I just got back from setting up an SMC Barricade for a friend.  It acts as a
4-port 10/100 switch perfectly without anything hooked up to the outside WAN
port.  The advanced features look a bit intimidating, but basic setup was
easy.

However, we encountered a known bug between the AT&T-supplied 3Com "Home"
cable modem and the SMC box where they continually re-negotiate Ethernet
speed and duplex over the cross-over cable.  This caused severe packet loss.
We worked around it by throwing a cheap little Linksys hub in-between them.
SMC is working on a fix.

--
Carl Patten

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl & Paula Zeilon" <PCZeilon at att.net>
To: <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 11:58 AM
Subject: [TCLUG] Network Switch (network newbie)


> I'm shopping for a switch for my home network.  I previously have been
> running only two machines with a crossover cable.  Now I want to run
> three.  I have only dialup service now, but Charter cable is
> available.  Can I buy a 4 port router & use it as a simple switch until
I'm
> ready to get cable service?  I've been looking at Linksys & SMC 4 port
> routers.  It seems people in this group either love or hate Linksys.  The
> SMC includes a print server, VPN support, etc. for only a few bucks more
> than the Linksys.  Any opinions?
>
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