No Modem Pools for HP??

[michael collins_1]

We are currently rolling out a new VPO solution with paging on L-class servers. We are unable to find a simple modem pool solution to connect our servers to the analog lines. We can implement a mux card with a bunch of external modems...(messy), but are unable to find a single box with internal modems to use as our modem pool. Equinox and Digi have both said theirs is not supported by HP and our HP rep was not able to come up with anything other than a mux card. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Tim Malnati · Accepted solution]

Most organizations prefer to use centrally based modem pool products that are network based instead. The idea here is that you have a fully managed product that is far more configurable, can potentially serve the all of your modem needs, and can be segregated using a firewall. I would look more toward Cisco or 3com for this sort of stuff.

Where your application is paging, I would suggest that you discuss the issue with your paging vendor(s) a little more. These days many of them have direct internet interfaces to their paging systems, allowing you to send a page via a standard tcp/ip packet message.

[michael collins_1]

Tim,

Thanks for your input. We have looked a several configurations and network paging, and have deemed that our least dependent, overall best solution for our environment is to have a modem pool directly connected to our management servers. I will look into cisco and 3com, but would still like to know of anyone who has a particular type of modem pool connected to an HP L-class server. We are running Telalert for the paging client, but Telalert does not care what hardware is connected to the server for the most part. Thanks. MC

[Jason VanDerMark]

I found the following information that may be of interest to you.

"Product: SuperSerial Modem Pool - attaches multiple modems to a server ($1,695)
Company: Equinox Systems Inc. (Sunrise, FL)
Telephone: (800) 275-3500, (954) 746-9000
E-mail: info@equinox.com
URL: http://www.equinox.com
Platforms: Novell, Windows NT and Unix servers
Description: A low-cost solution for attaching large numbers of modems to a server. A variety of off-the-shelf internal modems are mounted in a compact, intelligent chassis with 16 ISA slots. A custom design microprocessor off-loads modem communications processing from the server. A single cable (up to 300 feet in length) connects the Modem Pool to a host card that is installed in any standard-bus server. Up to 64 modems can run simultaneously at 115 Kbps with no degradation under load."

Hope this is useful.

Regards,
Jason V.

[michael collins_1]

Jason,

The problem is, Equinox does not write drivers or support their modem pools or multiport modem cards for HP Hardware. When talking to a tech from them, they sited "no market demand" for them to provide HP drivers!!! If you look at the specs on the modem pool from Equinox, several Unix flavors are supported, but no HP!! Same problem with Digi modem hardware. Thanks. MC