Cable Modem and/or Router??

[Penguin]

I have a Cable Modem and Router question. I have read that some people use a Cable Modem and Router as their line of defense. Now is the Cable Modem used as the Router, or is there an actual Router as another device? If so, is this Router a normal Router or a Broadband Router?

What is a Broadband Router, and can it be used like a regular Router ie… to access another computer and share files.

Thanks and I hope I didn’t confuse the question I am asking.

[ktkendall]

Let me try to answer your questions here goes:
Yes the cable modem and router are 2 seperate devices and yes you would want a broadband router. Usually you find tham at places like BestBuy and they are labeled as cable/dsl sharing routers. That would be what U want to get and yes they work very well and do provide a hardware firewall that is quite effective...I know mine protected me from that blaster worm a few months ago that was so widespread and devastating. Most do came with at least 4 ports that are built in so you can connest 4 PC's to it and yes that will also enable you to do file/ printer sharing and multiplayer LAN games accross the 4 PC's connected to it. You can get them now with built in wireless access for the PC's also, and really you can connect other hub/lan switch devices to the ports also and network up to 252 PC's if you really wanted to and they can all share the broadband internet access. I see a lot of them now out there in the small and mid sized business world cause they work welll and are quite cost effective especially for businesses that can now go with broadband instead of traditional high speed , high cost data circuts.. Basically you just run a cable from the cable modem into the WAN port of the router and run a cable from each PC the the LAN ports on the router and some very simple configuration steps in the router and you are up and running and will find that they are really the best way to go to share between 2 or more PC's...

[james8547]

To add more info, Linksys and SMC are good router manufacturers favored by many people. I personally own a SMC7004VBR router. The setup was easy. It came with a CD that automatically configured the settings so that both of my PCs can access the net. The manual it came with is very detailed.

[ktkendall]

Yes I also agree, I have a linksys and it has performed quite well, I paid $99 dollars over 2 years ago and I believe now they can be had for around $60.

[Penguin]

Thanks for the great info.

What adbout D-Link modems and routers? Are they any good? That is what I was looking at in the Best Buy by my house.

Their cable modem is tested and approved by Comcast and it is one that has the Docsis capability. I think I will need a software firewall as weel, because my wife said her company mentioned that you have to have one to access their system.

Also I read that Broadband routers do not work well or at all with netmeeting. That is waht my wife uses now on our dial-up.

[ktkendall]

I was on a netmeeting conference not too long ago from here at home using My companies VPN softwaqre to connect to their network through my DSL connection which goes through my linksys router. I havn't heard anything bad about D-link, but like most anything out there don't just go for the bargain basement special cause as with most things you do get what you pay for...I've spent more money trying to save a buc on electronic stuff cause I end up with junk that doesn't work well or for very long then I end up going back a buying a higher quality item anyways and I would be further ahead if I had just spent a little more to begin with...

[Confused]

Hom many PC's do you have. If only one, you do not need a router. Just a NIC in your PC that will connect to the cable modem. Some with just one PC use USB to connect to the cable modem but I would advise against that.

So be sure that your cable modem has a ethernet connection.

If you have multiple PC's to connect then you need a router. Next question is where are they located? This will determine whether a wired or wireless would be best for you.

Do you have a printer that multiple PC's need to print to? Is it USB or parallel? Depending upon your print needs you might desire a router with a print server built in. (Last time I searched none of the routers with print server built in supported USB). So depending upon your printer and print needs you might need a router with built in print server or a regular router and get a seperate print server. Or you can leave the printer attached to one of the PC's.

So my advice is before you run off and buy that thing is to post back with some more info.
Chas

[Penguin]

I have two computers. One is in our small bedroom and the other is in the basement. They are about 50 to 75 feet apart.

I have a parallel port printer that I would like to share as well.

Here is what I was looking at:

Linksys - EtherFast cable/dsl Firewall router model BEFSX41

and

Linksys - Etherfast Cable modem model BEFCMU10.

Sorry I said D-Link before and that was what I was looking at somewhere else. I saw both of these at Best Buy for $79.99 each.

[Confused]

Linksys is a good brand. That is a wired model. So the cable will connect to it and then you will have two straight thru cable between the router and the two PC's. You indicate they are on different levels. Do you have cable running or is there easy access? Are you comfortable with pulling cable if there isn't any installed?

Easiest way to share the printer is leave it connected to one of the PC's. That will require that the PC be on any time the other PC wants to print. Not a big deal. I'm doing it currently. People with broadband access tend to leave the PC's on 24/7. If you don't want to do that then a print server would be in order.
Chas

[ceh4702]

I have the Linksys BEFSR41 Which is a Cable DSL Router with a NAT firewall. I have used it for over 1 year and it works great. I purchased it for about $49.00 from
www.amazon.com

However, the Linksys - EtherFast cable/dsl Firewall router model BEFSX41 is a bit better model. It is clearly described as a Firewall. It is also a VPN Endpoint and supports two VPN Tunnels. (VPN-Virtually Private Networking) I think the firewall lets you do stateful packet inspection whatever that is.

Make sure your router also has DMZ Hosting which allows you to place one computer on the Router which is not filtered in any way if you ever want to do that for a web server or something like that.

The Linksys router lets you operate as a Gateway attached to a Wide Area Netwrok or as a simple Router.

[doctorgonzo]

I have a Netgear RP614v2 4-port router that works very well. I got it for around $40.

[WalterK]

ZipZoomFly has LinkSys PCI NICs, model NE100TX, with a lifetime warranty for $23 each, and the NetGear RP614 router(3 year warranty), for $44.50 with a $10 rebate, free 2 day shipping.

[Penguin]

Thanks guys. I appreciate all the info. I think I have enough info to look around and make a decision.