Roadrunner

[Frank J.Ramsay]

On Friday 25 May 2001 10:31 pm, Bill Horne wrote:
>
> > I currently use a Linksys router because I have up to 6 computers in the
> > house which
> > might be online at any one time (3 Linux, 3 Windows).
>
> What are the plusses and minuses of using Linksys instead of a Linux
> firewall?

Well I would say what is the advantage of running a full computer for a home 
firewall when this little box will handle everything that 90% of people need.

Pluses:
Really easy to configure (via your web browser).
Decent port forwarding.
It's also a switch, and not just a router with a built in hub.
Even though the manual says you can't, you can run DHCP on it at the same 
time as port forwarding (as long as the machine you are forwarding to has a 
static address.)

Minuses:
Not OSS (if that matters to you, it doesn't to me)
Not a do-it-yourself box, so if something goes wrong you have to send it in.
VPN's that encrypt the IP header can't pass through the box.

'nice to have but not nessisarily needed features':
The front panel lights tell you instantly what systems are on and what speed 
the network cards are running at.
Low power consumtion.
Very small, fits under my end table :)

fyi, here is a little perl script that grabs the IP address from the Linksys 
box so you can use dymanic IP with a domain register.

(don't forget to fill in the username and password you assign to the router)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
use strict;

my $user = "";     
my $pass = "";
my $html = `lynx -source http://192.168.1.1/Status.htm -auth=$user:$pass`;
my @tags = split(/[<|>]/, $html);
my $ipaddy = $tags[260];

print "IP address: $ipaddy\n";

-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).