> > This is not yet possible with Livingston equipment. Livingston
> > has there own proprietary version which works with EQL on linux.
> Wait a minute. I am completely baffled by this. Do the PM2's support
> multilink for ISDN or not? From what I have read they do. If this is the
> care, PPP is PPP, it doesn't matter which interface it's run over, Async or
> otherwise. If it works with ISDN, whats the problem with Async?
According to Livingston it is horsepower/performance and the limited
buffering in their serial ports. More like you have to have the CPU bond
channels in the analog method (this is done with the Microsoft
implementation) which would eat the 386-33 in the PM-2's, and for ISDN the
logic was built in because if you have to bond 2 channels you might as
well build in support to do more. They state they DO support ISDN MLPPP
and in their ISDN BRI solution and in the PM-3 PRI (as well as MCPPP) as
that hardware was developed later. But they do not support analog MLPPP.
PPP is not PPP, there are many implementations. In this case they already
had a multilink protocol which was proprietary between two portmasters and
performed well across their analog ports. Then some linux hackers got
together and wrote a driver that would talk this multilink protocol
between a linux box and a portmaster or two linux boxes for that matter.
The EQL driver support is included in the present linux kernel source. I
do not know whether they include/will build-in MLPPP for the analog modems
of the PM-3 so that it will work with the Microsoft implementation. Their
multilink analog works well, I have used it for a 56k connection using a
PM-2e, 4 Courier modems and a linux box.
So for now, if you want to connect via analog lines, you use the
Livingston proprietary protocol (limited to Livingston products and/or
linux). If you want to connect via ISDN, you use MLPPP.