Low Cost Routers with 100Mbps WAN Ports? 55
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?"
It won't make any difference (Score:4, Informative)
Don't waste your money on an expensive router with a 100 Mbps uplink port unless you can take advantage of it somehow.
Re:It won't make any difference (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:It won't make any difference (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It won't make any difference (Score:3, Insightful)
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...)
Re:It won't make any difference (Score:1)
Re:It won't make any difference (Score:2)
But again, I'm not on the same network with a hundred other students running a napster server.....
er.. (Score:2, Funny)
Build it yourself (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Build it yourself (Score:1)
Instead of Linux... (Score:1)
Re:Build it yourself: BBIAgent 40 dollars (Score:3, Informative)
You can get a first generation pentium now of any speed with ram the whole 9 yards for FREE. If you live in San Jose, I would be more than happy to let you have your choice from 10 boxes I got in the garage ranging from 486 to a P120. You come pick it up its that simple.
Next you need to add some network cards, the bay network netgears do the job nice and at $20 bucks a pop at fry's it wont hurt your pocketbook.
Finally some software to run it. I recomend BBIAgent [bbiagent.net] It's small, runs on a floppy, and should do everything you need it to. Very slick web based setup and java based config utility.
As far as a hub/switch/cat5 cable, well that will still cost you money. I have a tangle of blue wire in the garage that looks like animal from the muppets if he were blue, you'd be more than welcome to help yourself.
Good Luck!
--Toq
Router? (Score:3, Informative)
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)
Re:Router? (Score:1)
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 $.02
Re:Router? (Score:1)
Security? (Score:2, Insightful)
I would say that there are probably some pretty high end stuff you could do this with, but like me, you probably don't have the money (and wouldn't invest the money) on such a solution. Most of the commercial (read: home use) cable routers/firewalls use only 10mbps (not sure if it's even full duplex) because you're never going to hit that wall.... by the time we do, you'll have to buy new equipment anyways.
I would think that a nicely equipped machine (p200 or better?) would be able to pass 100mbps full duplex quite nicely. Granted, you'd have to install linux, but I have found a nifty little diskette that can actually get you running with your own nat box in little to no time --> check out www.bbiagent.net.
Make sure you have 2 network cards that are supported, set up your network settings on the page, and whammo! You get an image of a diskette for your specific machine! I honestly think it's a world above the retail-available boxes, because of the 0-$ 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....
Re:Security? (Score:1)
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!
Re:Security? (Score:1)
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.)
Re:Security? (Score:2)
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)
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.
You probably only need a switch... (Score:1)
btw, shouldn't this be in the Ask Slashdot section?
Duh (Score:1)
100mb WAP? (Score:1)
10mBit is enough ... (Score:2, Insightful)
If you want a 100mBit wan-router, you sghoul consider the cisco 17xx series, i think that should be whats you're looking for
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!
Get an SMC Barricade (Score:1)
Better yet, go here [practicallynetworked.com] and make your own decision.
Re:Get an SMC Barricade (Score:1)
Re:Get an SMC Barricade (Score:2)
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
Re:Get an SMC Barricade (Score:2)
Re:Use a PC? (Score:3, Informative)
--Mike
Do It With A 486 (Score:2, Funny)
Christ. (Score:2, Funny)
On the off chance you would actually need it (Score:3, Informative)
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)
Re:On the off chance you would actually need it (Score:1)
Re:On the off chance you would actually need it (Score:2)
I have a p200 32meg ram that has throughput in the 50Mb range but Tops out around there. Mind you realisticly a person will only see about 60-70 over a "true" 100Mb connection minus overhead.
Try this (Score:1)
That's just my two cents worth
3Com NetBuilder II (Score:1)
Never forget the old stuff. Most of the time, these things are just sitting around collecting dust.
Here's an idea (Score:4, Funny)
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).
Re:Here's an idea (Score:1)
[Drool]
Re:Here's an idea (Score:1)
SonicWall (Score:1)
Re:SMC7008ABR (Answers the question) (Score:2)
firewall as well (Score:2)
Cheaper solution still (Score:3, Insightful)
Suggestions (Score:3, Informative)