Remote Router Administration? 34
bduncan asks: "I'm wondering if the Slashdot community knows of bandwidth and remote admin friendly routers, accessible using either a telnet port or at least lynx (both from the inside network of course). I remotely admin a number of installations using Linux systems to do firewalling, email etc. and they all have dialup facilities in case the router misbehaves for some reason. This used to be easy, as the routers would normally provide a telnet port and/or a low bandwidth HTTP facility for setup, resetting etc.Unfortunately, the last installation using a major brand router was across the pond (in the UK) and provides only an HTTP interface, but uses high-bandwidth flash on top of this! Now, instead of just dialing in and using telnet or lynx to get to the router, I'm forced to set up a PPP connection into the Linux machine and then soak up most of the bandwidth with all kinds of useless Flash animation, just to make some changes on the router. Typing into the Flash forms can take many minutes to be echoed back and executed. Tunneling through to the Linux machine using SSH is an option, but of course not until the router is set up properly. Does anyone still make a low-bandwidth remote admin friendly DSL router for use in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter)?"
home routers (Score:1)
zyxel (Score:2, Informative)
Re:zyxel (Score:2)
Re:zyxel (Score:2)
fairly common in my experience (Score:1)
Re:fairly common in my experience (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:fairly common in my experience (Score:2)
Of course this thread cannot come up with mentioning LRP or so
Re:fairly common in my experience (Score:1)
Isn't that why it's called flash memory?
Um, yeah? (Score:2)
Cyclades, and god know how many others, make terminal servers. Or you could stuff a bunch of serial ports into a linux box and build your own.
Obviously... (Score:1)
You never heard of Cisco [cisco.com]...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:ridiculous (Score:2)
As an aside, while searching for this, the sixth hit on my Google list was some
Re:ridiculous (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:ridiculous (Score:1)
Name names please! (Score:5, Interesting)
As to remote admin over dial; if you need to do that then a CLI, or at the very least a text mode menu option should be a prerequisite. It really doesn't matter what the interface is like, since you will almost certainly only be making minor configuration tweaks with the CLI once the router is up and running.
If you can afford the price premium, I'd go for one of the established CLI's like Cisco's IOS. While they can be daunting at first they do have the advantage of being a skill portable to a huge range of devices, especially in the case of IOS, and there are dozens of places with template configurations to get you started.
On the otherhand the general consensus on the UK Broadband newsgroups seems to be that Draytek [draytek.com.tw] make some excellent kit. I can certainly vouch for that, since I use one myself - a Vigor 2600we to be precise, which cost about 160, but the 2600g is just out that ups the wireless support from 802.11b to 802.11g. To summarise the key features in addition to the wireless:
A Network termination device (Score:2)
Re:A Network termination device (Score:1)
Re:A Network termination device (Score:2)
Re:A Network termination device (Score:2)
Try the Linksys WRT54G (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of these enhancements to the stock WRT54G can be accomplished as changes to it's filesystem's ramdisk so that they are not permanent and a simple reboot of the router will get you back to the non-hacked state. If you're feeling brave however, you can try to create your own firmware and commit it to flash at the risk of messing up and creating a small doorstop out of a perfectly good router.
Unfortunately the built in capabilities accessed via it's HTTP interface are a bit slim and simplistic (ie. no SNMP router logging and the built in logging capabilities are VERY basic, only 5 port filters, no Static IP assignments based on MAC addresses, no port triggering) but par for a home/office grade router. Besides, you could always add what you want via your root linux access neh?
Reviews of the router performance have been positive, with little difference in bandwidth in running with WEP on or off (unlike many other inexpensive wireless routers, which have up to a 50% reduction in wireless bandwidth with encryption turned on).
Pretty exciting to have a little router that has the potential to do much more than the usually lukewarm manufacturer's firmware allows.
Dave
flash (Score:3, Informative)
Re:flash (Score:1)
Later,
Kenn
"at least" lynx??? (Score:1)
Please post what router you have. (Score:3, Interesting)
To answer your question, almost all brand name routers offer telnet access to the CLI. They also have a console serial port offering a direct connection to the CLI into which you can plug a modem for dial-up access to the CLI. The brands to look at are Cisco, 3Com, Nortel, Juniper and many more. In fact, you should avoid any router that does not offer telnet/ssh access and a console serial port.
Some of the new home based broadband routers like the LinkSys have only a web interface which is adequate if you have physical access to the router but, as you have seen this can be problematic.
Please post which router you were stuck with.
Freesco (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Freesco (Score:2)
My Freesco router was...free. I have the bottom half of an old HP network scanner, which is essentially a 486 motherboard and whisper-quiet power supply in a small styrofoam-lined steel box with no drive bays or ports other than three ISA slots. Threw in a couple 3Com Etherlink IIIs, a 4G hard disk and it's a great little cable router + caching DNS + internal file server. Doesn't reduce my bandwidth at all. Howev
What no CLI? (Score:2)
Two words (Score:2)
(I even wrote about my Soekris/m0n0wall box on my website [wonko.com] recently).
WGR614 is HTTP (Score:2, Informative)
Remote Administration (Score:2)
That said, if you were using a Cisco 2600 or 3700 series router, it would be a simple thing to slip in a WIC-1-AM, which is a one port analog modem. This modem can provide simple console access, handle PPP, dial-backup, callback, and probably several other neat things. You can implement authentication based on local accounts, or on authentication servers (tacacs/radius).
I've got about 200 of these deployed around the U.S. and they have been a major life saver many ti
Netscreen... (Score:1)
Just curious which brand uses flash for their administrative frontend?