Hardware Configuration

For those who care, here is a rundown of the hardware and software that is in use to run this web site:

Our ISP

Our ISDN line with Network Pursuit (PURSUIT.NET) is now disconnected. We have replaced in with a 384/128 ADSL line from Pacific Bell Internet (PBI.NET). This line provides us with twice the outbound bandwidth, six times the inbound bandwidth, 24x7 network operations center support, routed subnets, etc. All at a cost about 45% less than the ISDN line (which was a bargain compared to other options). If you are lucky enough to have access to DSL internet connections, you really should check them out.

Our Connection

Our ADLS connection is 384K inbound and 128K outbound through an Alcatel DSL 1000 "modem" that is connected to a standard voice pair. Our line to the CO (Central Office) is about 12,000 feet which is within the range of DSL circuits for 384K, but slightly too far for 1.5 Megbit.

Our Router

The IP router on this end is a NetWare 4.11 server running MultiProtocol router version 3.1. The router is configured with "disable everything" not in the list filtering to make a very effective firewall. If we do not specifically intend for a type of connection to get in, it doesn't.

The Pick Host

There are currently several different Pick hosts that alternate usage as piclan.com. To see which is running, check the status page.

Unless these system are busy doing other things, they appear to be "infinately fast" for this speed of internet connection.

Debugging Tools

To facilitate debugging, a network sniffer is logging the last 8 Megabytes of network traffic to and from the Pick host.

The WWW file base

The production web pages are stored in a normal Pick data file. They were authored in a directory on our Novell 4.11 server and them imported to the Pick host through a PicLan DOS Services Gateway or through host import functions built into PicLan-IP.