At 02:17 PM 7/24/97 -0800, Scott Landman wrote:
Does anyone out there have any comment on some of the new, bonded pipe products like the WebRamp M3 or Transendmodem? From what I understand they are saying that multiple lines can be aggregated to act as one, virtual line.
I can only speak to the M3, since we've used quite a few of those already at customer sites. #1 - It's NOT bonded. Though the software is intelligant enough to round-robin the multiple connections from a web browser, you don't get 33.6+33.6+33.6 download speed. Web browsing speed IS increased, but FTP on the other hand, isn't. #2 - Each modem requires an additional internet account. (At least in our case since we don't allow multiple logins) The software lets you set saturation points for adding each additional modem. We've found 3 users to a modem to be about perfect. Email only can handle 10 per modem.
My question is: will the ISPs support multiple sessions from the same account (name/password) without charging N X the number of lines per hour? If yes, then these like like cheap alternatives to ISDN. If not, is there any benefit to aggregating?
We've found the greatest niche for this product is the small office (<20) who want to get internet access, but don't need/can't afford an ISDN router. The M3 has a built-in DHCP server, IP Masquerading for basic firewall, and a web interface for setup. We can literally set up a win95/mac lan for the internet in minutes. This product is not for raw bandwidth, but more for modem sharing. With an end-user cost of around $379 + modems, it's almost unbeatable. Hooray to RampNet. (I don't work for them.. I just like their products) As an aside, one of their techs told me you could put ISDN TA's on the ports as well. Hmmmmmm.. but still no bonding.. Donn Tech Support - http://www.owt.com ------------------------------------------------------- - OWT Tech Support - help@owt.com - (509) 735-0408 - -------------------------------------------------------