Tom's Hardware > Forum > General Networking > General Gateways, Routers and Firewalls > Router for LAN and ethernet-connected broadband
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linnet   02-27-2006 at 02:30:34 AM

Networking newbie here. I want to set up a network which connects a Linux PC to two laptops (one running Mac OS X, one running BSD) physically close to each other, but distant (~100m) from the Linux PC. I also want to connect to a cat5 ethernet cable which is our access to the internet.

I thought it should be done like this: plug cat5 cable into router, plug Linux PC into router, plug long ethernet cable into router, with a cheap ethernet hub at the end, and a cable going from that to each of the laptops.

What sort of router do I need? It has to be cheap. It doesn't need to be fast (internet connection is only 1Mib/s).

Question on routers in general: they come with all sorts of smiley language advertising what they can do. What software do they actually run? How secure are their firewalls? Can I replace it all with BSD and ipfw, or is that unnecessary, can I trust the stuff they come preinstalled with?

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lizzardking   02-28-2006 at 01:53:40 AM
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Hi, a couple of questions at first.
So the Linux PC is around 100m away from the other 2 machines?
If this is so you might have a problem. Cat 5 cables only reach to a theoretical length of around 90m - 100m. With out packets being lost etc.
You might need to put the router in a central location and run long cables to the machines, 50m cable from each pc to the router.

Also you can pick up all sorts of cheap routers now, perfect for what your wishing to do. Check out companies like netgear, linksys and dlink.
Everyone has there preferences, and i'm not sure of there compatibility, but i'm sure other people of the forums are able to answer, or just check out there websites.

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linnet   03-01-2006 at 06:29:22 PM
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I've just measured the distance - 84 metres, so I don't think that would be a problem. There isn't a central location for the router to go.

Um, how do I set up a home network and the internet network over the one set of cables?

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blue68f100   03-02-2006 at 01:31:12 AM
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Any good router will work. Execpt Belkin, their's too cheap and not reliable.

If you are concern about the firewalls, get one with SPI. It is suppose to be better than the standard NAT.

I was concern, when I setup, so I ran both. After 9 mo and no log activity (set to report all), I concluded I no longer needed the Software Firewall. So I un-installed the software firewall, to free up system resources.

I don't think the distance is a problem, Use 5e cable, it should be good for a 1000ft, approx 330 m, better for long runs.

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linnet   03-02-2006 at 02:22:40 AM
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Do you know what software the routers actually run... some sort of rudimentary OS proprietary to the manufacturer of the router?

The routers on eBay seem to be mainly D-Link or Linksys - do you have a preference?

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blue68f100   03-02-2006 at 03:08:43 AM
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Most run on a propitity software. Imbedded processors. Locked. Some of the early Linksys v2 &3 used an unix based, An could be reflash with share where. My x-Boss likes D-link he says there easier to setup. I use USR5450 AP, SMC Router (8 port) . Have setup Linksys, USR, and SMC on friends and neighbors. SMC had the best warranty, Lifetime. Where most others are 2-3 yrs.

If you are looking at building your own Firewall, there are some unix based setup, pre package CD's. Toms Network did a review on a couple with in the last couple of months. You are looking at full control, you will need to go that way. Or with one of the Unix flavors NetBSD, FreeBSD, ...

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