[comp.unix.aux] How do you use Dial-up SLIP?

chet@Advansoft.COM (Chet Wood) (11/06/90)

It appears SLIP was designed for people who want to extend their IP
universe from work to home. I'm sure that it works fairly well for
this. But now organizations can use it to connect with the Internet.
The logistics of using it for this seem awkward. Would those who are
making use of this service kindly tell me how they make it work?

Here's how I suppose it works:

User dials up the network service provider using tip, and logs in with
a name and password. 

In another window, you run "slip-attach" to configure the interface.

Then you do your ftp, or whatever.

Then you kill the slip-attach process with -HUP and somehow get the
modem to hang up.

There are several things wrong with this picture. 

1. Am I supposed to tell all our users our login name and password on
our providers equipment? Seems like a security risk to me.

2. Who pays the phone bill when a user forgets to hang up after a
session?

[ A/UX 2.0 - specific ]
3. Based on my very limited experimentation, killing slip-attach (or
whatever it's called) on the Mac sometimes leaves grunge around so that it
cannot be run again without rebooting the machine.

It seems to me, because of these things, that it would be more than
worth it to use a leased line for SLIP access, unless someone can tell
me of some effective workarounds...

Thanks...

Chet
--
Chet Wood                       ~                         (408)727-3357 X269
   chet@Advansoft.Com    .  Advansoft Research Corporation
     arc!chet@apple.COM    .      4301 Great America Parkway, 6th floor
            apple!arc!chet   .            Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA

zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) (11/07/90)

> stuff about dial-up slip

>1. Am I supposed to tell all our users our login name and password on
>our providers equipment? Seems like a security risk to me.
>
>2. Who pays the phone bill when a user forgets to hang up after a
>session?

All you need is a little program to detect the need for an outgoing 
connection, dial up and establish the connection, and then drop it 
when there is not traffic for some period.  It's not hard (I've done 
it).  




-- 
Jon Zeeff (NIC handle JZ)	 zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (11/08/90)

In article <CHET.90Nov5154510@commanche.Advansoft.COM> chet@Advansoft.COM (Chet Wood) writes:
>It seems to me, because of these things, that it would be more than
>worth it to use a leased line for SLIP access...

Leased lines are better than dialup connections; there is no doubt about
that.  However, they also are significantly expensive, can sometimes be hard
to get, and generally require explicit budget justification rather than
getting a "free ride" on existing hardware and existing phone bills.
-- 
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry

vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU (Vince Fuller) (11/09/90)

In article <1990Nov7.191609.19972@zoo.toronto.edu>,
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
|> In article <CHET.90Nov5154510@commanche.Advansoft.COM>
chet@Advansoft.COM (Chet Wood) writes:
|> >It seems to me, because of these things, that it would be more than
|> >worth it to use a leased line for SLIP access...
|> 
|> Leased lines are better than dialup connections; there is no doubt
about
|> that.  However, they also are significantly expensive, can sometimes
be hard
|> to get, and generally require explicit budget justification rather
than
|> getting a "free ride" on existing hardware and existing phone bills.
|> -- 
|> "I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of
Toronto Zoology
|> "Not to worry."                        |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  
utzoo!henry

The above statement may or may not be true, depending on the nature of
the local telephone service where you are located. In the Bay Area, for
example, you can't get a business line with unlimited local dailing -
everything is measured rate. For this reason, it will be cheaper to
lease a dedicated 9.6KB line if you plan on using for more than a very
small amount (like an hour a day or thereabouts). In additione, 56KB ADN
("advanced digital network") circuits are not much more expensive than
9.6KB leased lines, though they are not quite as ubiquitous as 9.6KB
lines. Of course, there are other capital costs associated with a leased
line connection which are not present when getting "a free ride on
existing hardware" (but a "free ride on existing phone bills" is much
harder to hide if  you have measured service...)

	Vince Fuller, Stanford University/BARRNet
 

dhuber@aut.autelca.ascom.ch (Daniel Huber) (11/14/90)

zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) writes:

>All you need is a little program to detect the need for an outgoing 
>connection, dial up and establish the connection, and then drop it 
>when there is not traffic for some period.  It's not hard (I've done 
>it).  

If I "ping" the machine on the other side of the outgoing connection
(connection not yet established), does this work too?



-- 
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