Re: Making a DSL server?
On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 06:52:14PM -0500, Michael D. Crawford wrote:
> I am making plans for developing a turnkey system that will be installed in
> retail stores, that will have a DSL connection.
>
> Unfortunately, I live out in the Maine woods, far from available DSL
> service. I connect to the Net with a 56k modem.
>
> But I'm going to need to simulate a DSL connection in order to develop this
> system. I think that it wouldn't do to just require a DSL-connected
> masquerading router. At least I think it wouldn't. I would like the user
> to just make a normal connection to a DSL modem. (I don't think the user's
> would normally want or need other hosts to be connected to the Internet.)
>
> So what I'm thinking of doing is setting up a small DSL network in my
> office. What I would need is a DSL _server_. I would expect that for the
> server software I could set something up on a Linux box. What would I need
> for the server hardware?
>
> I expect that if I were an ISP and needed to service hundreds of
> connections, this wouldn't be a problem. Does anyone make DSL server
> hardware that serves one connection? What do I even look for.
It's not clear to me what you want to test.
Most DSL "modems" provide an ethernet connection to the client
hardware (though some provide a USB connection). Thus, making sure
your turnkey box has an ethernet interface (probably configured via
DHCP) might be what you want.
If, on the other hand, you want to actually be able to attach a DSL
"modem" to some other piece of equipment, I think you're going to be
disappointed. That piece of gear is known as a DSLAM and they're not
cheap ... at least, I have never seen a cheap one :-) Generally a
DSLAM is a blade in a Cisco uBR or some dedicated gear from someone
like Alcatel.
I'm not aware of any "open" or "free" DSLAM implementation.
Regards,
--
Nathan Norman - Incanus Networking mailto:nnorman@incanus.net
We're sysadmins. To us, data is a protocol-overhead.
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