🚀 go-pugleaf

The best solution would be to buy a product such as the:
Ascend Pipeline 25 (http://www.ascend.com/products/p25/p25index.html);
Cisco 750 (http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/728/750/index.html); or
3Com Arpeggio (http://www.3com.com/0files/products/dsheets/arpeggio.html).

These products are stand alone units that combine the ISDN TA, NT1,
and router, with an ethernet backend to connect to your LAN. They
offer nice features like dial on demand to limit the amount of time
on the line and have built in routers.

If you are looking for a cheaper solution by having the TA connect
directly to your computer there are three options that I know of.
The first would be ISA ISDN cards such as the Cisco 200. Digi and
Motorola also make cards. The second would be an external ISDN
modem. You would be limited to the 115K speed of your serial port
though. And the third would be a PCMCIA ISDN modem. I have heard
this is the best of the three solutions - you would obviously need
to purchase a PCMCIA port for your desktop.

The other and probably larger issue is what ISDN service to order
from your telco. The regional Bells offer Circuit Switched
Data (CSD) or Circuit Switched Voice (CSV). Depending on which
region of the country you are in, if you order CSD you will be
billed a per minute fee along with a fee for the amount of data
carried over the line. If you are a heavy user, this could run from
a few hundred to over a thousand dollars per month. An alternative
would be to carry your data over CSV. Some of the regional Bells offer
unlimited usage for a fixed fee for CSV. However some charge a
per minute fee for residential CSV and offer unlimited for business
lines. In that case order the business line into your home. The
drawback to this approach is that you will get only 56K per channel
over CSV (although some users have reported getting the full 64K).
A second alternative is to ask your ISP if they have Centrex (or
the equivalent). If so, have them run an extension from their
office to your home. You would then get unlimited usage over a
dedicated CSD line for a fixed fee. You would be billed by the ISP
for the line instead by the telco (the telco will bill the ISP).

--Greg

> I have a small network at home consists of a box running Linux and two boxes
> running Windows.  I would like to connect them to the Internet using ISDN and
> have the linux box serve as a web server..
> 
>   I am think about getting an ISA ISDN adapter from 3Com.  The reason is I've
>   been reading a lot about the limitation on PC's serial port affecting the 
>   performance of ISDN.  The question is I don't know if 3Com is the best adapter
>   to buy and I didn't find any driver for linux that support this card.
>   
>   Another option I can go with is to put the 3Com in a 286 and run a route
>   software on it.  That will solve the driver for linux problem.  But I am
>   not familiar where to get the routing software.
>   
>   If these two option don't work, I guess I will have to buy the Ascend 50.
>   
>  I am open to other ideas as well.  
>  
>  thanks in advance.
>  
>  shu
>  N