[rescue] Terminal servers (was: Just a thought - what would be a good starter SPARC system these days?)

[rescue at sunhelp.org]

>> After pricing new terminal servers ($$$$$$$ and up), I'm trying to replace
>> it with a PC stuffed full of serial ports. I have a Boca BB2016, which is
>> very nice except that it locks up after about two minutes -- when I have
>> time, I'll be playing with different I/O ports and interrupts to see if
>> that makes it happier.
>
>What you want is a PC serial board that puts all the ports on the _same_
>IRQ, and some software that know how to handle that.

   Uh... that's what the Boca boards are. They're probably the most widely
supported multiport boards among free Unixes, which is why I got one when it
popped up on Ebay. It may be that this is just a bum unit, or more likely
there's a conflict. The I/O space it requires is huge (it's set up for
100-17F right now), and I suspect there's something else lurking in there,
although I don't know what. I don't think anything is using IRQ 5, since I
had an Ethernet card on that for a while, but I can try fiddling that, too.

   The purpose of the exercise is to have a box that I can telnet to from
my main machine, as I did with the Lantronix, so I can have all the
consoles in a flock of xterms on the second head.

   --James B.