Need a new router

[hat]

My Linksys WRT54GS mysteriously took a tablet of e-cyanide today and I need a new router. I was looking at the D-Link EBR-2310, but natrually, I trust the collective intelligence of TPU more than my own limited networking knowledge.





The features I'm looking for are:
*DMZ (ABSOLUTELY MUST have this, unless the router has no firewall)

*If the router has firewall, ability to DISABLE the firewall in router controls, as I may be getting another computer, and if I do, I need it to be wide-open as well as the pc I have now

*DNS support, like dyndns.com (another must)

*Cheap

*I would like to stay AWAY from wireless, as I have no use for it and it's a potential security hole (listen to me talk about security and disabling firewall at the same time )

 

[mrhuggles]

WRT54GL running openWRT + X-Wrt [whiterussian]

100% performance/stability, plus you have full control of *everything* it makes the idea of a firewall or anything like that very obsolete.

i cant imagine going back to anything else.

 

[hat]

I don't want a wireless router...

and that router costs a pretty penny

I just bought a bunch of PIII parts off a someone here. It will be a complete rig soon. I can stuff it full of network cards... need a software router that runs in windows

nat32?

 

[mrhuggles]

you can disable the wireless
and erm, how cheap are you looking for, in the 20 dollar range?

 

[mrhuggles]

not in windows, openWRT has an x86 release

uhh you can KIND of use windows as a router! ICS, internet connection shareing

just out a curiosity, what windows do you plan on using for that?

 

[hat]

oh lord nat32 is SWIMMING in bloat and it's WAY over my head to find my way out or even try to use it

Yeah, $20 would be great, but the cheapy routers on newegg drop packets, overheat, or just plain don't work out of the box (gotta use software... I would rather turn a computer into a monster router)

It needs to be in Windows because I want to host a Quake server on it as well, and run LogMeIn on it so I can get into it without boogering around with my monitor/keyboard/etc. It would be Windows XP Home.

crap. untangle was looking good until I saw it needs 1GB ram to operate properly... the p3 setup only has 192mb

 

[mrhuggles]

untangle? dude i just told you use ICS
itl work. window XP 32bit

WRT54GL should only be about 50 bux, but wtf man you got a good p3 box there, turn it into a router it'l be a lot of fun!

 

[hat]

Yeah... but internet connection sharing doesn't have security...

The only software routers I know of are Untangle, which I've read needs about 1GB RAM to function properly, and NAT32 which is... way, way over my head

 

[hat]

you know what, to hell with routers

I will use my P3 (when I get it) as a router with ICS and a joe-blow firewall like ZA

thx for your continued suggestions mrhuggles

 

[mrhuggles]

yeah, a software firewall combined with ICS is probably actually going to be better in the long run than ANY router security wise, and fun wise.

oh yeah and also a p3 will have enough CPU power that if you wanted to you could use deep packet inspection for some real security.

 

[hat]

I'll probably not have much in the way of security. The PIII will be running a quake server too so I can't get too involved in tight security

 

[hat]

Hey,

If I use this PC I have coming (P3 setup) to link other computers to the Internet with ICS, would I be able to use another computer (my gaming comp) to host a server that others can connect to?

 

[mrhuggles]

yes but just like a router you have to forward the port, forwarding ports in ics is weird, but not impossible, google how to do it.

 

[hat]

I want all the ports to be open...

 

[Disparia]

Are you sure you want to give away your address while openly admitting to having lax security?

You no longer have a quake server / router. Welcome to the botnet!

 

[newtekie1]

Hat, what you are trying to do(open all ports to multiple computers) is impossible. And port forwarding in ICS is a really pain in the ass, at least it was the last time I used ICS a few years ago.

I'm going to have to suggest the WRT54GL also, but with the Tomato firmware. It is just as stable as OpenWRT, but less complicated to set up, which I like.

And if you are talking about the original Quake, you don't need to open all the ports to host a server.

