We have a number of customers who are small hardgoods businesses; auto parts dealers, hardware stores, lumber yards and the like. Typically they have 2-5 locations and use a canned software package from the likes of Triad or Reynolds. The older versions of these systems are mini-computer based and still use dumb ASCII terminals over STDMs and private lines to the remote sites.
These same customers are quickly adding internet connectivity to their locations, but not as quickly migrating from the mini based systems to newer Windows based systems. My concern is how to transport the ASCII traffic over VPNs between the locations. The solution would require some type of a terminal server that would encapsualte the ASCII traffic in IP and allow its transport across the VPN. (Telnet is not an option.)
A Cisco 2509 or 2511 comes to mind as a possible solution to do exactly this. Does anyone know if these devices can be configured to pass the encapsulated ASCII traffic out the ethernet port instead of out of a WIC wide area port? Has anyone actually solved this application need with the 2500 terminal servers or other devices?
