🚀 go-pugleaf

news@massey strikes again:
> >How can you connect to internet via a modem? Can it be done? What software/
> >hardware do you need? BTW my concept of internet is FTP+news.

duncan@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Duncan McEwan) writes:
<Technical discussion on dialup SLIP/PPP, pretty much covers the bases>

It's doable.  I've done it.  That doesn't mean that Joe Bloggs is going
to be getting dialup SLIP RSN, although VUW seems to be getting quite a
few enquiries on this.

I am in the process of implementing dialup SLIP for University staff; I
had hoped to have something going before the holiday break.  I love 
deadlines -- I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by.  (DNA 8-)

But dialup SLIP to the outside world carries some problems.  The
first is security -- if you're going to make IP connects to our network,
I need to know that you're not going to stuff it up, pretend to be 
someone or something you aren't or otherwise play merry hell with the 
network.  The second issue is who pays.

The who pays is kinda important.  For a starter, I don't want to see such
a facility taking up lines and equipment intended for University users. 
Secondly, I don't think our distal sites should subsidise a dialup 
facility.  Thirdly, I'd have a hard time justifying hardware purchase for
this on a long term payback; I'd be wanting to recover costs in the first
year (although that would probably mean the second year's costs are lower).
Expenses such as maintenance and phone line rental come into it as well,
and staff time to maintain such a facility would be important.  

Having done all that, I'd still need to recover traffic costs.  The guts
is, yes it can be done, but it will cost serious money.  The hardware
alone will cost about $2000 per port to set up and that doesn't even 
begin to cover ongoing expenses.

Other gotchas include the issue of what to do with mail -- the nature of
SMTP is that it expects that a host is going to be there all the time, and
if it isn't, it'll come back Real Soon Now.  That assumption is going to
be false with a dialup SLIP or PPP connection, so alternative arrangements
need to be made.  Those arrangements are probably going to cost money.

The guts of what I'm saying is that it's a can of worms I don't really 
want to get into.  There does seem to be a demand; whether that demand
is prepared to pay for it, I don't know.  I can't really see how it can
be done a lot cheaper than just dropping a leased line in, at least in
the central Wellington are (if connecting to VUW), and the up-front costs
make it difficult unless there are a lot of users paying for it from day
one.  The only real case for dialup SLIP to VUW that I can think of is 
a dial-on-demand scheme in lieu of a leased circuit for out-of-towners, 
ie you buy the modem, I hang it off a (suitably protected) port of the
router and do the biz, you cross my palm with silver and I treat it like
a leased line.

Given that there does seem to be a demand, maybe there's an opportunity
here for someone with modems and ports already available.  VUW is not
set up for public access, and I really don't want to get into that game,
but practicalities may be different for others.  I'm quite happy to talk
over the issues if anyone is serious about providing such a facility.

--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555)                        don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre            don@vuw.ac.nz (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand              +64-4-495-5052