[nycbug-talk] multiport serial cards

[Jonathan Franks]

On Oct 12,
> Hi all,
>
> I've got a (FreeBSD) console server that's got two 8-port  
> Rocketport cards in it.  I need to ditch these as they have two  
> problems:  the driver is kind of flakey and basically abandoned,  
> and I'm already three ports short of what I need and we're still  
> adding servers.
>
> Stallion looked nice, specifically this setup:
>
> http://www.stallion.com/html/products/easyconnection.html
>
> Density is great, 64 ports per card.  Price is right too.  However  
> every retailer has these on backorder, and it seems like the stl  
> driver did not make it to 5.x.
>
> This all makes me feel like some old unix nerd.  When I post on the  
> FreeBSD lists it's just crickets. :)
>
> Anyone here have recommendations on decent cards that cost less  
> than buying a standalone console server?  I'd like a minimum of 32  
> ports on a single card...
>

I've only used Digi portservers (which are pretty cool), but they  
also have this:


http://www.digi.com/products/multiportserialcards/acceleportcx.jsp

They start at 1300 and change and go up from there.... but they can  
scale to 128 ports on one pci slot. There is also a model that will  
go up to 64.

It's just a suggestion, and there are probably people better  
qualified to recommend something than I, but your post brought back  
memories. I did a stint with a company using Mentor Pro and MvBase on  
NT to serve up a business management package that they had written in  
Pick/Basic.

On further reflection, I'm glad thats over with :-)

-Jonathan