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Low Cost Routers with 100Mbps WAN Ports? 55

Posted by Cliff from the who-uses-10Mbps-anymore? dept.
Ed asks: "I am getting ready to move into a dorm at Kent State, and they have a 100Mbps port in the room. They allow routers, and switches to connect more than 1 PC, however every router I see at the consumer level has a 10Mbps WAN port. I would really prefer not to waste having a 100BaseTX port on a 10Mbps router. Does anyone make a semi-low cost router with a 100Mbps WAN port?"
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Low Cost Routers with 100Mbps WAN Ports? More

Low Cost Routers with 100Mbps WAN Ports?

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  • It won't make any difference (Score:4, Informative)

    by foobar104 ( 206452 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @03:19PM (#3072166) Journal
    If you can demonstrate that your bandwidth to the Internet is greater than about 800 KB/s, I will personally give you a cookie.

    Don't waste your money on an expensive router with a 100 Mbps uplink port unless you can take advantage of it somehow.
    • My school had a similar setup -- fast Ethernet in the dorms, somthing like three T3 connections to the net, Alpha web and file servers, and no firewall blocking connections to student machines. This meant that everyone with a hard drive bigger than 1 gig was running their own Napster/warez/whatever server, and downloading everything they could get their hands on. Even with only 1200 students, the effective bandwidth was slightly worse than I get at home with a 128Kbps DSL line.

      I second the recommendation, but if the money is burning a hole in your pocket, spend it on an 802.11 access point, not the fast Ethernet router. If you ever use a laptop or PDA, you'll thank yourself later.
    • Maybe he wants 100Mbps connectivity to the other machines on campus.
    • If you can demonstrate that your bandwidth to the Internet is greater than about 800 KB/s, I will personally give you a cookie.

      Can I have one? I'm no longer working at UMBC [umbc.edu], but they have an Internet^2 connection, and so their bandwidth to other I^2 sites is limited by the 100Mbps port on the desktop.

      (Hint: there are a number of I^2 sites; I don't know if the questioner is on one, but if he is then there's good reason to want a 100Mbps uplink...)

    • I believe that if you look into it, they have a 10/100 switch on the other end of your network drop. Weither you get a WAP with a 10 or 100mbps interface, the switch will probibly still work with your WAP
    • I'm getting 2.26MB/s downloading netscape from a unix box on our core network. I've seen as high as 4MB/s, depending on network conditions and what server at ftp.netscape.com I connect to... They seem to have two tuning settings, one which limits me to about half of the other one based most likely on maximum window size and the delay product.

      But again, I'm not on the same network with a hundred other students running a napster server.....

  • er.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Noodlenose ( 537591 )
    shouldn't you study?

  • Build it yourself (Score:5, Interesting)

    by strudeau ( 96760 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @03:31PM (#3072258) Homepage
    Build it yourself out of an old box you (or a friend) have lying around. Buy two $10 10/100 cards and a cheap 10/100 switch. Besides, it's more fun that way and you might learn something.
    • Seconded. Build it youself, and you will learn something (not neccessarily covered by tuition). And don't worry about dynamic IP either, you can build it easily on a 486 with Linux.

  • Router? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gruturo ( 141223 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @03:32PM (#3072262)
    Sure you really need a router?

    Maybe you need a switch.... a hub.... you've got 3 PCs and a single Ethernet port.

    Or, maybe, you really want a router. This means creating a subnet and putting a static into THEIR router to allow replies to get back to you. Unlikely, but possible (lots of admin overhead for the dorm's net admin, but anyways). In that case, what about a Linux/xBSD with 2 or more Fast Ethernets? That's gonna cost you MUCH less than anything Cisco sells (and not only Cisco)
    • eh?

      As long as the router/pc/whatever gets an IP via DHCP or whatever it won't matter how many machines he buries behind it, nor require any routing updating on the part of the universities net admin. A little PAT and he's off into the wild pr0n yonder!

