Re: Leased Line vs. ???

> From: D.BALE@handleman.com
>  
>  A situation came up where we need to stick an AS/400 
> "workstation" & printer in Hawaii and "attach" it to an AS/400 
> in Reno, Nevada.  They're talking about getting a leased line to do this 
> at a startup cost of $1000 and monthly fees of $900.

That is the typical pricing for that kind of ma bell service.  We have had it 
& for that distance I will predict that you will have unacceptable ma bell 
downage with no compensation for lost connection hassles.

>  Traffic volume is not expected to be significant; this workstation would be
>  used primarily to request a shipping label to be printed on the label 
> printer.
>   The display will be a PC, not a dumb terminal.
>  
>  What are some other options that could be considered at less cost?  
Dial-up 
> is absolutely out of the question.

Dial up would have been my obvious suggestion.

>  I thought I had heard VPN (virtual private network) being used as a
>  lower-cost, reliable alternative to leased line, but my memory is fuzzy on
>  this.

VPN is in fact considerably less expensive.  I am not involved in that side 
of our business, but we used to have separate lines (at like $1,000.00 per 
month each) for voice (several lines), fax, PC, AS/400 & now we have one VPN 
line for the whole bit.

We had to add some hardware needed for VPN that was not needed for leased 
lines & just like in the PC LAN world where you quoted some price then ... oh 
you need to do this - you have to pay extra for that ... oh you need to do 
that also - you have to pay extra for that ... getting an accurate financial 
picture up front is not what the VPN market is into providing.

>  Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
>  
>  Dan Bale
>  IT - AS/400
>  Handleman Company
>  248-362-4400  Ext. 4952

Alister William Macintyre 
Computer Data Janitor etc. of BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 on 400 model 170 OS4 V4R3 
(forerunner to IBM e-Server i-Series 400)  @ http://www.cen-elec.com Central 
Industries of Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and 
electrical sub-assemblies

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