[AusNOG] Anyone have any ancient Bay 5000/5399's lying around?

[Rob Thomas]

I probably should take this off list, BUT, some people may not be
aware of how much better Asterisk is these days!

Asterisk USED to rely on interrupt-driven timing, which was - when you
had a real timing source - super reliable. However, when you DIDN'T
have timing, you had to fudge it, and there were a bunch of extremely
fudge-y methods used, and it was awful, and people hated it.

However, Linux now has timerfd, which is an EXTREMELY accurate timing
source, and you can tell it to wake up a select(2) call every period -
20msec in VoIPs case. This actually ends up being MORE accurate than
interrupt driven hardware (well, sort of) because you'll never (except
you can) miss a tick, and you'll never slip on audio - which breaks
fax.

With all those caveats and sort-ofs aside, I feel confident that I'll
be able to push a 56k connection from a random ATA through Kamailio,
then Freeswitch/Asterisk into a PRI and then into something that talks
56k, to then establish a PPP or SLIP connection over it and connect to
the internet!

The only potential thing is that I doubt VERY much that it'll work
over G722 - G722 is a really REALLY good codec for voice, but I'm
almost certain i'll be useless for data.

> PS. you have to much time on your hands.

Shh. People will give me more stuff to do! 8)

--Rob





On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 at 10:01, Matt Perkins <matt at spectrum.com.au> wrote:
>
> Ours all went to scrap years ago.  I wonder if I have a copy of the old
> tftp image that it loads off. Not sure I even remember the name for it.
> PS. you have to much time on your hands.
> PSS what are you going to use for an E1 as Asterisk and a zap card ?  I
> very much doubt v34 will make it through Asterisk intact  Fax barely
> does. Almost all trellis QAM modulated signals I think would fall on
> their ass your going to need something with a master clock like a real
> pabx.
>
> Matt
>
>
> On 20/9/19 9:00 am, Rob Thomas wrote:
> > I was reminiscing on derpbook, and realised that it would be a
> > RIDICULOUSLY insane idea to try to recreate a 56k dialup ISP in 2020.
> > So I'm going to do it.
> >
> > To further this plan, I'm hoping that someone has some old Bay
> > 5000/5399's lying around that they paid megabucks for and are now
> > worth less than nothing, that they want to donate to a good home.
> >
> > If one happens to be in Brisbane, that would be even better, because
> > I'm heading down there for Comicon this weekend, and I could pick it
> > up then!
> >
> > If not, maybe some old Cisco devices? Or whatever those TNT devices
> > were? Something that takes a PRI in one end and makes modem sounds at
> > it, basically.
> >
> > --Rob
> > _______________________________________________
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> > AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> > http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>
>
> --
> /* Matt Perkins
>          Direct 02 8916 8101        Spectrum Networks Ptd. Ltd.
>          Office 1300 133 299        matt at spectrum.com.au
>                                     Level 6, 350 George Street Sydney 2000
>          Spectrum Networks is a member of the Communications Alliance & TIO
> */
>
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