      Get a LinkSys or something.. Unless you (the original poster) are made of money, you don't need a real router. Any basic cable/modem type router should suffice. Especially one with the ability to set the MAC of the WAN port..

      my $.02
    • I believe the router he was referring to was the kind sold by Linksys, more accurately dubbed NAT firewall + other goodies boxes, not the powerhouses that CISCO sells.

  • Security? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by karnal ( 22275 )
    Are you worrying about security on the Lan at Kent State? I'm just curious -- there would be no real reason to have one (firewall/nat/etc) other than to keep people from messing with your computers. Is it a requirement for a 1/1 address per port in the dorm?

    I would say that there are probably some pretty high end stuff you could do this with, but like me, you probably don't have the money (and wouldn't invest the money) on such a solution. Most of the commercial (read: home use) cable routers/firewalls use only 10mbps (not sure if it's even full duplex) because you're never going to hit that wall.... by the time we do, you'll have to buy new equipment anyways.

    I would think that a nicely equipped machine (p200 or better?) would be able to pass 100mbps full duplex quite nicely. Granted, you'd have to install linux, but I have found a nifty little diskette that can actually get you running with your own nat box in little to no time --> check out www.bbiagent.net.

    Make sure you have 2 network cards that are supported, set up your network settings on the page, and whammo! You get an image of a diskette for your specific machine! I honestly think it's a world above the retail-available boxes, because of the 0-$ invested (other than old equipment...) Also, once you use this as your router, you can drop the Hard Drive/CDROM off of the machine alltogether, since it's all on the floppy! Makes for a very quiet machine (I have mine running on a pentium 200, and I barely notice the machine is on!)

    Hopefully this helped....
    • karnal, I have some questions regarding bbiagent. What fs is the disk you can download from them? And where can I download the source code for it (if they patched some GPL'd code)? The disk doesn't seem to be ext2 nor vfat, and file only identifies it as an x86 boot sector. I might try to include Minix and Ext fs next time I recompile my kernel.

      Before using it on my network, I'd like to know how it works and what's compiled in.

      If somebody else has another one floppy distribution which can do the same thing and is not as secret, please share it with the rest of us. Thank you!
      • Unfortunately, I haven't dug as deep into this project as you need -- I just happened onto it one day while looking at the various linux router projects on the 'net.

        As far as I can tell (on the front page), this project uses the Linux Kernel 2.4.13. I would imagine if you want to get source for it (since it's based on the kernel), you could ask for it on the bottom of the FAQ page, which is: http://bbiagent.net/en/faq.htm

        I'm not honestly sure what kind of FS it is either. I'm not associated with the project in any way; I've just found it fills a niche for me while I rebuild my firewall at home.... which has now been about 6 months (oops...) Lemme see....

        HTTP://www.linuxrouter.org/ should also be something you'd want to look at -- however, the documentation section claims to be outdated; however, there is an archive of their mailing list.

        I think if you want the best of the best (i.e. latest kernel + fixes) then you'll have to build your own box (or own floppy distribution.) My suggestion of BBIAgent.net was just meant as a "good enough" fix for most people (just as the broadband routers are "good enough" for most consumers.)

    • "Are you worrying about security on the Lan at Kent State."

      Any school admin will tell you, the internet is untrusted and any lan with a student machine attached is also untrusted. Is a firewall to protect you from the blackhats on the big www, or is it to protect you from the blackhats on your own lan?

      Always make the assumtion that somewhere on campus, someone has booted a computer to a floppy that uses VPN to tunnel straight through any firewall. A properly set up LRP disk has interesting uses on I^2

  • Why not use only a switch? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Papineau ( 527159 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @03:34PM (#3072287) Homepage
    If they'll allow you to use a switch, why spend some more money and buy a router? These things are usually used when either you're not supposed to hook more than one computer, or when only one computer can't be connected directly to the Internet because of some authentication mechanism (PPPoE, DHCP w/ only 1 address per port, etc.)

