How bad is the Speedtouch modem?

I've got a couple of new unused USB Speedtouch modems as supplied by BT cluttering up my back
room. As it happens, I have a requirement for a plain ADSL modem to attach to a W2k3 server. I
was thinking about buying a PCI one, but perhaps I could use one of these?

The only thing is, I have an idea that they have a bad rep. So.. how bad are they? Should I buy
something else and just put these 2 on Ebay? Or straight in the skip?

Thanks in advance!

[snip]
Everyone seems to use them so that can't be all bad. They're also cheap
(look at eBay) so it may not be worth the hassle of you listing them!

The main reason people don't like them (and this is true of all USB ADSL
modems) is that many users connect their PCs directly to ADSL without
installing firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware software and then - bang, your
PC is infected before you even know what's hit you! An
ADSL/router/(optional) wireless access point allows the creation of a more
secure network if only because the routers can be preconfigured to block all
ports before you plug in the ADSL.

But not that you're warned, and can add all this to your PC _BEFORE_
installing the modem, you should be OK ;-).

Paul DS.

I would use a router and try selling the modems. <fx>I am sure the modems
are very usefull and someone really needs them. It's just not your style, is
it now? </fx>

Infant Newbie

"John Carlyle-Clarke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns9615745E68F5Ejohncceuroplacercouk@194.168. 222.122...
> I've got a couple of new unused USB Speedtouch modems as supplied by BT
> cluttering up my back
> room. As it happens, I have a requirement for a plain ADSL modem to
> attach to a W2k3 server. I
> was thinking about buying a PCI one, but perhaps I could use one of these?
>
> The only thing is, I have an idea that they have a bad rep. So.. how bad
> are they? Should I buy
> something else and just put these 2 on Ebay? Or straight in the skip?
>
> Thanks in advance!

"Paul D.Smith" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:42304032$0$10945$(E-Mail Removed). net:

> [snip]
> Everyone seems to use them so that can't be all bad. They're also
> cheap (look at eBay) so it may not be worth the hassle of you
> listing them!
>
> The main reason people don't like them (and this is true of all
> USB ADSL modems) is that many users connect their PCs directly to
> ADSL without installing firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware
> software and then - bang, your PC is infected before you even know
> what's hit you! An ADSL/router/(optional) wireless access point
> allows the creation of a more secure network if only because the
> routers can be preconfigured to block all ports before you plug in
> the ADSL.
>

In this case, the Windows 2003 server would be the firewall & router.
Network wide AV is installed already.

I do have an ADSL/router/802.11g box, but there is now a requirement
for external VPN access and this unit just won't do it. So I have two
choices: either buy a very expensive router with built-in VPN, or
connect the server straight to the ADSL. The second is much cheaper
The router will be relegated to wireless AP duties only.

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 12:40:16 -0000, "Paul D.Smith"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>[snip]
>Everyone seems to use them so that can't be all bad.

everyone uses them because they're the one a lot of ISPs give away
free.

>They're also cheap

this may be linked to a) the above and b) the quality !!

>The main reason people don't like them
(snip sensible stuff about security)

Well, its A reason. USB is also much less stable than ethernet, and
requires much more processor power & memory on your PC.

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:13:01 GMT, "John Carlyle-Clarke"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In this case, the Windows 2003 server would be the firewall & router.
>Network wide AV is installed already.

I'd pretty much disrecommend plugging a USB modem directly into a
server, unless you plan firewalling that server off from the rest of
your network.

>I have two
>choices: either buy a very expensive router with built-in VPN,

There /are/ some cheap routers around that do VPN. My £80 USR unit
claims to support it.

Mark McIntyre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:ado031t3r2kivrgkrlmfvb4rm4hige80r1
@4ax.com:

>USB is also much less stable than ethernet, and
> requires much more processor power & memory on your PC.

How does this compare to PCI modems?

Mark McIntyre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:itr031lnaccvqvut9cf15clg3pn1b3isi6@
4ax.com:

> I'd pretty much disrecommend plugging a USB modem directly into a
> server, unless you plan firewalling that server off from the rest of
> your network.

I assume you mean you disrecommend plugging _any_ modem directly... etc. ?

I see your point, but the MS SBS 2003 includes firewalling etc, and this is certainly one of the
recommended MS ways of setting it up.

I'm not sure if this is a case of MS preferring convenience over security .. but surely they've learned
their lesson?

I did ask around a little because what you said is the accepted wisdom - but most people I asked
said it was fine.

> There /are/ some cheap routers around that do VPN. My £80 USR unit
> claims to support it.

So does this 3Com, to some extent. Does your router actually support VPN termination, or just pass
it through? Does it support L2TP & IPSec, or just PPTP? Does it support multiple sessions, or just 1
(or some other arbitrary small number)?

It's when you get into these questions that you find the cheap home/SOHO units fall down because
they are just not made with this in mind, and you probably can't even get answers. That I suppose is
why 3Com home/SOHO units are 70 quid and their business units are 400 quid.

"John Carlyle-Clarke" (E-Mail Removed) wrote in message
news:Xns9615910CF89D8johncceuroplacercouk@194.168. 222.121
>
> I do have an ADSL/router/802.11g box, but there is now a requirement
> for external VPN access and this unit just won't do it. So I have two
> choices: either buy a very expensive router with built-in VPN, or
> connect the server straight to the ADSL.

Or option 3: configure your router to do VPN passthrough to the VPN server?

S'what I do so I can VPN to the kids PC to fix their games when I'm away
from home

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:51:14 GMT, "John Carlyle-Clarke"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I assume you mean you disrecommend plugging _any_ modem directly... etc. ?

yes!

>I see your point, but the MS SBS 2003 includes firewalling etc, and this is certainly one of the
>recommended MS ways of setting it up.
>
>I'm not sure if this is a case of MS preferring convenience over security .. but surely they've learned
>their lesson?

I suspect you can guess my opinion on that. Bearing in mind the vast
number of exploits found in various other s/w, and that MS aren't a
specialist firewall builder.

>Does your router actually support VPN termination, or just pass
>it through? Does it support L2TP & IPSec, or just PPTP? Does it support multiple sessions, or just 1
>(or some other arbitrary small number)?

VPN passthru, l2tp, pptp and IPSec.

>It's when you get into these questions that you find the cheap home/SOHO units fall down because
>they are just not made with this in mind, and you probably can't even get answers. That I suppose is
>why 3Com home/SOHO units are 70 quid and their business units are 400 quid.

If you've a dozen users, a 400 quid router is costing your company 11
quid per annum per user. This doesn't seem an unreasonable price to
pay for a much more secure system.