Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!hedrick From: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: Novell from 150 miles away Message-ID: Date: 29 Oct 90 01:02:05 GMT References: Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 27 To: grutz@furp.lonestar.org You need either a pair of bridges or Novell routers. They must be connected by some sort of communication facility. With 150 miles between them this is almost certainly a leased line of some sort. The common speeds are 56Kbps or T1 (1.5Mbps), though some vendors now support intermediate speeds, using something called "fractional T1". With fractional T1, you still need a full T1 line between your facilities and the facilities of the long distance vendor, but you'd only pay for the bandwidth you need from the long-distance carrier between the two cities. What speed line you get is entirely a matter of what you need and how much the lines cost. I believe you can get software from Novell that will allow you to use a PC as a Novell router. You'd need a PC controller card that can handle the type of line you decide to use. A Novell reseller should be able to advise you on appropriate types of card. You can also use a multi-protocol router such as cisco's. This has the advantage that it can also handle TCP/IP, DECnet, ISO, etc. (Under 8.2 it will also be able to carry IBM SDLC traffic, I believe.) Basically the pieces you need are the router, the phone line, and a DSU/CSU, which is a unit that connects the phone line to digital equipment. (It's the equivalent of a modem, but for high-speed leased lines.) The detailed specs for the DSU/CSU will depend upon the speed and type of the line. Generally you should first decide what type of router you are going to use and what line speed, and let the router vendor (which would be the Novell reseller if you use a Novell PC as the router) tell you what kind of DSU/CSU to use.