Multi-port router or router plus hub?

Hi,

I am having Home500 installed this week and need to make a choice of
router. I currently have an 8-port hub and want to hook up 3 or 4 PCs.
Do I need a multi (say 4 or 8) port router or can I use a single-port
router and plug my hub into that?

I would also like an easily-configurable firewall in the router.

Pros and cons and advice much appreciated.

Thanks

O.C.

On 23 Jul 2003 04:24:59 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Old Codger)
wrote:

>I am having Home500 installed this week and need to make a choice of
>router. I currently have an 8-port hub and want to hook up 3 or 4 PCs.
>Do I need a multi (say 4 or 8) port router or can I use a single-port
>router and plug my hub into that?
>
You can get a single port router and plug the hub into it, but if you
can get a router with an inbuilt 4 port switch for not much more I
would go for that. Hubs are badly showing their age these days.

Andrew.

A firewall should stop incoming connections that are not authorised and let
outgoing connections - some have content filtering that stops outgoing
/incoming but that is a different service.

Peter Morgan - 0870 432 9631 wrote:
> On 23 Jul 2003 04:24 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Old Codger)
> wrote:
>
>> Do I need a multi (say 4 or 8) port router or can I use a single-port
>> router and plug my hub into that?
>
>> I would also like an easily-configurable firewall in the router.
>
> I've not seen any 8-port units with built-in ADSL modems, but there
> are quite a few 4-ports around. The Netgear DG814 has some features
> to stop access to sites - depends a lot on what your expectations for
> firewalls are, IMO. I have some 8-port hubs here, which are limited
> to 10 Mbps (fine for the older kit with coax connections :-) but for
> newer PCs, 100 Mbps is common (and handy for PC-PC file transfers) so
> I'd say "spend the extra tenner" and get a 4-port model if there's a
> choice!

Peter Morgan - 0870 432 9631 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed) a.net>...
> On 23 Jul 2003 04:24 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Old Codger) wrote:
>
> >Do I need a multi (say 4 or 8) port router or can I use a single-port
> >router and plug my hub into that?
>
> >I would also like an easily-configurable firewall in the router.
>
> I've not seen any 8-port units with built-in ADSL modems, but there are
> quite a few 4-ports around. The Netgear DG814 has some features to stop
> access to sites - depends a lot on what your expectations for firewalls
> are, IMO. I have some 8-port hubs here, which are limited to 10 Mbps
> (fine for the older kit with coax connections :-) but for newer PCs,
> 100 Mbps is common (and handy for PC-PC file transfers) so I'd say
> "spend the extra tenner" and get a 4-port model if there's a choice!

Thanks - I'll check that one out.

"Keith Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<bfn0h0$s59$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> A firewall should stop incoming connections that are not authorised and let
> outgoing connections - some have content filtering that stops outgoing
> /incoming but that is a different service.
>

It might be useful to have a 4-port router which can apply different
firewall settings to each of the 4 ports. Is that possible within one
router?

(E-Mail Removed) (Old Codger) wrote:

> "Keith Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:<bfn0h0$s59$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> > A firewall should stop incoming connections that are not authorised and
let
> > outgoing connections - some have content filtering that stops outgoing
> > /incoming but that is a different service.
> >
>
> It might be useful to have a 4-port router which can apply different
> firewall settings to each of the 4 ports. Is that possible within one
> router?
>

Hi,
I've never seen this facility in a router, but the ones with firewalls
can usually filter on IP address, so if you use fixed addresses internally,
you can effectively achieve the same thing. One router that can do this
sort of thing is the speedtouch 510v4, but unfortunately, the firewall has
to be configured from the command line, and the syntax is a pain to get used
to, so it's not that easy to configure.

--

Martin

I think that the features that you are looking for are going to available
only in the top end equipment - most firewalls assume that you will have
three networks at most the untrusted network ie Internet, trusted internal
network that you would put your machines on and DMZ (Demilatrised zone)
where you put servers that can be accessed from the untrusted network as
well as your internal network - a business webserver. The computers in the
DMZ cannot access the machines in the internal network. If a computer in the
DMZ is hacked then they cant reach the other machines.

The setup you are looking for is a more specialised setup. You could make
your own machine to do this with four seperate network cards and configure
the software yourself - lots of work and fun.

Most of the shelf routers that have four ports are just a router with four
port switch all in one unit. Some router just have one port that you have to
wire to a seperate switch to get more ports.

The only way that you might be able to do this is port forwarding where a
request to a web page goes to a particular machine - with other services
going to seperate machines.

Martin Cooper wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) (Old Codger) wrote:
>
>> "Keith Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:<bfn0h0$s59$(E-Mail Removed)>...
>>> A firewall should stop incoming connections that are not authorised
>>> and let outgoing connections - some have content filtering that
>>> stops outgoing /incoming but that is a different service.
>>>
>>
>> It might be useful to have a 4-port router which can apply different
>> firewall settings to each of the 4 ports. Is that possible within one
>> router?
>>
>
> Hi,
> I've never seen this facility in a router, but the ones with
> firewalls can usually filter on IP address, so if you use fixed
> addresses internally, you can effectively achieve the same thing.
> One router that can do this sort of thing is the speedtouch 510v4,
> but unfortunately, the firewall has to be configured from the command
> line, and the syntax is a pain to get used to, so it's not that easy
> to configure.

"Keith Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<bfsbnl$k8$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> I think that the features that you are looking for are going to available
> only in the top end equipment - most firewalls assume that you will have
> three networks at most the untrusted network ie Internet, trusted internal
> network that you would put your machines on and DMZ (Demilatrised zone)
> where you put servers that can be accessed from the untrusted network as
> well as your internal network - a business webserver. The computers in the
> DMZ cannot access the machines in the internal network. If a computer in the
> DMZ is hacked then they cant reach the other machines.
>
> The setup you are looking for is a more specialised setup. You could make
> your own machine to do this with four seperate network cards and configure
> the software yourself - lots of work and fun.
>
> Most of the shelf routers that have four ports are just a router with four
> port switch all in one unit. Some router just have one port that you have to
> wire to a seperate switch to get more ports.
>
> The only way that you might be able to do this is port forwarding where a
> request to a web page goes to a particular machine - with other services
> going to seperate machines.
>
> Martin Cooper wrote:
> > (E-Mail Removed) (Old Codger) wrote:
> >
> >> "Keith Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:<bfn0h0$s59$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> >>> A firewall should stop incoming connections that are not authorised
> >>> and let outgoing connections - some have content filtering that
> >>> stops outgoing /incoming but that is a different service.
> >>>
> >>
> >> It might be useful to have a 4-port router which can apply different
> >> firewall settings to each of the 4 ports. Is that possible within one
> >> router?
> >>
> >
> > Hi,
> > I've never seen this facility in a router, but the ones with
> > firewalls can usually filter on IP address, so if you use fixed
> > addresses internally, you can effectively achieve the same thing.
> > One router that can do this sort of thing is the speedtouch 510v4,
> > but unfortunately, the firewall has to be configured from the command
> > line, and the syntax is a pain to get used to, so it's not that easy
> > to configure.

Thanks everyone. I have just ordered a NetGear DG824M.

O.C.