How the Shared-IP Project is Connected

This page is a simple description of what we need to get the shared-IP project off of the ground. It's just a simple summary of the hardware required for the project, and some discussion of related issues.

The costs for the hardware, net connection, and phone/ISDN lines are very different depending on where you're located, so we'll ignore those details here.

In short, we're going to need:

1. ISP for net access

   These guys usually charge big bucks for any decent bandwidth. They also charge per hour, while we want a full-time dedicated connection.

2. Central site.

   One person has to host all of the hardware and software for the remote users to dial in to.

3. ISDN lines from the ISP to the central site.

   Installation charges, monthly charges, per minute connection charges.

4. ISDN hardware.

   These get expensive very quickly. We can use a Terminal Adaptor, but they're really 64K modems, with all of the problems that a modem has. We'd much prefer a router, which will forward IP packets off of an Ethernet cable.

5. Gateway machine.

   Do you really want to host 4-6 modems off of your main computer?

   It would also be very nice to have a firewall to protect ourselves from malicious hackers, and various caches (DNS, WWW, News, email) to minimize the traffic going back and forth to the ISP.

6. Phone lines, modems, computers.

   Each member of the project will need a phone line at each end.

   Each member of the project will need a modem at each end.

   If you don't have a computer at home to hook everything up to, it's sort of pointless, isn't it?

Once you're up and connected to the net, no one really cares what you do with your site.

Attempts to congest the shared line will not be appreciated. Try doing large downloads at 3:00am, or dropping your link temporarily to dial into a commercial ISP. You'll probably even get better bandwidth that way.