new router

Anti-Trend

Well, it looks like it has a lot of small office features that you may not use, e.g. VOIP. I'm not sure that you need all the features it provides. Then again, maybe you do and I just don't know it. What features are you looking for? What's most important to you in a router?

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donkey42

i don't knowi think some features may not be used for a while, but, i don't know what i want until i use or attempt to use until i obviously start using it

as you specified VoIP, i would like to experiment with VoIP, cos i've never used it & i would like to if for nothing else but to prove it to myself, try to get it working

@AT big thankies, i really do value your input

BTW: i started a post / thread yesterday asking which router was best, but, i thought, no, find out for yourself, so, that's what i did, & i'm a little bit pleased with myself, that you didn't say they are crap routers i've come up with

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donkey42

i've being reading op on stuff on the net & i feel like i could be reading explanation & trying to understand thing forever, so, what i've decided to do is: receive money from everybody for my birthday and hope i get enough money to buy the cheaper 1, & learn about it as i'm doing itbut i guess it'll all come together as and when i start playing with it

BTW: i wish myself luck

Edit: i think i'm going to get 1 eventually because it can do pretty much anything i want to do ever, obviously with some other stuff

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Anti-Trend

My pleasure, glad to help.
Well, one of the best ways to learn is by doing. One small piece of advice though: for me, I learn even faster if I read up on a topic while I'm working with it. That really helps it to stick in my brain.

Additionally, you might want to try building your own router sometime. You could take a prefabricated distro like IPCop (based on Linux 2.4/Smoothwall) or pfSense (based on FreeBSD/m0n0wall) and build your own high-end router. If you already have an old PC you can use for this purpose, all you need is a few cheap NICs and you've got a really great firewalled router. If you really wanted to get down & dirty, you could experiment with routing & firewalling features of a raw Linux or FreeBSD install. That would teach you a lot about the OS, and a lot about the underlying concepts. I'd start with a prefab first though, so you can see how they're supposed to behave before trying to implement it yourself.

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donkey42

good idea, i usually just bodge my way through or make it up as i go & i usually only refer to the manual as a last resort, but, i do realize that i must start reading those god forsaken manuals

yeah, i willgot an old 233Mhz (i think it's an AMD or a Cyrix) with 64Mb Edo got it from freecyclesounds like funanother top tip from AT, will do, if i get enough money for my birthday

BTW: it'll probably take me months to get a server online using either method

BTW: thank you so much, all help is very much appreciated

BTW: i already thought i knew what you'd say unless you siad the router were crap, although i didn't think they were crap (just hoped you were not going to say they were crap)

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Anti-Trend

Well, to be honest all home-grade routers are crap. That's why I asked what you want to do with them. If you just want to surf with one or two computers, just about any router will do. If you want to do stuff live SPI, VPN, QoS, traffic shaping, content filtering, multiple subnets, security zones (DMZ, wireless, etc), you will either have to build one or raise your budget substantially. BTW, if you have a 233MHz system with 64mb of RAM, that'd be perfect for IPCop but not enough for pfSense. So you could build an IPCop for cheaper than a home-grade router just by adding a few $5 network cards to it. IPCop is easier to install than most operating systems out there, so I don't think you'd have trouble getting it running.

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donkey42

well, i'd love to do that, but, i don't see my budget increasing substantially any time soon, unless i somehow discovery a way to time travel in the next couple of years,i'm going to DL IPCop and experiment with it as a VM

BTW: any of ATs top tips, & i'm DL IPCop now

thank you so much for your help, i don't understand why your helping me, could you please explain ?

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donkey42

Hi AT, after many conversations with both my dad and my carer (both don't understand about computers as much as me)

i've being advised to find a router less than £100 because i've discovered my dad is also giving me £50 for my birthday, so, £50 from dad + 50 from grandma = 100, so, i'm going to search for a router that is less than £100, could you please suggest 1 ?

BTW: searching now

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max12590

I would stick to making your own router. I am running Smoothwall on a machine I got for free. I have 2 network cards in it and then a switch to split the connection inside the network. It works like a charm and gives you all the functionality you need. Take a look at Smoothwall and then if it doesn't offer enough functionality look at IPCop or other distros. OS installation is a breeze and router configurations is no harder than any other router.

Honestly I don't see a reason to ever spend that much on a home router. If speed is what you're worried about go for gigabit hardware, the router is rarely the bottleneck in a home network.

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donkey42

i've being looking for an online store that just tells you what info was required when searching for a new router (in UK) after viewing many sites that do not provide all the info i wanted. i found a router that i think is quite good here

BTW: i will not be enabling wireless until i've done a lot of reseach

@max: how / have you VoIP enabled on your home made router, if so, how ?, or do you use SIP phones ?

Edit: opinions welcome

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Anti-Trend

VOIP is handled as a subscriber service you must pay for. Any *nix based router can act as a SIP gateway easily, and it's easier to give VOIP traffic higher-priority with traffic shaping and/or QoS.

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max12590

I don't use VOIP, so all that is over my head, but, uhh... yea. What he said.

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In the words of a certain Battlefield 2 commander, "They're spawnin' like crazy at the Gas Station and then tryin' to Forrest Gump it down the Interstate."

donkey42

yeah, me too, but, hopefully not for longyeah, i know there are 2 ways to do anything / everything & the expensive way is always easy & the hard way is always cheap or free

BTW: i'm trying to do things the hard way because my finances are very limited

i've also ordered this router, because i think my current router is holding me back by not supporting stuff like DDNS & it's the first router i've found that supports DDNS & 802.11g WPA & WPA2 (even though i won't enable it until i'm sure i can make it secure)

although there are probably many fetchers that i will not use for many months, but, i can never experiment with fetchers i don't have, anything to add ?

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John k

4-PORT VOIP ROUTER FIREWALL

Wokrs out a bit cheaper