The router will effectively act as your presence on the Internet, your pc will be hidden behind it - and subject to the features you have installed on the router, it can provide firewall, port forwarding, and various other facilities to protect your machine and allow certain services through (such as http, smtp, ftp, ssh etc). After initial configuration, the router can just be switched on and it will get itself online and be quite happy.
Using the ADSL modem would mean that your pc would have to initiate the connection whenever you wanted to use the internet - meaning configuration on both windows and linux. You would also have to ensure that your pc has sufficient protection in the form of a firewall. Some members may argue that you would be best installing a firewall even though you may have a router as an added degree of security. Generally ADSL Routers are ADSL modems with the extra technology built in to allow routing of traffic and the other services that it may provide, so you really need just one or the other. A static IP address historically was useful if you wished to host services on your own system, such as mail and http. However, with the advent of dynamic update services its not really necessary. I have a domain name pointed at my ntl cable modem connection, however, this was achieved with a no-ip updating service, this cost $25 for a year and creates DNS records and MX records for my domain to allow me to exist on the Internet as a real domain. Obviously reverse lookups don't work, but I'm not that bothered about that. Also, requesting a static IP can usually incur an extra charge depending on the provider. HTH Darren -----Original Message----- From: Phil Deane [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 25 September 2003 22:03 To: ScotLUG Subject: [Scottish] Broadband: Made my Trigger Hi Folks I have made my trigger finally, and now can start to plan what kind of connection I want. I am wanting a 1MB connection if i can get it, I have 1 primary PC, which dual boots, well she reboots into windows and i reboot into mandrake, does that count? :-) My 6 year old twins have a pc as well, but I dont think I want to hook that up to the net yet, maybe an option in the future, but for the purposes of your advice, I just want to consider the dual booting pc. People have advised to get a router, but I am not sure what the difference between a router and an adsl modem are? Do I need both? I have tried searching the web but all i come across are sales sites, and of course they are going to say they are great. I also heard data stream, is better than ip-stream, but again not sure why. Do I want a static Ip address? Sounds good, but on dialup I have never had one, so I dont know if one would benefit me Any advice and recommendations greatly appreciated. -- Phil Deane http://www.MiracleExpress.force9.co.uk _______________________________________________ Scottish mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish This e-mail and any attachments may be confidential or legally privileged. If you received this message in error or are not the intended recipient, you should destroy the e-mail message and any attachments or copies, and you are prohibited from retaining, distributing, disclosing or using any information contained herein. Please inform us of the erroneous delivery by return e-mail. Thank you for your co-operation. Mercer Human Resource Consulting Limited is regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the General Insurance Standards Council. Registered in England No. 984275. Registered Office: Telford House, 14 Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NB _______________________________________________ Scottish mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish