The Morning Star Advantage

Morning Star PPP products are designed to provide the customer with a
reliable package that can be configured as either a client or server
for wide area TCP/IP communications.  This means that a single
workstation running Morning Star PPP can act as an IP terminal server
or router to a number of remote users.  The same system can
simultaneously initiate a call to another location or network, routing
IP packets to the remote destination.  The unique software design
permits fast and efficient product migration, adding new UNIX(tm)
systems quickly to the increasing number of platforms Morning Star
currently supports.  High performance, efficient, low-cost
communication products- that's the Morning Star advantage.

Why PPP?

PPP is the functional replacement for Serial Line IP (SLIP), described
as "A Nonstandard for Transmission of IP Datagrams Over Serial Lines"
in RFC 1055.  PPP was developed and has been adopted as the Internet
standard correcting many of the deficiencies in SLIP, including
address negotiation, link level error correction and synchronous
support for high speed communications.  Most IP network providers are
now installing PPP Points-Of-Presence (POPs), updating their services
to the new standard.  This upgrade by service providers has
established a cost effective transport mechanism for corporate
information exchange world wide.  Many companies use these IP services
to send voice, video and graphic images to workstations with
multimedia capabilities quickly and efficiently.  Companies are
finding increased productivity by providing their work forces with
home workstations for telecommuting.  The Morning Star PPP solution
gives these remote users the same environment and tools they use at
the workplace.  PPP enables wide area extensions to Local Area Network
(LAN) based TCP/IP networks via on-demand service over ordinary phone
lines.  Existing TCP/IP applications like telnet and rlogin operate
over PPP transparently, so that many users on the LAN will be unaware
of their connection to remote locations.  PPP's link level error
correction allows it to work reliably with IP facilities like NFS that
provide no error correction scheme of their own.  The product operates
through the standard asynchronous system serial port and works with
many modems available on the market today.  PPP also operates with
some manufacturers' systems whose serial ports support synchronous
communications, or with the Morning Star SnapLink high-speed serial
interface supporting line speeds up to T1.

Internet Routing

Any UNIX host on the LAN can operate as a communications gateway for
other hosts on the network.  Morning Star's packet filtering option
enables the gateway machine to regulate in-bound or out-bound IP
packets.  Unlike network routers that require expensive dedicated
lines, Morning Star PPP's on-demand dialing can establish a connection
when traffic warrants and take it down when not needed, saving
valuable company resources.  The logging facility enables system
administrators to monitor network traffic based on packet type and
destination.  No special training is required since the users on the
local network are using the native TCP/IP services.

Morning Star PPP Features

Morning Star's fast queueing facility gives interactive users priority
over file transfers or other background tasks.  This is accomplished
by using separate IP queues regulated by packet type for optimal
performance.  Fast queueing, combined with TCP header compression,
provide the highest throughput and performance possible.  Using
Morning Star's flexible configuration scheme enables the customer to
easily customize their package to accommodate any communication
requirements.  System administrators can easily regulate IP traffic
from LAN to LAN or out into the network.  The Morning Star PPP package
conforms to RFCs 1144, 1171 and 1172.  Contact Morning Star
Technologies for a complete list of product interoperability and
supported UNIX systems.