06/27/91)

I am looking for some input on Communications Servers.

I am just starting an evaluation of the Annex3 by Xylogics,
and would appreciate any comments from anyone who has used
one of these servers.  

I would also like input on any other communication servers
that meet the following requirements:

	1) Must work well in a Unix environment ( Sun )
	2) Must support modems
	3) Must have a printer port, and support network printing.
	4) It would be real nice if it had SLIP, CSLIP, and PPP
	   support.



			Thanks in advance for any recomendations/comments,

			SVP



-- 
 _______________________________________________________________________
 | Saul Pliuskonis         | e-mail address: pliuskon@intellistor.com  | 
 | Intellistor, Inc.       | USmail address: 2402 Clover Basin Dr.     | 
 | (303)682-6515           |                 Longmont, CO 80503        | 
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rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) (06/29/91)

pliuskon@intellistor.com (Saul Pliuskonis) writes:
>I would also like input on any other communication servers
>that meet the following requirements:
>
>	1) Must work well in a Unix environment ( Sun )
>	2) Must support modems
>	3) Must have a printer port, and support network printing.
>	4) It would be real nice if it had SLIP, CSLIP, and PPP
>	   support.

Sounds to me like a cheap Unix box would be your lowest-cost, highest-
capability way out.  How about a 386 with an Ethernet card and ESIX
or some other low-cost Unix product bundled with TCP/IP?  You can then
buy as many async line cards as you want.

I would think any vendor which sells a dedicated "communications server"
would charge a lot more money, due to the lower volume of sales for
such products.

I use an IBM RS/6000 for this purpose here.  Not as cheap as a 386,
but quite capable and has the extra advantage of being an NFS file server.

-rich