Hardware or Software Router?

Computer Forum Networking and Computer Security
1

Purpose:

My landlord wants to give each room in the house internet access. The wiring has already been completed, so there is a CAT5e cable going into every room. The wires all meet at a central point downstairs.

Option 1: Buy a hardware router.

This sounds like the simplist option, but also the most expensive. All that would need to be done is to connect the broadband modem to the router, then connect all of the rooms to the router.

Option 2: Buy a cheap computer and a 24-Port Switch.

With this setup I could connect the broadband modem to the computer, then buy a second network card to connect the computer to the switch. The switch would serve all the rooms in the house.

Thoughts:

Performance wise, how would Option 2 compare to Option 1? Baring in mind that all 12 rooms in the house could be accessing in the internet at once.

Would the switch and cheap server computer buckle over? What kind of specification computer would work?

Also, if we decided to go with Option 2, which Operating System should I opt for? I’ve had a look at SME Server, but it looks a little overkill for the purpose? The server will only be serving internet, nothing else.

BTW, is it possible to connect a switch to another switch? What’s the limit?

2

Why is a hardware router an expensive option? Surely its cheaper than using a computer & a switch. Much easier too.

Just use a router, with a switch to allow computers to connect to it. Lower power consumption as well.

It is possible to connect switches to switches, allowing more computers to be added if needed. Although there is a limit, somewhere like 254 computers max,

3

[QUOTE=Addis]
Why is a hardware router an expensive option? Surely its cheaper than using a computer & a switch. Much easier too.
[/QUOTE]

24-PORT Routers cost £200+. I suppose we could get a small router, and run a big switch off it like you say

[QUOTE=Addis]
It is possible to connect switches to switches, allowing more computers to be added if needed. Although there is a limit, somewhere like 254 computers max,
[/QUOTE]

Do they connect via Crossover cable?

4

In my experience, they can just be connected like normal.
However, some switches require an uplink port and crossover cable to be used.

5

I would deploy something like m0n0wall (the whole OS is a ~6mb image, so you can embed it on an IDE flash which costs about $10) and buy a good (e.g. Netgear) 24-port switch. That’d be the best option, and you’d have to pay at least $1000 to get a mainstream router even remotely equivalent to the speed and performance of m0n0wall running on commodity PC hardware.

6

I’ll have a look at the Netgear offerings.

My landlord is against the idea of a server computer because of space restrictions and possible theft.

I think we will go for an ADSL Broadband Router (cheapo :smiley: ) and connect it to a 24-PORT switch.

7

[QUOTE=megamaced]
My landlord is against the idea of a server computer because of space restrictions and possible theft.
[/QUOTE]
It wouldn’t be a server, it’d be a router. I’d still push for it, as some of the benefits of running m0n0wall include the ability to shape traffic evenly among each of the connected users, run a captive portal if necessary, detailed bandwidth reports, and much, much better performance and flexibility than a cheesy home-grade router. But, I suppose a little plastic router would do the job, just make sure to change the default password and I suppose it wouldn’t be too bad. In my mind though, the traffic shaping features of m0n0wall make it hands-down the most attractive solution for a shared broadband environment like that. Otherwise, if you get just one or two people using P2P software, it’ll bottleneck the whole connection and render it unusable for everybody. Besides, you can run m0n0wall on hardware too low-end to even boot Windows and it’ll still handle your network load just fine. It’ll even run on a little appliance device like a Soekris box, which is about the same size & shape as a home router. The cheapest Soekris systems are about on-par with the cost of a moderately high-end home-grade router, which still couldn’t compete in terms of performance and features. And obviously, the software is free.

8

That makes it very attractive.

I’ll look into it some more and have a chat with my landlord.

BTW, what are the differences between a home-grade router, and a corporate router costing £1000+? Sorry, if that question sounds a little dumb, but I’ve gotta find out someday :smiley:

9

[QUOTE=megamaced]
That makes it very attractive. I’ll look into it some more and have a chat with my landlord.
[/QUOTE]
I believe that doing it right the first time actually saves time & money in the long run. That being said, I think the m0n0wall option is the best long-term solution for what your landlord wants to do, so it should definately be strongly considered.

[QUOTE=megamaced]
BTW, what are the differences between a home-grade router, and a corporate router costing £1000+? Sorry, if that question sounds a little dumb, but I’ve gotta find out someday :smiley:
[/QUOTE]
A home grade router usually has one WAN connection and one LAN connection. The LAN side can be split up in the form of an attached layer-2 switch, but it’s still a single point of entry into the router. Usually these things have little or no security on the local side of the router, and advanced features like traffic shaping or egress filtering are completely out of the question. Also, the embedded RAM is usually between 4 and 16 megs, so lots of simultaneous socket connections will cause unbearable latency.

A Cisco firewall, for instance the ever-present PIX, starts at around £1000 (for the low-end model). The PIX has a substantially more powerful CPU than your typicall home/SOHO router, much more RAM, and multiple interfaces for segmented network topologies. This can accomodate advanced setups, such as semi-trusted segments (called DMZ’s), which keeps machines in such segments both isolated from the Internet and the LAN segment(s). You can also have multiple, load-balanced WAN interfaces, advanced routing capabilities, and some very high-level networking magic can take place.

m0n0wall is pretty much everything that is beautiful about corperate-grade commercial firewall firmware except that it’s free, open-source, and will run on nearly any hardware. That means you can have a router which is better than a $1000 PIX for about $200, or a router which is better than a $10,000 PIX for about $1000. It’s also easier to use than a PIX, and doesn’t require the firewall admin to have any expensive certifications just to write a few firewall rules or turn on traffic shaping features. Really, there’s no downside (unless you think open-source is the face of the communist devil or something. :wink: Then again, even IOS [Cisco’s core operating system] is the child of BSD UNIX, so in that case maybe it’d be better to just buy an expensive, bloated, insecure, unstable, poor-performing, high-maintenance ISA server from Microsoft instead! :confused: )

10

After speaking with my landlord, we came to the conclusion that a basic home-grade router and 24-PORT switch would suffice.

I have been given a budget of £60 to buy a switch (including the postage costs) and I couldn’t find a Netgear 24-PORT switch for that price. Instead, i’ve stumbled across this switch from Dynamode. The total price works out at just under £60 including the postage and VAT. Thoughts?

[ot] WHY am I still shopping at eBuyer?!! LOL :confused: [/ot]

11

[QUOTE=megamaced]
Thoughts?
[/QUOTE]
Yes. When it comes to switches, you get what you pay for.

12

[QUOTE=Anti-Trend]
Yes. When it comes to switches, you get what you pay for.
[/QUOTE]

So it’s not very good then? :smiley:

I don’t think I will find anything better for the price

13

If I was you I would do the whole disclaimer thing and, in kind and calm words, warn your landlord not to even think about whinning to you if there’s problems. Warn him/her that low-grade switches burn up from time to time, and that people may complain about others hogging the bandwidth and that there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it with what you’ve been given to work with. I think that’s the best you can do!