On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 20:39:08 -0500 (EST), John Francis wrote: > All the DSL/Cable Modem routers I've seen have everything behind the > "firewall", and use NAT to share a single IP address (which they know > how to accquire from your ISP). An additional switch is unnecessary.
The ones I've used in the last couple of years usually had everything behind the "firewall", but there were a bunch of models four or five years ago where the ports on the router each got DHCP addresses from the ISP, but the machines on the switch got theirs from the router. I never really figured out how it did that, since I don't think there was a special "downlink" port on the router so the switch was just hooked to another port, but it fouled up several networks for me when I let other people do installs. And I agree on the wireless thing and laptops, too. I just set up a network like that for my dad a couple of weeks ago and laptop with wireless networking ROCKS! Just make sure to set up the security on the wireless network. TTYL, DougF KG4LMZ
