Hi Tika,

     About "DOS TelNet issues" of June 10:

MS> ...major brands have a model with at least one ~RS-232~...
TC> I have a LinkSys BEFSR-41 4-port Router...

     I got my blue cable tied up to the same model (rev. 3) over here...

                                  ;-)

TC> ...your findings do surprise me...  

     And i never toyed with routers until recently...  I intended to try
Cable access a few months ago but life forced me to delay my project and
then the change of schedule made another opportunity occur in good time;
should i have waited for the SysOps to tell, it could have been too late
before i hear of Backup Routers!  It was a surprize and an accident too.

                                  %^)

     I was so excited as i went thru this discovery, i gathered what the
~RS-232~ Serial-Port(s) is(are) for only after i read many .PDF manuals!

                                  ;^)

TC> ...I assumed that the router was connected to a server machine or
TC> hub, which had a dial-up modem in it...  I didn't know they could
TC> connect direct to the router via RS-232.

     There are NetWork devices to which a machine can connect using some
spare Serial-Port but it usually gives access to a text-based management
interface only;  at best, an indu$trial product may support ~TelNet~ but
that alone doesn't make it a DOS-friendly solution.  In the actual case,
the Backup Router's Serial-Port ~WAN~ outlet(s) is(are) still conform to
~RS-232~ interfacing but this is reserved for DialUp/~ISDN~ MoDems.  ;-)

     All systems connect to the Router using ~TCP~/~IP~ SoftWare and via
standard ~NIC~/~EtherNet~ HardWare.  A typical Backup Router manages the
High-Speed and DialUp account(s)/MoDem(s) LOCALLY;  the Router processes
the data stream(s) from the High-Speed and/or DialUp MoDem(s) physically
attached to it, the protocols (~PPP~, ~PPPoE~, ~PAP~, ~CHAP~, ~MS-CHAP~,
etc.) necessary to handle the MoDem(s) are supported locally as well and
~ISP~/user profiles (UserName, PassWord, etc.) come from the router too.

     Even dynamic address clients (`TZO' or equivalent) may be included!

     Though, none of what i've got is conclusive so far...  The very few
brands making ~RS-232~ Serial-Ports remotely accessible limit support to
Apple or `W32' PCs!  %-b,  Also, as indirect as it may sound (relatively
to the MoDem), i'll argue that loading a packet-driver is more direct to
the average DOS LEGACY BBSer - and gives access to a much wider range of
INet goodies - than what a terminal session would ever allow!  ~RS-232~/
~TelNet~ PC connection is nice if it makes management 100 % DOS-friendly
but i often read that `InterNet Explorer'/`JAVA' are required.  Hummm...

     The investigation must continue:  i got to wonder because i vaguely
remember that nowhere DOS was mentioned on the box of my external GVC 56
Kbps MoDem when i bought it and yet a 4.77 Mhz 8088 running DOS v3.30 is
fine (according to its box only `Windows' and a 486 or better would do)!

                                  %-b,

     Maybe some Backup Router boxes aren't advertising DOS compatibility
neither (well, it's hardly popular these days)?  :(  What i get is a bit
incomplete and trying every single router is no option - which is is why
i keep looking for ~WEB~ content from DOS users with related experience.

     The "Dial-on-Demand" feature found in many Backup Routers should be
OKay unless a `Windows' task happens to trigger the dialer mysteriously,
by generating NetWork activity in the background.  %-)  I must determine
if a ~TelNet~ management session allows manual control by the user.  %^)

TC> I don't know if that would be very fast throughput...

     I fail to see the benefit of creating a bottleneck by inserting the
~RS-232~ interface between a router and a PC when nothing significant is
gained from it!  8-o  This can't make sense with one (or two) High-Speed
~DSL~/Cable MoDem(s) attached and the situation wouldn't be different if
it were one (even two) DialUp MoDem(s).  In the real Backup Router case,
throughput from a single DialUp MoDem is said to be boosted and a set of
MoDem types can combine thru MultiLink ~PPP~ techniques (and/or similar)
so that the speed goes up and can never be zero.  Ha, and ~RS-232~ isn't
for a whole ~LAN~!  Should the feed(s) be High-Speed, DialUp or a mix of
the two, i believe `MS-Kermit' manages with ~TCP~/~IP~ and ~TelNet~ well
enough if connected to a regular router and switching to a Backup Router
will only make the "UpGrade" path smoother.  Many SysOps insisted that i
should "UpGrade" my HardWare and OS/SoftWare in the past but it wasn't a
suitable solution (what they did was to simply transfer some weight from
their shoulders to mine, that way `Kermit' didn't have to be supported).

     I couldn't argue with anyone that with two dozen PCs and very litle
space to stack them a much more appropriate solution was to get a BackUp
Router...  Of course, i could depend only on myself to learn about those
devices and i needed to try the regular ones at first - some guys prefer
"Stand-By" solutions, they must see us swim or we can drown!  :(  In any
case, the real problem isn't to get Routers with an ~RS-232~ Serial-Port
that are DOS-friendly, it's to decide which one is friendliest to LEGACY
BBSers trying to access .QWK/BlueWave doors using DOS ~TelNet~ SoftWare.

                                    Best salutations,  ;-)

                                    Michel Samson
                                    a/s Bicephale
                                    http://public.sogetel.net/bicephale/


... Testing `MS-DOS v7.10a'+`LSPPP v0.8'+`RLFossil v1.23'+`{Commo} v7.7'
--- MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.45 - Helping TelNet OLMR BBSing to be UNIVERSAL!