ADSL modems

[tyggerjai]

So we're finally getting ADSL.
And I figure it's almost cheaper, given our setup, to get an ADSL router and retire the firewall box. The main requirement, of course, being less electricity :)

The router needs at least 2 ethernet ports (external network, internal network), and the ability to preferably to port filtering on both - I want $SMALLNUM ports available on the external network, and 0 ports on the internal - no external connections accepted at all, from either the real internet or the external network (since that's the point of an external/internal split...)

Any recommendations? The D-link DSL504 seems to fit the bill, though in the future we'll probably want wireless, so it might be worth grabbing a wireless one now if there's no significant quality tradeoff.

Or would a $100 ADSL card and a diskless LRP based firewall do a cheaper, better job?

sol.
.

Comments

[mr-e-cat.livejournal.com]

Netgear stuff seems ok
I've never had a problem with it
and I know that the wireless modem/router has a few ethernet ports as well.
don't know about rice though

[ltempt.livejournal.com]

Never seen in instant DSL router/firewall/nutcrucker/sink combo that didn't suck. Cheapo ADSL router/modem and BSD box.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

router/modem, not ADSL card? I figured if we needed a standalone BSD box anyway, I'd go the card, not the router. Now to see if I can get OpenBSD on a floppy. There's always picobsd, I guess. The advantage of the LRP, despite the spectacular dummy-spit from the main coder, is that it fits on a floppy and thus saves hard drive electricity costs/heat. Which is a Good Thing(tm).

Hey, whatever happened to putative Sun gear? I can live without the E3000, but a 64 Meg stick of Ultra RAM would be much appreciated.

sol.
.

[ltempt.livejournal.com]

I'm not up to date on the ADSL cards, but they used to all be pretty much Windows-only.

The second E3000 fell through, and I can't get any cheap RAM for mine anyway, so it probably just saved you some pain.

64Mb of RAM? Sure. I'm meant to be catching up with Longi at some point to swap over some EDO for an Amiga and stuff, so I could do it then. If you're in a hurry, call me and tee up a time to pick it up. You can even grab it now if you're in a mad hurry.

[ms-kismet.livejournal.com]

might be worth checking out the Billion website (http://www.billion.com), the adsl modem + 4 port 10/100 router + wireless that we've got here does the job quite well. Not 100% sure on the price, but its easy to configure with either an IE window or a monitor on the box.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

No, no amazing rush. We have an Ultra doing nothing at work for want of a stick, but it'd be doing nothing anyway till I order in some tuits, so no big deal. Going via longi is fine.

sol.
.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

YEah, the TPG site suggested billion as one of the modems they support.

I might go the standalone PC firewall, though, just for peace of mind, with a single port ADSL & wireless feeding into it.

sol.
.

[ms-kismet.livejournal.com]

that sounds entirely like a reasonable suggestion. Good luck with it all.

[ltempt.livejournal.com]

Indeed - presuming he shows up for more than 5 minutes. If he doesn't, we could combine it with a beer or something similar.

OBTW, I know someone who has a Cisco 827 they're trying to sell for $400, so if you want to go down that path for your DSL, let me know. They are a nice router.

[thorfinn]

PPPoE is a doddle to set up under 'nix variants. Hard to go past the flexibility of a 'nix firewall talking PPPoE to the DSL Modem, and normal ethernet out a second card... Unless you're going to go all the way to buying a Cisco, it's going to be pretty damn hard to find something that'll do proper firewall-fu. Of course, if all you want is NAT + DHCP on the internal side, then grabbing a DSL Modem/Router combo is probably the easiest thing.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

*nodnod*
Except that it's second and third card - external and internal nyetwork, and then maybe wireless access point as well :)
But I do want more than NAT. I think you're right, though, I'd need a firewall box to protect the internal nyetwork anyway, and by the time I have that, I might as well make it do the external as well, and that makes a standalone ADSL router pointless.

Hm. With a couple of USB->Ethernet adaptors, the little wizard boxes would have 3 interfaces, and they're cheap to run, but more than powerful enough. Actually, they're probably overkill for this :)

sol.
.

Cards are bad ...

[subtle-eye.livejournal.com]

For the same reason internal modems are bad.

Surges. (having lost a modem to a lightning strike)

Re: Cards are bad ...

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Ah.
Excellent point.
Well, people recommend the Draytek Vigor series, and TPG offer the 2500 for a cheapish price for new customers, so it looks like that's the go. 4 port goodness, so I can get more static IPs if one proves insufficient, or throw in a wireless network outside the firewall, or a dial-in box, or whatever. All good.

sol.
.

This is what you need.

[longi.livejournal.com]

You need a
Pulsar PCI ADSL card (http://www.traverse.com.au/productviewbyrange.do?range_id=2) and a Linux box.