On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Laine Stump wrote:

: The result is that a NetWARP gives you better performance (on systems
: that support it) because the rs232 bottleneck is missing, but at the
: expense of more CPU time. I think the NetWARP only has drivers for MS
: operating systems at present.

Forgot that the NetWARP was an ISA card.  D'oh!  Shows how long it's been
since I was talking people into buying Ascend product.

: As far as I know, the P15 does synchronous MPP to the remote end, and
: converts this into standard (single line) async PPP before sending it to
: the host. So it shouldn't matter if the host supports MPP or not. (Don't
: take my word on this, though - I haven't actually used the thing
: myself).

Probably true, and I believe the Motorola BitSURFR has this ability too.  It
does some trickery with the PPP to make it work across multiple channels.

: As far as STAC compression, I could be wrong about this as well, but the
: information I have indicates the P15 doesn't support STAC compression
: under any circumstances, regardless of host OS.

This only has to do with the PPP implementation of the host, actually.  The
STAC compression is another layer atop PPP, after the channels have been
split and reassembled by the P15.  The raw data sent to the serial port by
the P15 is decompressed in the computer.

: I agree with this whole paragraph (although I don't know anything about
: dumping the P25). Async<->Sync ISDN terminal adapters are okay when an
: async serial port is all you've got (or you're low on cash), but you'll
: get better performance and more features with a real router every time.

The P25 is an old entry into Ascend's line, without the nifty SNMP, with the
ability only to route one or the other of IPX and IP, and with less
bandwidth (it sometimes can't handle a well compressed data load). 

: I've got a P75 at home and it serves me very well (I even have a modem
: plugged into one of the P75 POTS ports and into an old Morning Star
: router, giving me an analog dialin that comes over one of my B
: channels).

Something similar here; my P75 is on its own uninterrupted power supply, as
my only POTS access _is_ ISDN.  ;)  Now, if you want to know about the
down-sides to Ascend's products, I'll be glad to forward you a
just-shy-of-flame post I sent to the ascend-users mailing list about them
leaving old product customers out in the cold. 

=====
== Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Business tv@lucent.com)
== I know you like the Internet, Bobby.  Now go eat your Frosted Flakes.