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Discovery Online and The Netcat started working closer together to increase sales of Internet dial-up accounts. DOL provided The NetCat in Orangeburg, SC a 56 K dedicated connection to the Internet. DOL became The Netcats` backbone connection through our T1 via MCI. The NetCat maintained a small ISP. The service started slowly; with no major investments along the way. The NetCat spent little on advertising. Nevertheless, they grew large enough to justify increased bandwidth. That is where I jumped in – my company agreed to "make this so". Pre - ConditionsThe NetCat performed all DNS, Web, and routing services to
their customers with one server and a 56 K line to our local
POP 40 miles away. Using Unix BSDI it provided all services
to its customers. A simple network graphic: 
Showing a fully loaded box connected directly to a CSU / DSU interface; and thus, to the Internet via a 56 K line. My intention was to break this connection and use a new Ethernet network to connect this BSDI machine to the back-end of the Ascend 130 CSU / DSU side of the Frame Relay. Myself and the remote POP’s designer tried over five different network cards before the right one linked up to the router. The IP subneting composed of a low order 64 IP addresses pool which supported the small customer base. The remainder of the Class C pool remained as binary subnetted groups. One of these two address was used as the network IP between routers in each city. The "magic" Internet cloud separated these routers. If you haven’t determined yet, let me agree that this is an absolute WASTE of IP address space. Other company engineers were tied-up in other projects. So, I accepted the values given to me by my Telco. The new Frame Relay connection will allow for changing the DNS of new users to OUR DNS at the main POP. I decided to do this to allow for future expansion. My intention was to reduce the about of in-band DNS control. Because the new remote LAN was Ethernet based new web services could be added if needed. Web, RADIUS, Security, and DNS for example. Software DistributionThere was no software distribution when I came into the project. New users needed personalized service in order to be connected to the Internet. Most of the responsibility of configuring the new user software and dial-up connection was left to the customer. Since there is no advertising there are not many new signups. The network’s company president was able to help the few people who needed to sign-up. Proposed DesignIn order to "take over" The Netcat’s connection I had to supply DNS, Web, and routing services to the Internet. The NetCat’s subnetted Class C IP address pool needed to be expanded to the full 256 addresses. We would be assigning new customers our DNS (not the local POP’s DNS address) upstream to our main POP. Ultimately, a dedicated PRI line to Orangeburg was desired in order to connect directly into our US Robotics 56 K modems. A Tech Support line between Orangeburg and Columbia connected distant users to our local Tech support number. Network DescriptionPhase 1: Bandwidth is increased using a 128 K Frame Relay to offload the congested bandwidth bottleneck. Several new phone lines were ordered for Orangeburg to help reduce the number of busy signals. While the phone lines were on order the primary services which the remote POP customers enjoy (what they pay for) were transferred to the upstream network access point. This requires customer participation because of the transfer of user information, customer web sites, and remoter customer Internic registrations. Phase 2: Change over to PRI lines. Thus, all of our present services can be offered to Orangeburg. By this time all remote POP services will have been transferred over to the local server farm (Web services, web hosting, DNS, Mail, and News services). Software DistributionSoon after the bandwidth was increased a DOL / TheISP dial-up package was designed to be openly distributed into the Orangeburg market. I used Netscape Navigator Dial-package to configure the set-up for Orangeburg. The Orangeburg dial-up number pointed to The Netcat’s present dial-in server. This supported redundancy and off-load Orangeburg traffic. It allowed us to keep old accounts with no customer changes. Only Win 95 was supported – leaving other OS support to future project management. 95 Netscape Dial-up Package
Frame Relay Hardware I chose two Ascend 130 Routers for the WAN connection CSU / DSU locations. We had several of these on our shelves and I was familiar with the Ascend Control Language enough to feel confident about setting it up. From the prompting of my partner-in-crime I obtained a year contract on one of these boxes. This way I could get Ascend support to walk me through the configuration for Frame Relay. Considering I had my hands full with the phone company – this assistance proved invaluable. Check out http://www.ascend.com/649.html for information on the Ascend router configuration. 
Nuts & Bolts Software Configuration A few values you can’t "Frame" without:
Time Considerations The NetCat’s network was hurting. It was overpowered by too many users. Those users were frustrated and they wanted improvement. To put it simply: "… there were some mad people in Orangeburg". "Time considerations?" There were little time considerations ! Tools / SuppliesNothing with computer science is done with the hands - except for the keyboard. Of course getting it all set up requires particular tools and supplies; plus the coordination of customer relations personnel. In your bag of tricks you should include:
Conclusions Hooking up a WAN circuit is like flying a paper airplane. You built it and then toss that thing into the air to see how it flies. You watch it – and when it lands you send it up again. You might refold a crease or add a second stabilizer wing – before you toss it up to see what your changes caused. When you are successful the network "flies" and you can forget about it – or go back and refine your work. |
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