wired routers
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Linksys BEFSR81 Cable dsl Router with 8-PT Switch The following report compares gadgets using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
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POPULAR HAT - 2006-02-13 11:30:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.hat.net () | sitemap | top |
Today, I share my ISP connection between home PC and work laptop computers {via a VPN tunneling product). I expect to have additional home computers in the future. I am confident that I'll be able to safely (securely) share printers and files between them.
I particularly liked BEFSR81's ability to configure the WAN port hardware address. This allowed using the home PC hardware address. If needed, this allows easy trouble shooting. I can remove easily remove the Linksys router and test the ISP connection with the home PC. If you do this, I recommend providing the original Linksys hardware address to the ISP in case the programming is removed. I did (no sense jeopardizing your relationship with ISP)!
The documentation was good, except around setting the hardware address. It is clear what to do to the Linksys router, but completely lacking in information about how to determine your computer's hardware address. For MicroSoft operating systems use either winipcfg for Win98 and ipconfig for NT or Win2000.
My last learning of interest, concerns accessing the router after you connect with the ISP. My ISP configured a proxy script on the home PC. I wasn't able to access router until I disabled the script (easily checked on/off in Tools/Internet Connection/LAN settings). This demonstrates the security functionality! The router's LAN address is on your private network. The Linksys router is a firewall between it and the public network containing the proxy server.