[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > o how many simultaneous dial-in users are you expecting? > > >>5
This is quite low. > > o what's your budget? > > >>USD 1000 - 3000 There's a bit of a conflict here. +/- $3,000 can get you a decent NAS (probably refurbished, or entry-level new). To try and keep things cheap, you could try looking for a solution that's Card-In-A-PC-Based. For only $840, you can get a Sangoma WAN card that will support such Layer 2 protocols as PPP and applications such as E-1. There is some claim about internal modem cards here, http://www.sangoma.com/wanpipe.htm, but I recommend you get in touch with them to make sure they can give you what you are looking for. http://www.sangoma.com/products/p_csu_cards.htm will list the cards they have. In the past, these cards never supported modem DSPs, so they could bring in the lines, but couldn't terminate. Times have since changed, and they could have evolved, suggest you ask them. The trick here is to find a card (Sangoma or otherwise) that will support the transport as well as the modem DSPs. However, with your budget, you can also go for entry-level to mid-level enterprise solutions: 1. Livingston/Lucent Portmaster 3 -- for only 945 euros, you'll get: o 2x ISDN-PRI E-1 interfaces o 60x v.90 56k digital modems o ISDN-BRI dial-in Check out http://portmasters.com/pricing-pm3.html for more details. This is quite a steal. But for an extra $1,500 to $2,000, you can empower yourself: 2. Patton 2960/30 -- this is just an option, but I wouldn't recommend it, because the 1st & 3rd option will get you more features and goodies for less. Nontheless, here are the Patton's features for this price-range: o 4x ISDN-PRI interfaces (not very useful since you only get 30 modem DSPs) o 30x v.90/v.92/v.110 modulation o ISDN-BRI dial-in o Frame Relay & PPP Network Uplinks o Dual Redundant PSUs As mentioned, this is not worth the money. See http://www.patton.com/cgi-patton/catalog-bin/display.cgi?model=2960-30 for more details. This is actually the show-stopper: 3. Cisco AS5300 RAS -- this will cost you only about $4,600 (much lower if you really take the time to hunt). The AS5300 is as mid-level enterprise as it gets, and this is what you get for the price: o 4x ISDN-PRI interfaces o 120x MICA Modems o ISDN-BRI dial-in o Cisco IOS, which means all the networking goodies you already know about o 32MB Flash & 128MB DRAM kit I hope you have a fair understanding what your budget (+/-) can get you. > o what level of sophistication do you require? > Users will be in position to log on to the office LAN remotely and > exchange mail, access databases and utilise a file server. Okay, this is simply placement, servicing and routing. If the NAS is outside the LAN that needs to be accessed, then using tunnels and/or VPN's to get them into the LAN is up to how you decide to design the configuration. All the NAS will do is provide connectivity. > > o what dial-up features do you want to incorporate? > >Nothing > really special. The need is for mobile users to be able to connect > remotely to utilise the aforementioned services. Mobile users as in GSM mobile phone connectivity? This shouldn't be a problem. Will the users be attempting to access the services via their mobile phones, or will they simply use the phones to provide connectivity to their laptops? > > o what is your projected long-term dial-in activity, with > this NAS more specifically? > > Growth will probably demand 10 concurrent users in the next 3 years > for the RAS. Then you are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay below what the proposed NAS'es can do for you. But then again, your budget is relatively high, so think longer term. Overall, under the circumstances, I think option 1, the Lucent/Livingston Portmaster 3, is your best option. > > James > > > > > --------------------------------------------- > This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug Regards, Mark Tinka Technical Manager, Africa Online Swaziland --------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
