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	Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard

On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, S. Finer wrote:

> In a small news room, ISDN may be a good answer for network access.  More
> than 6 individual users each with a modem suggests the need for access via
> a LAN...not through individual dial-up.  But a single ISDN line will not
> do much for you if you have more than 10 users, or even fewer heavy users.

Unless you have a contract for flat-rate ISDN, you should drop the ISDN
connection plan and go directly to frame-relay.  There are several
router/CSU/DSU and Frame Relay Access Devices (FRADs) available which can
take most of the pain away.  As always, it it critical to put up a
fire-wall between the user lan and the Internet connection.

Two common misconceptions.  Often, administrators will give individual PC
users PC-Anywhere and a modem thinking this is more secure than an
internet connection.  Unfortunately, this only makes anyone with a modem
capable of being you..  The internet connection, with fire-wall is actually
more secure than dial-up lines.

The other side of modem or ISDN to the desktop is that charges can rack up
very quickly.  Full-time dedicated service can run well over $1400/month
when the 1cent/minute unit charges are added to the $35/month charges. The
frame-relay starts at around $300/month, but can be quickly and cheaply
expanded.  Full T1 (enough bandwidth for over 100 users) will run less
than the price of a single ISDN link that is constantly being fired up.

> What is the magnitude of Inet demand in your office?   Is it growing
> rapidly?  Larger offices should opt for T-1 or fractional T-1, not ISDN.
> ISDN is great for telecommuters, if their local tariffs have been
> correctly adjusted.  

Tarrifs vary from state to state and city to city.  An ISDN link in
Manhatten can run 5 cents/minute.  The popular dual-channel (128 kb)
access can double the per/minute rate.  Those nickels add up very quickly.
In addition, the ISDN link requires the same type of fire-wall and
security that a frame-relay connection requires.

Firewalls can be configured very easily using Linux, OS/2, or Windows-NT.
In effect you turn OFF all of the convenience features such as domain name
services, packet forwarding, and routing protocols.  The $25,000 firewalls
can add securities level protection such as passwords that change every
few seconds (and cards that give you the password of the minute).

> Does your local phone company have ISDN specialty
> installation crews....or do they expect you to hire a consultant to do the
> hook-up?   Those are the questions you need to ask..

The connection to a single, personal use PC, not connected to a LAN is
fairly trivial.  The connection from ISDN to a LAN should be managed by
someone who knows the fundamentals of internet security.  There are books,
and Unix hosts based on Sun/Solaris (Netra), or Linux/PC provide most of
the features of an ISP (UNIX is used on about 95% of all Internet hosts).

> On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Crystal Levy wrote:
> 
> > Hi everyone ...
> > 
> > I've been told we're probably getting an ISDN line here in the newsroom
> > soon. I tried to read up on this, but my eyes glazed over and I couldn't
> > understand -- the most I comprehend is that it's a headache to set up,

The biggest headache is that it takes up to 6 weeks to have an
installation crew run the connection.  The actual configuration is similar
to configuring TCP/IP on a Windows Workstation.

> > but

> > once it's running, we can have many people using the Internet at once
> > without needing modems at each computer. (At the present, we have just a
> > few machines set up with modems and Internet software.) Is anyone else

DO NOT let LAN connected machines access the internet via Dial-up!  Many
TCP/IP packages will either disable connections, or turn your PC into an
unprotected router.  This is not a good thing.

> > using an ISDN line in their newsroom who can tell me if this is the
> > headache I've heard about? What else should I know before getting into
> > this?

I sheperded Dow Jones and McGraw-Hill/Standard & Poor's through their
entry onto the internet.  The biggest headache is getting your LAN
administrator to forget all he had been told by NetWare, SNA, and DecNet
proponants.  These companies love to scare you with horror stories of
sites that (while configured with no security precautions at all) were
attacked by hackers.

You don't leave the door to your house unlocked and open while your at
work.  You also don't live in a bank vault capable of surviving a nuclear
halocaust.  Properly configured, a Frame-Relay connection to the internet
can be a secure as the doors in your business, including the unlocked
glass one that customers come through, and the bank vault in the back
room.

> > Thanks,
> > Crystal Levy
> > The Daily News
> > http://www.hfxnews.com

	Rex Ballard

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