[ale] Huge number of PPP connections

[Alan Bowman]

 Joe wrote:

> (2) How to even get 128 serial ports? We know the Digi EC/X
> concentrator card will do it, but there doesn't seem to be
> a Linux driver for that particular card. Are there
> any alternatives? We might not mind adding more comms server
> machines if necessary, but we'd like to do it all on
> a single one if possible.
 
 I can't speak to the rest of your question, but I know that I've seen
drivers for Computone boards (which I've not used) and Specialix boards
(with which I am familiar) somewhere.  Either in the kernel or modules,
I can't remember.  As for Specialix boards, I can recommend the Terminal
Adapter 8 boards, or the Specialix Rio boards.  Avoid the Jetstream
boards like the plauge that they are.  I haven't looked at the manual in
a while, but I -believe- that you can connect 16 Rio's to each channel
of the Rio Host Card, which equals 128 ports.  One advantage of the
Rio's is that you can gang them together, making the connections
redundant.  One disadvantage is that the Rio's all need a seperate power
supply, so you're looking at 16 power bricks. Rio's also come with a
nifty utility that allows you to configure them remotely if that
becomes necessary.  The older Terminal Adapter 8 boards all connect
together and draw their power from the main server, and I don't -think-
you can have 16 of them connected together, but would have to RTFM to
see if that's really the case.

  Hope this is of some help.

...alan