Clarity, please

[hermit1]

You can buy a NetGear router for under $100 that does firewall, dhcp (both 
getting it from the ISP and acting as server to internal nodes), address 
translation, and probably more.  I consider these 
hardware-with-no-moving-parts and more reliable than a software solution on 
a computer that is doing other things.  I think LinkSys is similar in price 
and function, but I selected Netgear because it did syslog and Linksys 
didn't (I don't know if it does now).  Allowing inbound connections past 
the Netgear requires some tinkering with telnetting to the router and 
tinkering with the rules in ways that are not obvious.  I use ssh from Mac, 
Windoze, and unix, so I don't know if Netgear does VPN or not.

At 09:17 AM 6/21/01 -0700, Stephen Chowning wrote:
>I am (sooner or later) going to hook a (mostly Mac, one PC) small lan to
>a cable modem internet connection. I have looked at various hardware
>solutions (cable/dsl routers) available for under $200. And at software
>solutions such as IPNetRouter for under $100. IPNetRouter claims to do
>all that a hardware device does for less money. As the hardware devices
>are not that much more $, I don't feel that this is a major issue. I
>would like to implement VPN also, so I would like to know which option
>hardware vs. software is the better solution especially as it pertains
>to implementing VPN, but also in a more general sense, i.e. ease of
>setup/use, security, etc. From reading the posts to this newsgroup, I
>suspect that the main difference will be what my cable co. allows or
>disallows as far as encrypted packets.
>
>On another note, does anyone feel like explaining how the software
>solution protects the non-gateway machines on the lan? I believe that I
>understand how the hardware works, having an upstream and a downstream
>connection. But my simple, small lan has an ethernet hub with all
>devices plugged into it. Would the gateway machine need two ethernet
>cards, one designated as "upstream", the other "downstream" plugged into
>the hub?
>
>Thanks,
>Steve
>
>
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