Re: 20000117: Millersv inquiry about using DirecPC for LDM traffic

David

I've been trying to get through to Hughes tech support with much difficulty.
If I understand the setup correctly, the Win box would merely act as a router
on the LAN if you use one of the listed packages at;

http://varinfo.direcpc.com/what/network.html

Those being SatServ, Helius, and WinRoute.  Of course, all these packages
have their own cost in addition to the service, but I see no obvious reason
why this couldn't work.  As always, there are a lot of potential pitfalls
with IP timeouts and how seemless the setup really appears.  I'd suggest
your people lobby Hughes to setup a free proof of concept system for your
evaluation or at least demonstrate a similar use working somewhere else.

If/when I finally get through to Hughes, I'll followup.

mike

>To: "'address@hidden'" <address@hidden>
>cc: David Fitzgerald <address@hidden>
>From: David Fitzgerald <address@hidden>
>Subject: DirecPC and LDM
>Organization: .
>Keywords: 200001171841.LAA29149
>
> Hi guys,
>
> Sorry for being a pain but I'm under a lot of pressure from our networking
> people to get back to them regarding the DirecPC question I sent last
> Friday.  Any thoughts about it?
>
> My original message is this:
>
> This past semester we at Millersville have had serious problems in
> receiving our meteorological data over the IDD.  We continuously have high
> latencies and data loss, especially in the model runs.  We tracked the
> problem to be due to heavy network congestion at the point where our
> campus network connects to "the world".  Unfortunately  this problem will
> not be improved upon until at least this summer, so we are looking for
> alternate and reliable methods of securing our IDD feed through the spring
> semester.
>
> The most promising solution we have found so far is to bypass this
> (particular) congestion entirely by having our LDM connect to the internet
> through a satellite dish using DirecPC, DirecPC being the most affordable
> short term solution we could find.  However DirecPC only works on
> Intel/Windows 95/98 boxes.  My question:  Since LDM software is not
> available for Windows can I somehow "fool" the LDM on twister to grab the
> data by going through the Win98 box and therefore the DirecPC connection?
> I want to do something like using the Windows machine as a proxy through
> which to request/receive data via the LDM.   DirecPC uses the satellite
> for incoming data, and would use our existing netowrk for outgoing data.
> I'm not sure how I can get our LDM on twister to go through the Win98 box
> with the DirecPC software and accept data coming into the Win98 box via
> the satellite.    My gut instinct is that it can't be done, but you guys
> know the LDM better than I.
>
> Any help you can give is appreciated, and if you have any other ideas or
> suggestions, feel free to make them.  I am entertaining all ideas on
> improving our data quality at this time!
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> David Fitzgerald
> System Administrator        Phone: (717) 871-2394
> Millersville University       Fax:     (717) 871-4725
> Millersville, PA 17551        E-mail: address@hidden


>From address@hidden  Wed Jan 19 17:24:57 2000
>From: David Fitzgerald <address@hidden>
>Organization: Millersville University
>Keywords: 200001171841.LAA29149 DirecPC

Dave,

I had sent your inquiry along to Mike Schmidt (our system administrator)
for comment, but Mike has been incredibly busy since we got back from
the AMS show.

Let me try and jump in.  After reviewing web pages referenced off of
a DirecPC information page:

DirecPC
http://varinfo.direcpc.com/
  What is DirecPC?
  http://varinfo.direcpc.com/what/what.html
    DirecPC Network Products
    http://varinfo.direcpc.com/what/network.html
      Tested Products

it seems that you can use DirecPC as an internet link over which
the LDM could be fed.  Exactly how this may be done, we can't say
for sure.  There are a number of issues like the existance of
reverse name lookup for the machine being fed by DirecPC, etc.
From what the various network product vendors are touting,
it does seem that what you want to do should be possible, but
you may have to spend some money for one of their products.

Sorry we can't be more precise in our answer...

>I know you've been at the AMs conference and haven't had time to consider
>the email I sent last week.  Here it is again.  Please look it over and let
>me know if you have a way to use DirecPC in the manner described.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Dave

>From address@hidden  Thu Jan 20 08:25:45 2000

Hi Tom and everyone!

Thanks for everyones help on looking into this DirecPC stuff.  I understand
how busy administrators can be so no apology necessary for Mike not getting
back to me!
I've been looking at the DirecPC pages as well and have the same concerns...
how to get Reverse DNS to work, how to route the LDM through the DirecPC
software while letting my users access the data located on twister without
going through DirecPC  etc.

I'll let you know if we go ahead with this.

Dave