    If they allow you to grab more than one IP address, and the network is either fixed address or DHCP, go with a switch. A 100Mbps switch will set you back around 40$.

    Or use one of your computer as a bridge (NAT) before the switch. But then you'll have to open it anytime you want one of the other ones to go online, unless you let it on all the time as I do... and some protocols still don't like NATted computers.
  • unless they only allocate one IP address per port, you should only need to get a 100Base-T switch. I've had great luck with Linksys. If they will only allocate one IP per port, then you need something similar to a Cable/DSL router. Given that I've only seen those with 10Base-T WAN ports, you might want to consider building a cheap Linux or BSD box to do the same job.

    btw, shouldn't this be in the Ask Slashdot section?
  • Considering these standards for wireless networking: HomeRF 2.0 10 Mbps 802.11b WiFi 11 Mbps 802.11g 22 Mbps 802.11a 54 Mbps what makes you think you need a 100mb WAN link? How many computers will use this WAP?

  • 10mBit is enough ... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by NWT ( 540003 )
    You can get 750-900 kb/sec with your 10mBit router, i think this is fast enough to download all the stuff you want. Unless you want to install a server farm behing the router, a 100mBit router is really to expensive for private use...

    If you want a 100mBit wan-router, you sghoul consider the cisco 17xx series, i think that should be whats you're looking for ... i've no idea what this costs, but i'm sure its a fine sum.

    Perhaps you could use an old pc with 2x100mBit cards and Linux/*BSD as a router, that would be a more cheap solution, besides you could host stuff on it!
  • The SMC Barricade (SMC7004AWBR) has a 3 port, 100Mbps switch, an 802.11 access point, a print server that provides SMB and an lpr spool, can connect to an ethernet network or use an analog modem when you move off-campus. It's around $150.

    Better yet, go here [practicallynetworked.com] and make your own decision.
    • No, wait. The SMC doesn't have a 10Mbps WAN connection (but it's still great!) How about getting an old junker Linux box + 2 cheap 100Mbps cards, setup as a NAT box and use a 100Mbps switch in the inside. It would be a similar effect.
    • Beware the Barricade! It can ONLY be configured with MSIE!

      I have tried Konq, Mozilla, Links and Lynx.

      Lynx is able to do about 20% of the config stuff. The rest, none.

      Thankfully my current roomate has a windows box. Don't know what I'm going to do when I move :-(

      And yes, I am on the latest firmware.

      Apparently the serial port can be used for out-of-band management, but this is no help since it is my WAN side. No broadband where I live :-(

      Otherwise, it is a kick-ass piece of hardware.

      -Peter
      • Strange. I have the 7004WBR (not the A version) and can configure it from IE or Netscape/Mozilla without trouble. The thing I run into occationally is that the Barricade will appear to hang while it's doing a DHCP request, but it fails for all browsers equally.
  • Do it with an old 486 motherboard like this [zdnet.com] or this [homenethelp.com] or this [mn-linux.org] or this [steinkuehler.net] or this [escalix.com] or this [fireplug.net] or this [coyotelinux.com] or.....

  • Christ. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hi. I'm too damn lazy to even bother doing [practicallynetworked.com] the most basic of research. [google.com] Can somebody do it for me? Thanks."

  • On the off chance you would actually need it (Score:3, Informative)

    by booyah ( 28487 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @05:28PM (#3073287)
    You can always pick up someones older PC like a Celeron 300-500 and make a Linux NAT (Network Address Translation) box out off it. Most of the consumer level dsl/cable "routers" are just simple NAT boxes done in hardware.

    look around a simple nat box is easy and cheap to setup and you can decide the speed. I get 50mbs across a p200 NAT box at my work (for test environment)

  • Wireless cards are cheap. I would simply get a wireless 802.11b card with a prism II chipset, follow the info @ this site http://www.cafwap.net/prism2ap/ and this site http://www.linuxrouter.org and you will be able to roam free without the hassels of cordes. And if you follow this guide http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/02q1/020111/ you will also be able to contain all of this info in a small unit hidden behind the beer fridge. While your @ it you can use the linux router as an FTP server to store all of your homework so you can access them anywhere on campus.

