Hardware firewall

[gleasonjr]

Hi all,

I'm reading you guys often but this is my first post!
I'm planning to build a house and wire the thing all over.

I want the Internet connection "secured" by a firewall:
Internet <---> Firewall <---> Router <---> LAN

Should I buy a simple 100$ wired router that do both firewalling
and routing like the Netgear and Linksys ones found @ Future Shop?

-or-

Should I buy separate more pricey firewall/routers

My biggest needs: Low footprint of the firewall in terms of slowing things
down... and of course security.

My concerns: Are the small routers fast enough? My WRT54G wireless
router is pretty slow when I download stuff via torrents...

My needs: I don't really need today the VPN stuff...

Any hardware you recommend with your opinions!?


Thanks!

Mike

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Todays current generation of routers are usually more than fast enough to handle todays faster internet connections.....you can refer to Tims router performance charts here..
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/

Select a model that's faster than your current internet connection..and allow some room for speed improvements by your ISP over the next couple of years.

Routers perform basic firewall duties...so your router is your firewall.

Internet/Broadband modem ==> Router ==> LAN

Note that many ISPs (especially DSL and many fiber) now ship "modems" which are combo modem/routers...so they're already doing the NAT for you. In which case if you want to use your own router, you should reconfigure the ISP shipped device to pure bridged mode....else you'll be double NAT'ing. But in some cases the ISP supplied unit is quite adequate for most peoples home needs (such as the Actiontec units Verizon ships for their fiber service). Although, since you mention torrents, it's not good for that. So you'll want to look at Tims charts for the concurrent connection stats...for better torrent performance. Or better yet, if you feel a little adventurous, look into some of the *nix router distros.

 

[valentin]

Hi all,
...
My concerns: Are the small routers fast enough? My WRT54G wireless
router is pretty slow when I download stuff via torrents...

Do you download the torrents over a wireless link? If yes, any router would be slow for you because the wireless connection is slow.

I also use WRT54G for torrents, and it is working very well for me. On wired connection the speed is 40Mbit/sec, which is the speed of the internet connection.
________
Mercedes-Benz Tn History

 

[gleasonjr]

First of all, thank you guys for your input...

I thought the slowdowns were because of the Linksys router. A couple of years before, I installed a FreeBSD router/firewall on an old computer and it was blazing fast (but in wired mode). I didn't realize this time that it might be the wireless part that slow things down.

I'll think I'll go for the "D-Link DGL-4100" because of the reviews on newegg. I'll install the wired network on a switch, with the wired router on it.

I'll install my wireless router in bridged mode and it will route inet to the wired one...

What do you think of this setup?

* Cable Modem <--> Wired Router <--> Switch <--> Wired Clients
* Switch <--> Wireless AP <--> Wireless Clients

Thanks again guys, I won't go into the entry business thingy!

Mike

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

F
* Cable Modem <--> Wired Router <--> Switch <--> Wired Clients
* Switch <--> Wireless AP <--> Wireless Clients

Yup should be dandy.

 

[tipstir]

Hi all,

I'm reading you guys often but this is my first post!
I'm planning to build a house and wire the thing all over.

I want the Internet connection "secured" by a firewall:
Internet <---> Firewall <---> Router <---> LAN

Should I buy a simple 100$ wired router that do both firewalling
and routing like the Netgear and Linksys ones found @ Future Shop?

-or-

Should I buy separate more pricey firewall/routers

My biggest needs: Low footprint of the firewall in terms of slowing things
down... and of course security.

My concerns: Are the small routers fast enough? My WRT54G wireless
router is pretty slow when I download stuff via torrents...

My needs: I don't really need today the VPN stuff...

Any hardware you recommend with your opinions!?


Thanks!

Mike

Mike,

Let's put it this way DLINK DIR-655 is faster, I can get 3.8MB/s down which is so far the best I've got on BT side. VPN can be disable in the router, free up some addition RAM. I turn off logs also. Everyone going to have a different idea or method using their Wireless N Gigabyte Router witch is what the DIR-655 is. Then the DIR-825 is another one dual band for Wireless N and has 350MHz CPU ad the DIR-655 CPU is 275MHz. Then if you really want to push that limit you can get Trendnet TEW-652BPR Wireless N Router it doesn't have Gigabyte ports but it has 400MHz CPU and 32MB of RAM. I own this one and use is NAP2 (Wireless N Access Point II) I also tested some BT welling using Aires on it I was supprise how quick it was. I get 150Mbps in link speed showing excellent connection. I got this router to use with DD-WRT but that's not ready yet so OpenWRT would be the next bet. Right now it's quick.

Looks like this..
http://pic19.picturetrail.com/VOL1099/4465559/21344768/350675537.jpg

 

[gleasonjr]

Wired/Wireless

Hi and thank you for your opinions on the wireless part...

Looking back a couple of years, things didn't changed much in the wired world. That's why I want something wired, fast and stable.

I want the wireless to attach on the rest of the network so it can also be removed or changed easily. Now we're draft n, and I don't know what the future holds for n and post n wireless...

So that's good considerations to the wireless part of the network but I'll stay with Wireless G for a moment.

That way, I would be able to attach any new wireless AP without taking down the whole (but still small) network!

Thanks