More and more routers now include some ability to restrict network
traffic passing through them.  This is only the beginning of what an
actual firewall does, although for home use it may be sufficient.
  Most will also do NAT, in order to share a connection to the
Internet.  UNLESS you want to operate your own outside-accessible
server, this may be adequate defense against many common attacks --
the most obvious exception would be a trojan-infected email message.

  Routers suitable for home use run about $50-300.  Small firewall
appliances start at about $400, or there are freeware packages around
to turn a low-powered (486, pentium) PC running Linux or FreeBSD into
a firewall.  [I would not recommend that route unless you're willing
to spend time and effort mastering Linux or FreeBSD, and I
*definitely* would not run anything except the firewall software on a
PC in that role.]


  Sharing two separate Internet connections is complicated.  There
are two basic approaches:

1. Odds are good that all your inbound traffic will arrive over one
connection (unless you either have multiple public addresses or your
provider is helping out).  You can force all/some of your outbound
traffic to go via the other connection, but I'm not sure how
effective this is with cable.

2. Use a dynamic routing protocol such as OSPF; this will typically
require not only cooperation from your provider, but a "business
class" router in the $2K+ price range.

  You *may* have bitten off more than the NetGear can chew....

David Gillett
A+, MCSE, CCNA


On 29 May 2001, at 16:18, Changhsu P. Liu wrote:

> I just bought a router (NetGear 314 for $50 memorial sale price)
> yesterday. For me, I plan to use it to share 2 concurrent cable
> internet connections among 3 computers. Hub alone won't allow you
> to do that. Also, you can use router as a firewall from what I
> read.

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com