Searching For Home DSL Router?

DP asks: "I'm getting DSL relatively soon, and I need a router/firewall, one that has DSL ports, Ethernet, and HomePNA, and preferably runs Linux, although as long as I can telnet in to change things it's fine. I've seen/read about various such devices, but can't really remember much other than they exist. Most I can spend is $500 or so. And don't tell me to just get an old 486 box, power consumption sucks and it doesn't have HomePNA."

What KIND of DSL?

[Adam Selene]

OK, there are a bunch of choices, but one of the big questions is, how is your ADSL setup? DHCP Based? Static IP? or are you going to be PPPoE based? (For instance, Bell Atlantic is PPPoE). If your PPPoE based, you really only have 3-4 choices 1)I believe Linksys now supports PPPoE 2)Zyxel makes one (the Prestige 310) 3)Netgear RT311 - Lost sibling of the Zyxel 4)NexLand's ISB2LAN (which is what I use) All of these will support all the above modes. If you don't need PPPoE, you have more choices. The ISB2LAN does NAT, and you can close all you inbound ports (which I do), so at can act as a "pseudo" firewall Standard disclaimers apply

Linksys

[JabberWokky]

Linksys Cable/DSL Router is NICE. Web interface (thus any OS), allows you to route any particular port to one particular computer, serves DHCP, handles your whole network, is 100 mbit, and is a true router (you can hang as many hubs as allowed by ethernet).

5 brillig toves from the JWokky.

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Evan

Re:Linksys

[pyite]

Definitely go with the Linksys... I've heard nothing but good on this. Especially on ZDTV, they can't get enough of it.

Lower end, but great Re:Linksys

[RocketJeff]

The Linksys Cable/DSL Router is great for what it tries to be - a simple, low-cost, not-too-many-frills router/firewall. I'm running mine with my (new) cable access from @home. For ~$160 (street price), it can't be beat.

OTOH, it does have its limitations (as others have mentioned). This includes *no* support for its 'advanced' functions - but this shouldn't be a problem for most readers of Slashdot.

If you want total control with any kind of reporting capabilities, you'll need to look elsewhere. Check it out at Linksys's site (www.linksys.com) to see if it fits your needed before you buy (the manual is available here in a .pdf).

Re:Linksys

[geophile]

I'm currently using NT + wingate on a dual-home machine. I use tzo to map my domain name to the ugly name assigned by mediaone. If I use the Linksys product, how does tzo fit into the picture? If they don't work together, what alternatives are there? What if I want to map two different domain names to a box on the other side of the Linksys?

Zyxel Prestige 310

[LordDartan]

I have a a Zyxel Prestige 310 with my cable modem(supposed to work with DSL as well) and I love it! Not one problem with it, and very configurable. I think I got mine on special for $200, but they're normally around $300. Check out www.zyxel.com for more info on it.

Linksys is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It works wonderfully and the price is around $160. Would be neat if there was a way to put a small static web site on it (It clearly understands http and html).

SonicWall

[GooseKirk]

I don't know anything about this HomePNA stuff, and I doubt you'll find a great many hardware options specifically for it. But here's what I did for my company.

We got DSL in late summer '98. We have a main office and a branch office, and I wanted a VPN so that we could share files and printers and whatever else came up.

I picked up a couple of SonicWalls for about $400 each. With the VPN option, we paid about $1200 for the setup. My Linux pals thought I was a sissy, but it was clearly the right decision for the business.

Now, with over a year and a half of experience with these things, these SonicWalls have been nearly PERFECT for us. I recommend them without reservation. The only reason I qualify that with "nearly" is because of a few minor bugs early on... these days, it IS perfect.

The SonicWall has a really sweet web interface, extremely simple and easy to understand. I trust the firewall at least as much as I trust anything. Decent logging capabilities -- my SonicWalls email me logfiles every day full of dropped connections and portscans. You can even set it to send emergency emails when it detects spoofs or specific attacks.

