[lug] More cable modem product Q's
D. Stimits
stimits at idcomm.com
Wed Jul 31 14:41:45 MDT 2002
So far it looks like several of the network cards people have mentioned
are available for a good price (3com is the exception, and that only
based on price, otherwise they sound like the choice product). I already
have a Linksys switch that I am happy with, and the Linksys NICs are
available everywhere, many of them below $20, so likely this will be the
choice for NICs.
Now for the cable modem gurus (or those with mild experience that do not
consider themselves gurus), I curious about another option. There are
dedicated cable modem router/firewall boxes for roughly $90 (one would
still need a cable modem) with 4 ports available, and capable of up to
253 machines if you use switches. I will have to drop by a store and
read the box, but does anyone know if these are typically limited by
working as a proxy, or if they work fine with every box involved having
its own DHCP address (I want real addresses to come in from outside with
on occasion)?
Probably that path will not be taken, due to lack of ability to play
with QoS and traffic shaping, but maybe I could live without that. The
really unfortunate thing is that I have not had a cable modem to play
around with, I have no idea what it's latency problems would be for
things like real time gaming while someone else is downloading web pages
at the same time. I have a fear of getting stuck with a dedicated cable
router, when I already have a cheap linux box sitting there with
bridging and ipchains and iptables ready. Plus, I have no idea how
flexible the firewalling really is in the dedicated router/firewall
boxes (the fact that one has a rebate that cuts the price down to about
2/3 is driving my desire to find out and consider it). Does anyone here
have cable modem access, and use it with any real time software,
including games, and if so, how does it work out if someone were to
download web pages at the same time?
D. Stimits, stimits AT idcomm.com
PS: My phone service only gets worse. Since the problems started, I have
never had over 37.3 kbps, before about a month ago, I never got below 48
kbps. Currently, all online games are useless (not that I should worry
about games, but heck, it keeps me out of trouble).
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