> 1. so if I apply for 10 hunting lines then the phone company will be giving
> me physically 10 PSTN line?

Yes, or you can have them delivered on a channelized T1/E1 line if you
have suitable equipment like an Ascend Max, USR Total Control or a Cisco
5300 or similar.

> 2. I believe it is possible to build up a device with 10 modems and a
> Controller just to take care of the answering and forwarding of data to a
> server. But are there any commercial product available that do this kind of
> function?

Tons of them, see above plus products from Computone.  The Computone
PowerRack looks like it may do what you need.

> 3. I am still unclear of how a dial up internet is connected the server. I
> have tried to read up the product datasheet for Cisco Router 7500 and the
> terms there are very intimidating. Needless to say, I understand nothing
> from there.

Maybe I can shed a little light, havign been both a network engineer and
an ISP in recent years...

There are many methods, but typically you dial up to a communication
server like a USR TC or Cisco 5300 or larger box, or modems connected to a
Computone or similar.  That handles establishing a PPP connection between
it and your PC.  Often they will also handle SLIP, and sometimes even text
mode logins.  On the "other" side they are connected to (typically) and
Ethernet network at your ISP.  From there it's all IP networking...  from
the comms server to your ISP's router, via T1/E1/DS3 or whatever to his
upstream provider or a NAP and so on.  The Cisco 7500 is a fairly large
router that would most likely be used by a decent sized ISP as their
connection to the Internet backbone provider - you wouldn't use it for
dialup calls, I don't believe there are digital modem cards available for
it.

As for how the call actually makes it from your phone line to the ISP, you
go from a 2-wire analog loop circuit to your local office -- typically an
unmanned equipment shack -- where your pair and others liek it are
digitised and concentrated into digital hi-capacity lines such as T1 (24
channels), E1 (30 channels), DS3 (24 T1's) or OC3/whatever.  From there it
goes to your telco's larger switching center, it's all computer controlled
switching and routing of digital data from there.  At the other end it's
either delivered in digital form on a T1/E1/DS3/OCwhatever, or converted
back to analog and delivered on a PSTN analog loop.

Hope this helps.

Dale

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