On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 12:53, Brian Parish wrote: > I'm also at your end of the world - Melbourne to be a little more specific. > As Lanman said, anything with an ethernet connection will cause you no > grief, but perhaps it's a good move to first check what you want to do with > it. i.e. If this is just a desktop using the internet, then it would make > sense to use a modem/router, so you have a degree of firewall protection > built right in and can plug in additional machine directly with a minimum > of hassle. If your main purpose is to have the attached machine run as a > server, then a straight modem running it's own firewall might be more > appropriate. > > HTH > Brian
Hi guys, Another Melbourne user here, sweating away in the 35 degrees heat (That's celsius, for you USians currently recovering from over-indulgence on turkey and cranberry sauce :-) Just to reinforce what everyone is saying, an ethernet modem is basically a network server in it's own right. It has it's own DHCP server to dish out an IP adress to any machine that connets to it via ethernet regardless of OS, and takes care of all the ADSL/PPP-OE/whatever on the other side without your machine needing to know about it. You do all the configuration for your provider on the modem and not your machine. On your machine, you just set up a network connection to a LAN on eth0 in the MCC and it just works :-) Just make sure that whatever modem you pick is able to configured via a web browser and not via a windows program, and uses javascript, not ActiveX, usually if the label says config via Netscape and not just IE you should be fine. Virtually anything built in the last year should be OK, seeing how most of them now run some version of BSD or Linux and so are very cross-platform oriented and FOSS friendly. I'm currently connected to Ozemail with the very basic Dlink DSL-302G dual ethernet/usb modem, the second cheapest modem on the market, and it's worked perfectly for the last year or so. Originally connected direct to my laptop, it's now wired to a wireless router to give me more freedom (like right now sitting on the balcony trying to catch a breeze to cool down :-) You can buy the 302G most places for about A$130, but if you buy the Ozemail starter-kit for A$100, it has one in the box as well as a line filter, and no compulsion to join Ozemail. You can also find them online for as little as $90. Another option I know works is the Linksys WAG54G combined modem and wireless router which I set-up for my parents. It's about $220 to $250 and a very nice piece of kit. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend getting an ADSL router with built-in SPI firewall for that extra security, and save you having to mess with shorewall on you own box. It also gives you future options for adding more machines to your local net. Wired-only ADSL routers weigh in at about $150 to $200, so reallly are a bargin for what you get. Oh, and just a plug for Ozemail as provider: no minimum contract! Cheers! John.
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