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.
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?
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.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?
I can't see how, without drastically changing the authentication
methods used by just about every terminal server out there.
If yes, then these like like cheap alternatives to ISDN. If not, is there
any benefit to aggregating?
This type of technology is best used for dedicated connections,
IMHO, at least until Ascend, Livingston, Cisco, and other
companies that make big dial-in boxes support it.
BTW, this question might be better asked of inet-access, since
there's more discussion of dialup issues there.
> 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?I can't see how, without drastically changing the authentication
methods used by just about every terminal server out there.
A Transcend sales droid came to visit us and demo their bonding 33.6
modems to us. Their ISP-side solution was pretty inefficent. Each modem
has 2 incoming phone lines, one of which is in a hunt group, one is
standalone. If it's a transcend caller, the ISP's side will send (through
some magical language) the phone number of the second line back to the
user, and the user will establish the second connection. So you
potentially can waste half your lines while you're 100% busy. Uh huh.
As far as compatibility, the modems all have a single serial connection,
so authentication and whatnot isn't a problem. That is, if you don't mind
not knowing when a user is using one channel or 2 
This type of technology is best used for dedicated connections,
IMHO, at least until Ascend, Livingston, Cisco, and other
companies that make big dial-in boxes support it.
Might work well for dedicated low-bandwith applications, or in areas where
ISDN is cost-prohibitive or not even available.
They do get a couple points for being in really sexy cases with lots of
lights, and they have great diagnostics (gives all sorts of line quality
reports on the LCD, including db noise, signal loss, etc etc).
Chris
Chris Wilson (CW40) | http://www.atlantic.net
Internet Connect Company | Dial-up access * Web hosting
Sales: 800-422-2936 Support: 800-921-9328 | Leased lines * News services
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
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.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?
nope I charge per connect hour, this mease if you get 150 connect hours
you will use it up with 2 line in 75 hours.
If yes, then these like like cheap alternatives to ISDN. If not, is there
any benefit to aggregating?
It's still cheaper than ISDN but you get what you pay for.
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.
Seems possible, but I haven't looked at the white papers on it.
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?From the Trancell documentation I saw, they do seem to indicate that
you'll most likely need one account per channel. I also know that since
most ISPs make it a part of their acceptable use policy that you only get
one dialin at a time unless your paying for different service, that you
probably won't get away with doing multiple logins for long.
Joe Shaw - jshaw@insync.net
NetAdmin - Insync Internet Services