Minimal H/W configuration??? (Terminal Server?)

[Jonathan Bayer]

yap at me.utoronto.ca (Davin Yap) writes:

>I was just wondering how practical it would be to use a bare-bones 386
>box running xenix as a terminal server.  I'd appreciate answers to any of
>the following questions or any suggestions in general.  As a barometer
>the cost of a 16 port terminal server here in Toronto is about $13,000 CDN
>(or $10,800 US).  For those of you who don't know what a terminal server
>is, it's just a box you attach to your ethernet, with lots of serial
>ports you can attach terminals to, and login to other machines.

>The idea is to buy a cheap 386 box, sans HD, an ethernet board, a
>couple(?) serial port boards, and (I suppose) run tcp/ip, then telnet to
>the various hosts.

>Questions:

>1)  Is it viable to run Xenix without a HD, even with no entries in the
>    crontab (geez I don't even know if Xenix has a crontab :-), and just
>    the bare minimum of processes running?  I'd like to use one perhaps
>    two 1.44 meg drives.

No.  You need a hard disk even if it is a slow 10 meg drive.


>2)  I'm assuming you can run tcp/ip under xenix.  Am I assuming too much?

Yes you can.


>3)  What is the maximum number of serial ports one can access under
>    Xenix?  What is the PRACTICAL limit (as a note, I've been told you
>    can't have more than 8 serial ports on a PC, but I'm assuming that
>    this is under DOS)?

On a 386 you should be able to run a maximum of 64 serial ports (4 16-port
cards).  As a practical matter you will probably want intelligent cards to
relive the cpu of all the interrupts.

>4)  How much ram would you need for such an implementation?  That is, if
>    each user is running a telnet, how much memory do you need for each
>    user?  Here, I'm assuming that it's koser to put 'exec telnet' as the
>    first line in each users .profile (there's just gotta be a bourne
>    shell :-).  How much memory does the kernal require?

Yes, there is a bourne shell.  The kernal for a basic system will take
up about 3-400 K.  Yes, you will be able to do an exec telnet.  Ram is a
different matter.  Understanding that this is a guestimate, I figure that
you will need about 4 meg, for up to 32 users, more for the 64 users.


>5)  How much (approx.) would a unlimited user, no frills Xenix cost?

About $ 600

>If this turns out to be a viable alternative (10.8K US is a lotta dough
>for something not really impressive), would anyone be interested in going
>into business with me?  You can have the US, I'll take Canada ;^)
>We can cooperate by ironing out the technical difficulties, and perhaps
>go in on some bulk purchases.  There are worst ways of making a profit
>(I don't know the smiley for tongue-in-cheek)


It is a viable alternative. The total cost would come to about $ 5000,
depending on how much ram and how many serial ports you will end up using.


>But seriously - THANKS to all who reply,


Your welcome.
-- 
Jonathan Bayer		Intelligent Software Products, Inc.
(201) 245-5922		500 Oakwood Ave.
jbayer at ispi.COM		Roselle Park, NJ   07204