RE: DSL reliability

I have had some very good and very bad experiences with DSL.  I have it
at home (BellSouth), one of the first DSL installs in Marietta, GA
(about 15 miles NW of Atlanta).  I have what they call a "bridged"
connection at my house.  My DSL router cloned the MAC address of the
Ethernet card that was originally installed in my PC for DSL.  The
router asks for an IP address from a DHCP server and I get a 12 hour
lease on it.  Since my router is always on and powered by a UPS, I have
had the same IP address for almost 2 years.  I have a client who also
has this same set up and has been running their mail and web servers
over DSL with EXCELLENT results.  We used to have the same type of DSL
at my office, but when we moved about 18 months ago, our "New and
Improved" DSL turned out to be PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet).  The
connections were very unstable, dropped several times a day (we had 2
lines), and running mail and web servers were impossible, since every
time we reconnected we got a new IP address.  PPPoE basically simulated
dial up over ethernet.  BellSouth told us the bridged connection was no
longer available, and that the PPPoE was a better solution (sure, better
for them since they can effectively let users share IP addresses).  We
ended up canceling the DSL and installed a T1.

As far as VPN over DSL, many here have commented that it depends on the
vendor.  I'd say, if your DSL is stable, then VPN over the DSL will be
stable.  I connect to my office network from my house via VPN and can
stay connected for days at a time.  I have programmers who use VPN to
connect to our network from all over the country... No problems.
Linksys has a really cool DSL router that supports VPN at the router
level.  So you can have 2 networks connected via VPN, and don't have to
mess with installing the VPN client on each PC.  We use the MS VPN
server in W2000.

Some of you guys have also mentioned satellite.  We have also had good
success with these installs.  They were pricey in the beginning (seems
like about $120/month for unlimited use), but last time I looked, they
were competitively price with DSL.  All the satellite I have installed
has been one way (you use a dial up for the outbound traffic), but I
think there is 2 way satellite available now.

We have one client (a rather large ocean shipping company) that runs
their entire network based on the public internet using DSL and VPN.
They have been very successful with it, and have saved a large amount of
money over the cost of a private network.

cjg

Carl J. Galgano
EDI Consulting Services, Inc.
550 Kennesaw Avenue, Suite 800
Marietta, GA  30060
(770) 422-2995 - voice
(419) 730-8212 - fax
mailto:cgalgano@ediconsulting.com
http://www.ediconsulting.com
AS400 EDI, Networking, E-Commerce and Communications Consulting and
Implementation
http://www.icecreamovernight.com
Premium Ice Cream Brands shipped Overnight
FREE AS/400 Timesharing Service -
http://www.ediconsulting.com/timeshare.html
"You ain't gonna learn what you don't want to know" - rw


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
[mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com] On Behalf Of Jerome Draper
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 2:30 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: DSL reliability


In your expereince what is the reliability of running TN5250e sessions
(display, printer, and/or file transfer) over the public Internet via
DSL on one or both sides with MPPE encrypted VPN tunnels intact?

Are you dropping sessions?  losing printed reports?  etc.

Jerry

Jerome Draper, Trilobyte Software Systems, since 1976
Network and Connectivity Specialist -- Mac's, LAN's, PC's, and iSeries
Representing Synapse, Nlynx, Perle, CLI, Intermate and Others .....
(415) 457-3431 - (415) 258-1658fax - http://www.trilosoft.com




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