On Friday 12 April 2002 11:27 am, Scott Raun wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 11:06:09AM -0500, Erik Hanson wrote:
> > I have attbi and I like their service.  They do have a "Home
> > Networking" option that will allow you to get 3 total ip's for an
> > extra $10 a month (not fixed IPs) but that does not sound like
> > enough for her.
>
> How do they control that?  How do they limit 3 DHCP IP's to a
> household?  The only way I can think of is to limit them by MAC.

Yup.  It's possible to configure the cable modem to allow only N IPs, and 
some ISPs set N as 1 by default. 

>
> > If she does not want to build her own router, she will need to get
> > one of the off the shelf solutions from linksys or netgear or
> > whatever.
>
> Anyone care to pipe in with equipment recommendations?  Presumably a
> router with NAT & DHCP on one side, and capable of picking up a DHCP
> IP address on the other?  

Yup.  Lots of choices.

> An internal firewall on the device would be
> a plus.

I've heard good things about -- and own, but have never installed -- the 
bottom-of-the-line LinkSys Cable/DSL router, which is about $100.  The 
interface is web-based.

That said, I've also heard good things about smoothwall -- including how easy 
the setup is, although I've also heard some complaints about the people 
running the project -- and she can probably get an old 486 box perfectly 
capable of running it for about $100.  If she wants to play around with 
Linux, a minimal installation of pretty much any distro and pmfirewall (just 
to pick the example I'm most familiar with) would do just fine, too, and by 
using a virtual IP address on the gateway machine (Linux can run two IPs on 
the same NIC; Windows, I believe, can't), and the setup should be easy.  
(Famous last words, but I have install pmfirewall, and the text-only 
installation script is pretty straightforward.)  

Failing that, if she wants to go the Windows-only route, a 486+ Win98 (or 
later) box with two NICs, running Windows Internet Connection sharing -- and 
presumably running some firewall software -- should easily be able to keep up 
with a cable connection.  

The advantage to going with Windows on the gateway machine -- at least 
initially -- is the tech support.  If there's a problem with the connection, 
the tech support people will be able to walk her through diagnosis and 
debugging on a Windows machine, but not on anything else.