Well, as some of you may have read I am thinking about going to broadband cable (ATT). What I am trying to make sure of is if I am correct in thinking this setup will work for me:

Motorolla Cable Modem ($150 from BestBuy -$50 rebate)

Cat5 wire from modem to router

Linksys BEFW11S4 EtherFast Wireless AP +Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port Switch ($199 BestBuy)

Any ethernet 10/100 pci card in the main computer hooked via Cat5 wire to one of the ports on the router ($14 or so)

D-Link wireless pcmcia card, IEEE 802.11b compatible, for my notebook ($69 BestBuy)

Am I missing anything? It appears that this router will work with dynamic address', which is what I hear that ATT uses now. The router has a built in firewall, is that sufficient? What won't work through a firewall? Can you think of a setup that would work better?

 

That should work, the only thing that might not is the wireless card, but it should.

the router should be sufficent for you, if you wanted to spend a little more, a Cisco 806 gateway router would be a good choice.

 

I just finished my cisco CCNA certification. Your setup will work, however, i think you can get a good modem for about 100 bucks. That is what i paid for mine which is a toshiba. Make sure you set your 10/100 nic card for the highest setting which should be 100 via the driver software. Other than that, you should be on your way. Good luck and let me know if you run into any problems

 

The LinkSys access point claims to work with IEEE 802.11b compatible devices, so I would hope it would work with the D-Link card. The D-Link card is 30 bucks cheaper which is important right now (assuming it works).

I could skip the whole wireless access and just get a router/switch and hook up my notebook via Cat5 to my current Xircom 10MB Ethernet/56K pc card, but later I'd still have to buy a wireless access point, and the overall cost would be higher. Plus I'd have to run about 50 feet of cable to my bedroom, and another length to the living room, both for my notebook depending on where I want to work.

Craiger, the price for the Motorola modem is $150 - $50 rebate = $100. That sound ok? I haven't seen the Toshiba modem at any of the ATT dealers, and I don't want to spend $199 for the one direct from ATT. Which brand is best, or does it matter? All of the Motorola products I own have always treated me well, which is one reason I was seriously considering it.

Anyone know how many days it takes ATT to come out for the installation and hook up the service?

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Before you buy anything online or in local stores, check out www.pricewatch.com

It is a website that collects price information from across the country on computer hardware. It's searchable by keyword or category, and has a really easy output showing hardware desc, price, vendor, shipping, etc. I have found most of my toys there for close to wholesale.

 

I had ATT but dont any more. The fact that they kinked our service and then came back later with 1/4 of the speed has left me bitter with them. I was the first in the area to get the service but as more signed on the speed decreased more and more. After disabling the proxy server I was able to get back up to par.

I bought another IP for the wife and kids PC but that was when they used static IP handling so unless I had a router it was the only way.

I dont know how they work in Ore but the service here is plain unacceptable.

If they use dynamic IP addys now you should be able to get by with just a workgroup hub and let the software handle the assignment of your additional IPs

I assume you desire the router to have multiple users on the Internet at the same time. If not then the hub is all you need. The wireless is a good idea only if running the cat 5 the distance is out of the question.

At work we have a Raid 6 server connected to Canada with a T-1 line. We run a dedicated PC using Linux firewall. At home I use Norton Personal Firewall and it works very well. Online games require some ports to stay open so you might have to do some configurations to allow the use of the ports.

Im on dialup for the time being. There is a fixed wireless service
in Enumclaw and Buckley that will do from 128 to 1m asynchronous. Down the road this will be implemented.

Good luck with AT&T

Don

 

I too had terrible luck with ATT! I swithed over to tacoma's click network for 26$ a month vrs the 52$ ATT charged me after 6 mo. If you can get a different service other that ATT, it would be a smart choice. The Motorola modem should work fine. Good luck.

 

I forgot to add, a switch will work a bit faster than a router since the router is a Layer 3 device and a switch is a layer 2 device....if that means anything to you? Anyhow, the switch is less intelligent but faster, the router is smarter, but a bit slower.

 

I haven't heard of any issues with the firewall/router/switch that you are planning to use. My dad uses one, and I almost went that way myself. For most "average" users the linksys routers are among the best available. Even better if you are planning on sharing the network connection with >1 computer (IP masquerading), if those computers are workstations or dedicated servers. I don't know what you computer situation is, but I can tell you why I didn't go the linksys, or any other hardware router/firewall.

I have 2 linux servers, both running ssh and ftp, with one running html as well. My roommate also has an ssh/ftp/html server, and all 3 computers are behind my firewall. Accessing the different servers from outside the local network requires that I forward connections to specific ports on the firewall to each server's listening port.

Put another way, each ssh server is listening on port 22. I had to assign unique ports on the firewall so that the packets would be forwarded to the correct computer, on the correct port. I.E., firewall port 222 goes to computer 2's port # 22, 322 goes to computer 3's port 22, etc. So I would ssh to the firewall using port 222 to connect to computer #2 behind the firewall.

The linksys router can't do that. It can only forward port 222 to port 222, and 322 to 322. Thus, I aquired an old 386 and built a custom firewall with linux. Make sense?

 

true switches are faster, but with two computers a router is basicly going to be a switch, but it will forward based on IP, instead of MAC. the security from the firewall/router would be an added bonus, and coming from dail-up, you won't notice the small latancy diffrence between a switch and a firewall/router.

 

You can get a free firewall from www.zonealarm.com It works pretty good!

 

just to inform you, in case you didnt already know.. where i work i sell linksys routers/switches, both wired and wireless ones.. and i've had customers come in screaming cause they only got 10 feet line-of-sight from the wireless router to the wireless pc card.. then ive also had people who get access throughout the entire house.. 80211b is weird heh.. hopefully it works out better for you than some of my pissed off customers

 

and, up here, it takes about a week for the installers to get everything set up.. actually about 3-8 business days... could be different down there tho

 

It does work but you get what you pay for with that program. That was half of the initial problem with the CC site and not my first or last problem with that program. If you do anything more that simple surfing of the web stay far away from that program.

 

the built in linskys firewall dont work worth a crap. i had a router with the built in firewall. someone hacked my comp. the best firewall i seen to date is zonealarm pro.

 

Kid, those are two different animals. Your router uses port-inspection/blocking.

Incorporating a dedicated PC as a firewall with LINUX is what I was talking about.

This configuration runs with IP chaining and Packet filtering which is very secure, thin, fast, cheap, and with low overhead. Although not an ideal home solution, it works for us.

Don