Re: DirecPC Protocols

[Clayton Fiske <clay () bloomcounty org>]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 02:53:59PM -0800, Crist J. Clark wrote:
> I've been looking for some technical descriptions on how DirecPC works
> from a TCP/IP point of view. Does anyone out there have some
> references? I have not been able to find anything too detailed, and
> from what I have been told, they are not too forthcoming when
> contacted directly.
>
> I know the rough outline. The customer sends out traffic over a normal
> PPP link (since the customer has no uplink to the DirecPC satellite)
> to a separate ISP. The traffic has a spoofed source address set to
> some DirecPC server at their ground site(s). Thus, the third-party
> target's response goes to DirecPC who send it over their satellite
> link back to the customer using the wide satellite pipe instead of the
> narrow PPP pipe.

I'm not sure how many users are on the legacy system still, but
the latest DirecPC service "DIRECWAY" is actually two-way satellite
connectivity without the need for a dial uplink.

-c