About routers...

[Anon]

Just wondering how hard is it to set one up and what's involved. Thanks. Love the new site design btw

 

[tommyj27]

what kind of router? cisco gear? PC-based?

 

[poolking]

How many pc's do you want to share the internet connection?

 

[Anon]

2 comps. And I haven't bought a router yet, just wondering if it's hard to set up. I hear some horror stories.

 

[poolking]

2 comps. And I haven't bought a router yet, just wondering if it's hard to set up. I hear some horror stories.

No great difficulties, I set mine up ok.

 

[tommyj27]

depends on what kind of hardware you're looking at. consumer units have limited functionality but they're generally quite easy to set up. higher end gear is usually more difficult to set up and requires you to have a good grasp on what you're doing. you may even be able to get away with running internet connection sharing on one machine if you want to do it on the cheap.

cheers

 

[chcr]

They're easy. Who'd you hear horror stories from, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[Anon]

oh yeah...my provider allows me to have up to 5 ISPs. does that make it easier?

 

[tommyj27]

your provider is your ISP, do they allow you five IP addresses? what kind of connection are we talking about?

 

[Gonz]

If you're running XP or 2k, it's incredibly easy. Linksys router, cable, XP & 2K is what I'm using. You'll only need one outside IP & the router sets the inside IPs, unless you want to manually.

 

[Anon]

Cable connection and yes they say they'll give up to 5 IP addresses per account. And I'm running WinXP

 

[tommyj27]

if your provider will assign you 5 external addresses though you may not even need a router, just plug the modem and all systems into a hub/switch and be on your way.

 

[Mirlyn]

I'd still go with a commercial hardware router because 1) easy to set up 2) much more secure, as most have a firewall built-in. Especially if you run Windows.

Save the IPs for something else, like setting up a separate network (ie, wireless AP or game server).

 

[chcr]

What Mirlyn said.

 

[Professur]

USE THE ROUTER!!!!!

That said, here's why. A router/firewall helps block hackers by not letting them get to your machine. What happens is that the router is like a pc with 2 or more network cards. One card communicates with the outside world, the others with your lan. Here's the kicker. They're on different subnets. The outside one has a valid internet IP, the internal ones don't. They have addy like 192.168.1.1. No internet routing table will carry that. Therefore, to attack your maching, the hacker has to hack the router. The key being that small router/firewalls aren't smart enough to be hacked. And bigger, more powerful ones are too damn tough. Basically, it stops casual hacking.

And the linksys routers setup is a breeze. It uses your internet browser for it's interface.

 

[Luis G]

if your provider will assign you 5 external addresses though you may not even need a router, just plug the modem and all systems into a hub/switch and be on your way.

I'd go that way too.

 

[catocom]

I concur with Professur, but Linksys is ok, but
I've had better luck with Belkin, and the 4port ones
are about $10 cheaper that Linksys most of the time.

 

[greenfreak]

I bought a 4 port Belkin about 6 months ago and promptly returned it. Couldn't get the damn thing to work, no matter what we did. It was brand new too and they gave us a really hard time about returning it. Went back to the Linksys after that, have had no problems since.

 

[PT]

I've got a DLink, and I love it. It will work right out of the box, but to get the max security there are a few settings to do. Nice Gui interface to set it up though, tabbed with help on just about everything.

 

[Mirlyn]

I think they're pretty much six in one, half a dozen in another. I have three Linksys routers (VPN, 802.11g AP, and a 4-port) and my friend has six. Never had a problem with any of them. I don't see very many come back from the ones we sell at Best Buy (apart from people not being able to read directions), so I'd say any brand is good. Look at the features and you'll find what you like.