    That's just my two cents worth
  • If you really want to get wacky, find an old 3Com Netbuilder II on Ebay. I have worked on them and I know that they support Fast Ethernet. I don't think that 3Com is putting firmware out anymore, but the latest stuff supports NAT, I'm pretty sure.

    Never forget the old stuff. Most of the time, these things are just sitting around collecting dust.

  • Here's an idea (Score:4, Funny)

    by krangomatik ( 535373 ) <rfujikawa@yahooL ... m minus math_god> on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @06:40PM (#3073998)
    I would recommend getting a cisco catalyst 6513 switch with the following configuration:

    1 cat 6513 w/redundant ps
    2 supervisor2/msfc2 cards
    2 switch fabric module-2 cards
    4 16 port fabric enabled gig-e cards
    1 network analysis module
    1 ids blade
    3 48 port 10/100 power over ethernet enabled blades

    if you can get two ports to the campus backbone i'd recommend using both of the ports and getting the campus IT folks to provision them off of separate switches and configure hsrp for you, then you could get another 6513 configured similarly to the one above and have a good sense of redundancy. One 6513 configured as the one above is should run you >$100k. If this doesn't fall in the 'cheap' catagory you could look at getting a cisco 3550-12T switch. this guy has 12 10/100/1000 ports and comes with basic ip routing functionality. its only $10k or so i think. If that is still too expensive you could look at something like a 2621 router, which has 2 100mbps ports. With the 2621 or the 6513 solution you could also add voice modules. You could have your local teleco provision a few PRIs to your dorm and become the campus CLEC or something. If you teamed up with other students at other colleges you could put voice gateways at a bunch of colleges and use the fat pipes between them to do toll bypass and give students across the world cheap long distance. If you went with the 6500 you'd also have a permanent space heater in your dorm. If you need an even cheaper solution i'd recommend using a linux box or something of that nature, not only will it be a fun learning experience, but it will be dirt cheap. oh, and i'll give you a cookie if you try to order the 6513 with WS-X6369-THC(that's the integrated bong option....ooh...you'll want the WS-X6569-THC, that's the fabric enabled bong option).
  • I love my SonicWall SOHO2; its one of the few NAT firewall boxes with statefull packet inspection and a 100mbps WAN port. It isn't exactly cheap though.
  • Plug: http://www.dubbele.com

  • Cheaper solution still (Score:3, Insightful)

    by biglig2 ( 89374 ) on Wednesday February 27, 2002 @10:14AM (#3077182) Homepage Journal
    If you're running multiple machines off the router, then a cheap solution is to just drop another 100Mb card into one of your machines and let it route. Note that this is not a really secure solution -much safer to have a stand-alone box. But if cost is a bigger factor than security...

  • Suggestions (Score:3, Informative)

    by maggard ( 5579 ) <michael@michaelmaggard.com> on Wednesday February 27, 2002 @12:09PM (#3077851) Homepage Journal
    1. "Take an old PC and...": Folks in dorm-rooms don't need an additionial clunker PC taking up room, pumping out heat, adding to the din, etc. While lots of geeks may appreciate living in the equivalent of a hardware cave most dorm rooms I've ever seen barely qualify as a decent closet much less a hardware bay.

    2. Yes there are good low-cost 10/100 routers out there. I use a SMC Barricade 7004ABR [smc.com] which offers 4 10/100 LAN ports as well as a simple firewall, print-server, backup modem connection, etc. Some folks have trouble configuring it with a browser other then WinIE, if so just make friends with a Wintel laptop owner down the hall.

    3. Watch for deals. I got my router for $50 after refund (check took a month to arrive, not bad.) Another buddy just bought his for $50 direct. My favorite source for good prices is dealnews [dealnews.com] networking [dealnews.com]. They've got a couple of good sub-US$100 listings right now.

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