 

[hat]

doesn't look too bad
http://forum.portforward.com/YaBB.cgi?num=1134525903

I've had nothing but bad luck with routers, I'd rather just use my 2nd computer. It would always be on anyway. The only thing I'm doing is removing the router from the picture. Besides, I can forward as many slots of ports as I want in ICS, all the routers I've ever seen only do like 10 slots

So if I entered ports 1 through 65535 and set it to the IP of the PIII setup (host server) those ports would only be open for that pc?

 

[newtekie1]

The WRT54GL+Tomato will allow you to forward as many ports as you want.

And yes, if you did that those ports would only be open for the PIII PC. It is impossible to open the same port for more than one PC, it is networking law when dealing with NAT.

 

[hat]

man, thats... crap.

I understand that the same port can't be used more than once, but could I open all ports for my gaming pc and PIII (host) pc? This would be done because my gaming pc may host servers for... lets say BF2 for example, but the PIII host pc would always be hosting Quake servers, and an FTP server.

What if I just disabled the firewall?

 

[Disparia]

It wouldn't know where to go.

FTP for example, your router needs to know where to send incoming traffic, so port 21 needs to be forwarded to the computer hosting the ftp server.

Same goes for the game servers. Quake ports need to forward to the quake server and BF2 ports need to forward to BF2 server. And you don't even have to use the default ports, can even make them easy to remember like 20000 (first Quake Server), 20001 (second Quake server), and then a different range for BF2, 30000, 30001.

As long as your router (in whatever form it takes) forwards those ports to the correct machine and that machine is listening on those ports you should be fine, generally speaking. Some game servers may have quirks, some need more than one port open, etc.

 

[Pinchy]

Hmm the last time I used ICS in winxp, I could only use it to share ONE connection from ONE other connection.

I remeber trying to share the incoming wireless internet connection with two hardwire LAN connections (Wifi AP motherboard), but I could only set it up with one hardwire. Dunno if I was doing anything wrong because I only spent 10 mins setting it up, but it could be a limitation.

 

[newtekie1]

man, thats... crap.

I understand that the same port can't be used more than once, but could I open all ports for my gaming pc and PIII (host) pc? This would be done because my gaming pc may host servers for... lets say BF2 for example, but the PIII host pc would always be hosting Quake servers, and an FTP server.

What if I just disabled the firewall?

If you open all ports to your gaming PC and PIII, then all the ports would be in use twice...which is impossible.

And disabling the firewall doesn't really do anything, as you are still behind what is called a NAT firewall regardless.

Hmm the last time I used ICS in winxp, I could only use it to share ONE connection from ONE other connection.

I remeber trying to share the incoming wireless internet connection with two hardwire LAN connections (Wifi AP motherboard), but I could only set it up with one hardwire. Dunno if I was doing anything wrong because I only spent 10 mins setting it up, but it could be a limitation.

I believe you are right, that is a limitation of ICS, at least in XP, never tried it in Vista/Win7. However, if you have a switch then you can share it with multiple PCs.

 

[hat]

Well I guess I can manage with that...

 

[hat]

What's all this about the limitation now? I want to use it like this:

Modem to NIC1
NIC2 to my PC
NIC3 to mom's

 

[mrhuggles]

man you are just not getting it arrg! heh i think i can explain this....
an NAT works like this, a bunch of computers go to 1 computer[or router] and then the router supplies them with half of a connection, they can make outgoing connections, and then when they connect to a website or something, the data comes back and the router/computer will decide which computer to send the data to based on the outgoing connection

now if an incoming connection happens, like say someone wants to connect to you on port 21 [ftp] then it will come to that main computer/router that is on point, that computer can "forward" the connection to a specified computer, thats called port forwarding, it will forward ALL connections to port 21 to that specified computer it can only point port21 to 1 computer, being that it it would be impossible to tell which ppl on the internet were trying to get to which computer inside your network. it all looks the same just a connection on port 21.