Opening a port and forwarding it to a specific computer is trivial. Flashing the BIOS is trivial. It's about the size of a videotape and makes no noise - no fans or hard drives. It never crashes and never needs maintenance beyond the occasional BIOS flash. It's got a nice-looking DHCP server built-in, but I don't use it. Supposedly it'll even do NetMeeting through the firewall, but I've never tried it. It also has a data logging option - you can count web site hits or track bandwidth in mb by user or service. Kinda nice.

The models I have only have a 10baseT connection, but they have newer models available with 100.

I keep hearing good things about the Linksys router, but I'd definitely look into the SonicWall. It's more expensive and it might very well not be any better than the Linksys, but I can tell you that I'm 100% satisfied with my SonicWall. It's just an excellent product that's never failed me and always done what I wanted it to do.

Re:Linksys

[StandardDeviant]

The linksys router does port forwarding (arbitrary port(s) to arbitrary internal IP(s)), so you could fire all port 80 traffic at one machine, and let apache virtual host the two based on name, or something like that. One proviso is that, AFAIK, the port forwarding feature requires that the WAN side have a static IP (what it says is no DHCP (presumably on the LAN side), but I haven't figured out a way,if one exists, to let the inside be static while having the router act as a DHCP client (i.e. if you're pulling a DHCP ip for the router, it turns on the DHCP server on the 'other side')).

I don't know what tzo is so I can't comment on that part of your question.

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What type of DSLAM does your telco use?

[zehn]

Most telcos "prefer" you use their default router because they are either manufactured my the same company the makes their DSLAMs or recommended by the DSLAM mfg. Most however allow you to use what ever router you want as long as it supports which ever protocols they use (DHCP, PPPoE, etc). I personally have seen good results from Cisco, Cayman, and Fujitsu. Most telcos will preconfigure your router for you if you get theirs so the big question is how comfortable are you with router configs. If you think IOS is the best thing since slashdot then grab a Cisco and be happy. I have never met a person with a Cisco router that was unhappy.

getting around the supplied router

[bobm]

I'm looking at getting DSL in Roseville, CA and the phone CO uses a fujitisu (sp?) box, they want $350 for it and I know there are better solutions available for half that price (the linksys is a good example). Has anyone been able to get a telco to not use the company default device?

Re:What type of DSLAM does your telco use?

[CoderDevo]

Can't prove you wrong, here. The USWest default in Minneapolis is a Cisco 605 internal card. I said I needed external (for my network) so the default external is a Cisco 675. I love it. Don't know the price, since mine was provided by USWest for free (with service).

One static IP for the little router and built-in DHCP & NAT to manage the private IPs of my choice for the 8 systems on my home office network.

To manage the box, you connect a serial cable, telnet in, or use a web browser. Note: doesn't use IOS, zehn, it uses CBOS. (Cisco Broadband Operation System) CBOS is "modeled" after IOS.

I'll second, or third or ... for the Linksys

[Anonymous Coward]

I've used both the Linksys (BEFSR41) and NetGear RT311 and while the NetGear is a very nice piece of hardware it only includes management software for Windows. Where as, and I know this was mentioned somewhere above, even though the Linksys only "officially" supports Windows all the management tools are done via a browseer thereby making it platform independent. The Linksys also has the added advantage of including a built-in 10/100 4-Port Switch.

Check out timhiggins.com

[willow]

tim higgins hwrouters [timhiggins.com] has reviews on many inexpensive hardware routers. This page also has a link for building a mixed media router [timhiggins.com] that supports HomePNA.

I looked over most of the reviews and my spin is that the inexpensive hardware routers trade flexibility for size, convenience, and power consumption. I'm personally looking at the Linksys Cable/DSL router since it's inexpensive, does NAT/IPmasq, and contains a built-in 10/100 switch. Downsides are that it only can forward a limited number of ports, the firewall is primitive, and the reporting/logging functions are minimal or missing.

choices, choices....