RADIUS Server

Vircom's Radius server lets you authenticate and charge users who gain 
access to the Internet via Terminal Servers on your local TCP/IP network.
The RADIUS server is the ideal solution for systems who wish to provide 
breakthrough Internet services without losing the functionality and 
familiarity of Worldgroup.

What is a terminal server?

Terminal servers are multi-serial-port hardware devices that hookup to a 
network, instead of directly into a PC.  Unlike conventional serial hardware, 
which drain processing resources from your BBS, terminal servers are 
dedicated computers with their own processor, memory, operating systems and 
high-speed network and serial ports.  Because terminal servers are designed 
to independantly manage PPP/SLIP/CSLIP sessions, they offer additional 
functionality and flexibility over other serial hardware.  You can offload 
all of your dialup SLIP and PPP traffic that's normally handled by the BBS 
directly to terminal servers.

The terminal server's setback (until now...)

Although terminal servers have an internal database that could contain the 
username and password of each user that has access to the BBS, terminal 
servers by themselves cannot do any accounting and billing.  Furthermore, 
keeping the user database on the terminal servers in synch with the BBS 
user database by hand would be impractical to say the least.  In order to 
make terminal servers more than just expensive multi-port devices, a 
solution is required.

What is RADIUS?

RADIUS is a protocol developed by a consortium of companies that manufacture 
terminal servers in association with the IETF (Internet Engineering Task 
Force.)  RADIUS allows terminal servers to talk to a central accounting 
system using a RADIUS server.  In our case, the accounting system is 
MajorBBS/Worldgroup's own built-in accounting system.  Vircom's RADIUS 
server acts as the interface between the BBS and your terminal servers, using 
the RADIUS protocol to communicate user information.

How does RADIUS work?

Once a user connects to a terminal server, he'll receive either a login 
prompt or will immdiately detect and start PPP auto-sensing.  In either case, 
the terminal server will ask for a UserID and a password.  Via the RADIUS 
protocol, the terminal server will send the access request over to the 
RADIUS server for authentication purposes.

The Radius server will check if the user has a correct password.  If he or 
she does, the Radius server will verify if the user in question has access to 
the requested service specified by a prefix typed in front of the UserID.  A 
prefix is a set of characters followed by a colon (:) character.  Prefixes 
can be omitted in the case of people dialing-in using a TCP/IP stack with PAP 
capability.   In either case, a reply is sent back to the terminal server.

In the case of a positive response, the terminal server will send a 
start-of-session packet to the RADIUS server running on the BBS machine 
telling it that the user in question is beginning his session on the terminal 
server.  When the person decides to hang-up, an end-of-session packet is sent 
by the terminal server to the BBS, who deducts the appropriate amount of 
credits and/or time from the person's account.

The only interaction between the PPP user and the BBS are when the PPP 
session is started and when it stops.  During the session, the BBS is not in 
anyway related to the PPP session.  In fact, you could even take your BBS 
down while users are connected via PPP to the terminal server and they would 
never notice (unless they were telnetting to the BBS, etc.!)

Some highlights of RADIUS' benefits:

 . Performance:  Using terminal servers, the throughput of the TCP/IP 
   traffic of users' connections will definitely increase.  A beta-
   tester has evaluated the increase at 30%!  This is due to the extremely
   fast design of the terminal server, and because the PPP session is not
   affected by other BBS functions (such as games, modules, etc.).
 
 . Accessibility:  Since shutdowns and crashes of the 
   Worldgroup/MajorBBS don't affect RADIUS connections in progress, the 
   online time of the business' operations is increased.  The RADIUS
   protcol is very effective for systems wishing to establish remote
   point of presence (POPs) locations providing dialup access in cities
   across the area code or across the world!  All that is needed at the
   remote site are modems, a terminal server and an Internet connection.

 . No ceiling of 255 lines:  RADIUS PPP/SLIP users do not use Galacticomm
   user channels!  There is no ceiling on the number of lines your RADIUS
   server could manage.  The RADIUS server has minimal CPU & disk 
   impact, so a single Worldgroup system could be the accounting server 
   for a pool of 1,000+ lines.
 
 . Redundancy:  By having phone lines being served by multiple terminal 
   servers, the risks related to a hardware failure on all lines is 
   reduced, as opposed to running them all in a single 
   Worldgroup/MajorBBS system.
 
 . No need for 6-packs:  As PPP/SLIP/CSLIP users are not actually 
   logging in and going through the Worldgroup/MajorBBS system, 
   Worldgroup user licenses don't have to be purchased.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICING

The current RADIUS server for Worldgroup and MajorBBS supports 
MajorBBS v6.25 and Worldgroup v1.x and v2.0 and v3.0 (DOS & NT).  
The RADIUS server requires your system to be running Vircom's MajorTCP/IP.

- Base RADIUS server
    Include a 32-ports access license

  Price: $500


- RADIUS 32-pack license upgrade
    Increase number of access ports by 32

  Price: $200


- RADIUS 128-pack license upgrade
    Increase number of access pors by 128

  Price: $700