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From: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: How fast is SLIP?
Summary: Is header compression available yet?  PC, Sun3, compatibility
Message-ID: <5969@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Nov 89 00:14:31 GMT
References: <5968@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs)
Organization: Bell Labs Random Organization Name Generator
Lines: 29

We have several locations with Ethernets and Suns, connected by a Datakit
network that can give us good async connectivity, and we'd like to
bridge or route the Suns together.  While there are some respectable
solutions to the problem, all of them require capital budget and time,
and we'd like to get something working quickly, performance not critical.

The obvious approach seems to be SLIP - we can nail up a 19200 baud
connection across the Datakit and snarf the software off uunet,
using our file server as a router, and maybe also use some of the spare
PCs lying around with pcbridge or pcroute.  RFC 1055 talks about
future header compression work - is this available yet, or does
uunet have the latest stuff?

How much CPU does this use?  Will it use up half the CPU (bad) or
<10% (ideal)?  We're mostly running Sun 3/150s with SunOS 3.5,
though the server may get upgraded to 4.0.X, and we have
ALM-2 boards as well as the built-in ports.  Can the Sun handle
19200, or just 9600?

Is more than one line possible on a single machine?
Aside from horsepower problems, will the software support it?
This is especially a concern for the pc products.

Also, does Wollongong support SLIP in a compatible fashion?
We have a few 3B2/300s which aren't very busy.
-- 
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 api.att.com!wcs

#		We did it for the formlessness ...