Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 18:38:57 -0800 From: Austin Schutz <tex@shrubbery.net> To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Maintenance modems and power failures

...

Most network providers are aware of the secret hiding in most of our POPs. Those little sporters and courier modems stuffed into a rack somewhere plugged into the nearest available outlet, as the only out-of-band access. Has anyone come up with a solution for powering these forgotten pieces of equipment, which doesn't cost more than the modem itself?

At first you might think it makes sense to power them off the UPS which is powering the rest of your equipment. The only problem is if you are using the maintenance modem to monitor your UPS. This is just one of those things which has bugged me for a few years, but I still haven't come up with a solution I really like.

Get two modems.

POTS ---- Modem 0 ---- Modem 1 | | UPS AC Utility AC

This only really makes sense if you have your terminal server w/ redundant power, one utility AC and the other UPS AC.

Don't forget to change the settings on one of the modems so that it answers on a different number of rings. -rb ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com