Multi-drop PPPoE (Re: [ale] Mindspring/Earthlink DSL and linux?)

[joshy]

On Thu, Aug 31, 2000 at 01:19:00PM -0400, Thompson Freeman wrote:
> 
> I haven't played with it yet - but the box claims to include some sort of
> packet firewall protection of the network which is configurable. How
> effective the protection is could only be determined by experiment, and
> I lack the personal skills to do a good job of that.
> 
> Other ALE list members have pointed out that there are alternatives. I
> haven't checked them out at this time, however.


I bought a $150 linksys firewall router at CompUSA and I've been very happy
with it. It's a little box with one external port and four internal ports. It
routes traffic from the outside in and back using NAT, and it's also a four
port hub for your internal network. Pretty much a network in a box. I just
hooked it up to my ADSL modem and I was ready to go.

It seems very secure. The box itself has very few services so there's very
little to be hacked. The only way to configure it is through a webpage from the
internal network or by hitting the reset pin. It was very easy to set up. It
supports DHCP and static ips for the internal network and DHCP/static/PPPoE for
the external connection. It does what most people want very securely and if you
really want to redirect or open ports then you can do it from the 'advanced'
settings, but LinkSys doesn't officially support it.

Admittedly it doesn't do as much as the 486 firewall it replaced, but it's
cheap and easy. Pretty much what most people want.

- joshy

-- 
  And in the end 
 the love you take
is equal to the love you make
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