From: george@wixer.cactus.org (George Wenzel)
Subject: Digiboard multiport cards (was Re: Stallion Multi-port)
Organization: Real/Time Communications
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 17:35:13 GMT

In article <1992Oct11.214758.3699@jeck.amherst.nh.us> coffler@jeck.amherst.nh.us (Jeff Coffler) writes:
>
>Just out of curiousity, I called Digiboard and asked them how to install one of
>their ISA boards on DELL Unix (*ANY* low-memory card would have the problem on
>that release of DELL Unix).  They responded, "Oh, that O/S is a pain, but we
>can most certainly give you exact steps of what it takes".  A much warmer and
>fuzzier feeling!  Fortunately, the new version of DELL Unix (Issue 2.2) doesn't
>have the problem (DELL now longer pre-installs drivers in the kernel).
>
>Since then, I've started field testing a new Digiboard product (the PC/Xem).
>This is a 16-port product (expandable to 32 ports), capable of 115k BPS across
>all ports, and still relatively cheap (only about $200 more than the Stallion).
>You can also buy ISA or EISA at virtually the same price.  This seems to fit
>the bill for me (I can't ever imagine needing more than 16 ports, but in case
>I somehow do, I can still get another 16 at minimal cost).  Also, the board
>works!  (Naturally, one of the first things I did was put it through the paces
>that the Stallion card failed with).

Digiboard is a great company to do business with... almost!

I have two of the 16 port PC/Xi boards from them, with 32 ports.  I am
running ISC 3.0.  Their drivers allow me to only use 10 pty's, because of
their dscreen software option (I do not have dscreen installed but the
built in support mucks with the kernel breaking pty's).  Lots of hoops must
be jumped through to bypass this limitation.  Also Dscreen (a screens
clone) locks up the whole system if someone uses job control while reading
a man page... "oops"

Then there is the real bug.... every once in a while a 4k chunk of buffer
from someone's prior login session (usually including their login and
password) will ramdomly come out of the port while a different user is
online.  Major security bug!  I talked to digiboard about this and they
said they had seen it and were hard at work on a fix... they promissed to
get back to me when the new fix was ready.  3 months later I call them to
find the status, and suddenly no one there is aware of such a problem.
They tell me to make sure I am running the correct version of their drivers
(I was... downloaded a new copy just to be sure).  I've changed out
everything (drives, controllers, motherboards, digiboard host cards, etc)
and the bug still shows it's ugly face from time to time.

When I first got the cards, there was a new driver available for download
every time I called.  Each new version fixed a bug or two, and didn't fix a
bug or two.  The Tech support people were /very/ good 99% of the time.  I
found the people knew the product, and didn't point acusing fingers at my
hardware or software to avoid responsibility for a problem.  However new
driver updates stopped being produced over a year ago, and this rather
serious bug still persists.  I have found that I greatly reduce the problem
by using fewer ports on the board... so the bug only gets reported every
couple of months.  This is a public access machine, and one day someone is
going to get a buffer of me doing an su to root, and it will be all over
but the crying....  I take precautions, and I plan to buy a new OS that is
better supported (or buy a new serial solution that is better supported
under my current OS). 

No one from Digiboard ever comments when I post a message like this.  They
either don't read the net, or they don't care.  I bout the boards from a
third party that is out of business now, and an exchange or refund is not
something that Digiboard has ever been willing to discuss.

They have some seemingly good products, and their support is as good as it
gets..... almost.  

"it's broke!"

-- 
George Wenzel                    |  Real/Time Communications
george@wixer.cactus.org          |  "faster, smarter and costs less..."
cactus.org!wixer!george          |  "Hardware solutions for the real world."
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