PCA Forums

My dad just got cable, i'm in the process of building him a new computer... He wants to get his old and new both hooked up so mom can use the old one... He has the modem so he just needs a router that he can plug the modem into and go from there... Whats a good decently priced like 4 port router that will work good and easy to setup... Something with a built in firewall program also.

Thanks
Bryan

I went to newegg and was looking at the 2 D-Links they have the DI-704P and the DI-704. Both are pretty similar i liked the fact that the 704P also was a Print Server but i noticed it didn't have some of the options that the 704 had... Anyone use either of these routers that can collaberate?

Most of the consumer end routers (like the DI 704) or the Linksys BEFSR41 or the SMC Barricade 7400BR are laughably easy to setup (via a web browser interface) and use and will do pretty much everything for you. The only thing it may be worth doing is checking your modem documentation to make sure that your Cable Modem won't perform the necessary services for you anyway. Quite a few of the newer cable modems are coming out now with basic routing functionality built in.

As far as a firewall goes, most of the claims from various routers are a bit exagerated, YES they ALL do HARDWARE NAT (basic router function), which does make it much harder to hack the local network. Some have port monitoring/blocking services but this is NOT terribly useful as it just let's you block specific ports. Although this does allow limited filtering of DoS attacks. Basically if your at all worried (and you should be at least a little worried) get hold of either Zonelabs Zonealarm or Tiny Personal Firewall and run that on your local machine, it will provide a much more solid defence.

Darkheart

Well the modem is a Motorola Surfboard 4100. If it was capable of routing i'd just need a hub then correct?

My old oneway cablemodem Surfboard 1100 allowed more than one PC via ethernet, it also did NAT, so my computers had private IPs like 192.168.100.x

The 4100 "* Supports up to 32 users (1 via USB and up to 31 via Ethernet)".
You should check the ISPs FAQ on that cablemodem (if they have one) or their policy with multiple PCs. I'm not sure if the 4100 includes NAT or if the PC gets the IP from the ISP directly.
See here why I'm not sure: http://www.gi.com/sb_faq.html#p7

A router has the advantage to show only one IP to the outside while working with several private IPs on the inside.

If you do wind up buying a router, the Dlink will work fine. I've personally used the SMC and the Linksys and they also work fine.

Don't bother with routers with a printer server if you can get one without for cheaper. Most of the time it's not practical. You have to use special printer drivers provided for the router and they only support certain printers. If you have an older or unusual printer then it may not work. You'll also lose any special features of the printer's proprietary drivers.

Best thing to do is just put the printer on the least used computer. When printing someone using that computer will get a bit of slowdown during the print so you don't want the printer on the busier computer - or the one you play games on the most either.

You will need a router as the Surfboard doesn't do NAT on it's own.

Any of the ones I listed in my previous post (including the D-Link) will work fine take FP's warning about printers to heart some printers really don't like the IP->Parrellel conversion with their drivers.

Darkheart

Thanks guys... I think i'm gonna go for the Linksys BEFSR41... Newegg has them for 80 and they look better than the D-Links...

You can also check this place when you need further assistance -> http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
You can check out their (updated) review and tips on your router here .

The 4100 "* Supports up to 32 users (1 via USB and up to 31 via Ethernet)".

The way it works is each computer would get an IP from the service provider. A cable modem is basicly a bridge and it can learn upto 32 MAC addresses. The provider puts in the modem's configuration file how many MAC addresses it can learn. Most are not stupid enough to not limit it to 1. That's why in most cases if your provider does straight DHCP and you move the modem to another PC without power cycling it the thing isn't going to work because it already learned the MAC from the other PC. Power cycle it and it should work. Other ISPs want to be a pain in the ass and configure your NIC MAC in the DHCP server and do static DHCP, if that's the case then you must use the same NIC if you want to move it around. I think sometimes people get the staight and static DHCP messed up because they don't try rebooting the modem after they move it.

can't go wrong with your choice of the Linksys Router. I've been using it for quite sometime now and no problems whatsoever!! difference in speed is barely noticeable too.

good luck!!