On Wed, Oct 30, 2002 at 11:15:15AM +0000, Simon Wistow wrote: > Managed services come with (usually a cheap USB) modem and cost a little > per month. The advantages are that if the modem breaks then you get a > replacement plus they set everything up for you. The disadvantages are > that the modems tend to be crappy and it will end up costing more in the > long run.
You will always have a choice between a USB piece of shit and a proper ethernet piece of shit. The ethernet piece of shit is less shitty, because, errm, it's ethernet and you don't have to do driver voodoo. > The alternative is to get a wires only option. This will turn on the > service for you but you'll have buy your own DSL modem. Many people > recommend the D-Link 504 which is a combination router with 4 port > switch and comprehensive web, shell (through serial access) and > application (windows only) configuration. It's a good balance between > features and cost and can be picked up for about 90 quid from Dabs, Scan > and Amazon.co.uk (where I got mine from). If buying your DSL modem on line, make sure it does PPPoA - many designed for the US market only do PPPoE, which is bad and wrong. No, it's not, it's nowhere near as bad and wrong as PPPoA, but BT use PPPoA so you have no choice in the matter. The reason? Errm, BT sunk a shitload of money into ATM and are trying to find ways to use it. > An alternative to DSL is the much cheaper cable services like > Blueyonder (http://info.blueyonder.co.uk/publish/index.html). These > often come as part of a telvision of phoen package from the same company > and represent very good value. Allegedgly they are faster (on paper) > than DSL although anecdotal evidence suggests other wise. These are > almost always managed services. It should be noted that cablecos are incompetent at the best of times and struggle to provide something as simple as POTS reliably. I don't trust them to run something as complex as my IP service. IIRC cablecos require that you use Windows - at least whilst they're installing your connection - and I don't *think* they provide static IP or let you run your own services. DSL providers do (but check the contract, they may want more money if you run your own services). > Once you've selected your broadband provider you'll want to connect the > rest of your computers up (you do have more than one, don't you?). > > Whilst you can just plug everythign straight into the modem this could > be considered harmful even if the modem does have firewalling > capabilities. For about 30 pound you can build yourself a computer > capable of running a firewall (go for the lowest spec possible, you > don't even need a harddrive if you can boot from a CDRom or a floppy). Eh-hem. Logging? Sure, you could use a seperate log-host but how many people do *that* at home? My new firewall box has a 2Gb drive dedicated to logs and for storing data from tcpdump when I need to debug stuff. I recommend <http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk> for cheap PCs. You'll still need to buy network cards, but seeing that "broadband" isn't really that fast, ISA 10bT cards will be more than enough. > Then run something like IPCop (http://ipcop.org/) or Smoothwall Or a mini-Slack, or Debian, or OpenBSD - hell, any Freenix. -- David Cantrell | Reprobate | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david The voices said it's a good day to clean my weapons
