I am getting cable internet access in two weeks and needed to know what items I would need for it. First up my house has 3 computers right now, maybe more in the future. One is a server, and the others are workstations. I was planning on having the cable run off the server but should I use a router then use a switch or what? And should I have some sort of firewall up to protect ourselves. I have also heard that the internet service changes our ip's for us every week. Please any suggestions will help greatly!

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Dredd
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I use a Linksys 4-port router. I firmly believe in the use of seperate routers rather than servers due to the "waste" of hardware and overhead. I know that proxy servers are useful and can work well with firewall software, but when you can do the same thing effectively using a $140 piece of hardware, I would just go with a router.

In commmercial situations, I would still go wtih a router due to the overhead placed on the server with high traffic. That server winds up being a very expensive router that has to be rebooted, needs service packs, and can suffer various exploits of its software. While "hardware" solutions may not be perfect, they come a lot closer than a seperate server would.

BTW, you can get all the functionality of your server using the router. The only problem I have had with this particular router was hosting Quake 3 servers. But since there isn't a need for it, I don't really care. I do host an Exchange server, Web/FTP servers, and Terminal Server without any problems.

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Regards,

clutch

My 4-port has a built-in switch rather than a hub.



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Regards,

clutch

I am a big fan of the Netgear RT 314 myself. 4 port 10/100 switch, NAT+, DHCP, DNS. I am comming around to the Linksys NICs though.

EDIT: Oh, its also a Firewall/Router

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[This message has been edited by qwerty01 (edited 26 February 2001).]

I read a long & exhaustive report on NICs & it turned out that one Linksys NIC, not sure which one, but it was $30 instead of $20, was the best NIC for under $100. Well, according to this one report it was & they did pretty exhaustive testing on it.

I know of 1 site that said that the Netgear RT311 (older style) was the best router & the newer one RT314 was going to be reviewed soon. I have one & I have installed a total of 4 & all were easy to set up, had a good firewall, and, as you said, were very pretty.

The Netgear stuff has mixed telnet/html management, while the Linksys is straight html-based. I get enough telnet stuff with the Cisco router and PIX at work, so I went the lazy way and got the Linksys. Great unit, I just wish it had Port Address Translation (PAT) for some of the services that I play with on both servers at home.