IP Networking

There is a small company with 3 locations in Idaho. Currently they are using UNIX with multiplexors from 10 years ago. They would like to speed up their downloads and connection speeds but don't want to pay more than they are paying right now. They currently pay $200/mo. The main office is in Terreton. The office in Hamer is not LD but the office in Rigby is. An access line is used for the connection between Terreton and Rigby. Rigby has two dummy terminals, Hamer has one, and Terreton has 2. Hamer and Rigby download the info from Terreton. Are there any options for this small company? Also, as a side note, they just barely got fiberoptic cable in Terreton but it is not available, yet. The telephone company is a cooperative. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know how fast you'd be able to go for $200/m. You could probably get a burstable DSL line, but depending on how many employees you have, the charges might stack up. Right now our company is on a burstable DSL, plus we have 2 racks hosted at the ISP's location. We are now moving to get a direct T1 straight into our racks at the ISP so we can be virtually on the same network as our production network. T1 prices have been dropping and I think you can find some in the $300/m range if you scout around enough but it's pretty rare. I think a pumped up DSL is probably your best option. Depending on what you're doing, that should be enough for a small corporate network with 30-50 users.

Thank you very much. But, I guess I should be even more clear on how small that business is. There are 5 computers total. 3 in Terreton, one in Hamer, and 2 in Rigby. They are tire stores owned by one man who is located in Terreton. Very small business. Any more suggestions?

Ah ok now I understand. Well, how about this:

Get a DSL connection in Terraton (the home office with 3 computers).

Then get a cheap box suitable for unix with 3 serial interfaces on it. Install external 56k modems (can't go wrong with USRobotics sportsters) on each serial interface. Setup the server with a small secure flavor of Unix (OpenBSD is recommended) and run PPP on it. You'll need 1 phone line dedicated to the PPP server.

Have the other 2 offices dialup into your new server. They can now access the network in Terraton and use the DSL line.

thank you so much for your help. i have just found out that DSL is not available in their area (terreton). what a mess. thanks anyway!