On 1 Sep 2005 at 9:15, Dean Kukral wrote:

> I would like the router to have the following three features, if possible, in decreasing order of
> importance.
>
> 1) Provide 1.5MB/sec transfer speed

  Your new service is in the form of an Ethernet connection.  Ethernet comes
in three common flavours:  10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1000Mbps (1Gbps).  Even the
slowest of these should handle 1.5Mbps just fine.

> 2) Provide as secure a connection (firewall?) as is reasonable for the cost

  Most external-origin traffic will be thwarted by the router's NAT feature,
which you will be using to share the connection.  Most internal-origin
traffic is better policed by a software firewall, which is in a position to
determine which program is trying to send.  So while you can get devices in
this class with firewall features, it's not going to make much difference
which one you choose.

> 3) Permit interconnection between our two computers

  Many small home routers incorporate a 4-port switch to allow local
machines to communicate with each other.

NOTE:
  In your current sharing configuration, your machine is acting as a DHCP
server to provide your wife's machine with an address.  I recommend that you
disable this function on your machine, enable it on the router, and
configure your machine to "get an address automatically" so it becomes
another DHCP client.

> The tech I just spoke with recommended LinkSys.  Also Consumer Reports
> said to get wireless ("only costs a few dollars more").  I suppose that
> wireless would be ok, if it would not compromise my three criteria
> stated above.

  I rate LinkSys, NetGear and D-Link all about equal, but Cisco has bought
LinkSys and that may pull them ahead.

David Gillett

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