4 Port SMC Router w/Print Server $49!!

[Jzero]

Ionizer--
You may need to figure out what port WeatherBug listens on and point it to your internal IP. And get your PC out of the DMZ, man! What good is a firewall if you put your computer on the DMZ?

 

[greenehorn]

Sparty-
I bought this during the Amazon deal, and am currently using it with only a dial-up connection. Cable should be available soon, and I figured this was a good time to grab this router. I have 3 machines sharing the connection, and the print server going as well. It is working like a champ. Of course, the modem has to be external, but the setup was easy and it does a great job of keeping me connected.

If you have a problem with losing connection, then you can set this to dial it back up automatically. Windows will do this as well, but you'll lose your DL. I've discovered that most DLs will just pause while the router redials, and then continue the DL. Guess it has something to do with keeping the same internal IP. Anyway, it's very nice.

BTW- Mine came with only one cable as well, as stated on the box. Also, the crossover cable works fine instead of an uplink port. No big deal.

Chexi- YGPM.

 

[Ender510]

My box said 2, then I only really got 1 cable - so it was kind of odd.

I asked this question before but got no answer. Maybe you guys can help? I am still waiting for my DSL to become active.. and I also made a linux box. I plan on installing Mandrake or Redhat (which one?) as the server. I also plan on having 2-3 client machines hooked up. Now, is this the correct assumptions - if I have this SMC router, I do NOT need 2 NIC Cards in the Linux box, correct?

Also, the DHCP server is basically the router, so the IP is assigned by the SMC router, right? Thus, what does the server do then? Does it serve as a firewall? Or just control the packets internal or doesn't the SMC router do that? I want to have all the client machines have internet access and also run a web server, ftp server, mail server, on the linux box. Can anyone provide answers to my questions. Thanks in advance...

 

[greenehorn]

Your assumptions are correct. This will act as a hardware NAT router, assigning each machine on your network an internal IP. It will keep the WAN IP, and act as a firewall. You can choose in the router's setup what ports you want to open and which you want to forward to a specific internal machine. You can have the linux box act as all the things you mention.

Also, since the router's admin utilities are all web-based, you can hit it from any box (windows or linux), by surfing to it's internal IP (192.168.123.253 is the default). You won't need two NICs in your linux box.

 

[Ionizer]

I put my pc in the DMZ zone so I wouldn't have to sit there and figure out each port forwarding... i mean how are you supposed to know the trigger for every port??

Besides, I don't really care about the firewall, i mean when I used to dialup, where was the firewall then? I'm not too concerned that someone is going to try to hack into some port of my machine, besides, it'snot like I have many open anyway.

 

[chexi]

Ionizer... you are under a grave misconception. Being on the DMZ means that EVERY port on that PC is open (unless you are running a software firewall).

If you aren't running a server, there shouldn't be much of a need to be on the DMZ. Nearly all programs, games, etc., don't need open ports to "play". I've never had to forward a port to my game machine. Running a game server is a different story.

You may need to forward a port or two for Voice over IP, or ICQ, but it's not that hard to find out which ones you need to open. Believe me, it's a lot better than having someone set up a warez server on your machine. I had my server scanned and a bunch of cracks and serials were uploaded to it, before I locked it down.

 

[Ionizer]

that would make my life easier if someone did that...
and how come when i test my computer w/ that SHIELDS UP from grc.com
it doesn't have any of my ports opened? says all stealth and sh|t, maybe the DMZ doesn't even really work? hehe

 

[chexi]

Sounds like you aren't really on the DMZ. Be sure that the internal IP address on the DMZ in the router utility matches the IP address of your computer.

 

[Graz]

egghead has the same deal with the same $50.00 rebate if you want to buy from them for some reason.

here

 

[Ender510]

<< Your assumptions are correct. This will act as a hardware NAT router, assigning each machine on your network an internal IP. It will keep the WAN IP, and act as a firewall. You can choose in the router's setup what ports you want to open and which you want to forward to a specific internal machine. You can have the linux box act as all the things you mention.

Also, since the router's admin utilities are all web-based, you can hit it from any box (windows or linux), by surfing to it's internal IP (192.168.123.253 is the default). You won't need two NICs in your linux box. >>



So, would I need to assign the linux box a static IP and the rest of the comps are DHCP, getting their IPS from the router? How can I prevent the linux box being assigned an IP by the router? I haven't gotten the router yet - so I just want to be ready once I get it.. thanks in advance everyone..

 

[greenehorn]

By default, the router will assign any number it wants to the boxes on the network. However, you can manually tell it you want your Linux box to have a specific internal one so that it won't change. That way, requests such as http will always be sent there.

 

[chexi]

I can't say for the SMC, but on my Maxgate, unless I reinstall the OS or something, once the router assigns a dynamic IP to a machine, it tends to keep that IP marked for that machine. Thus, even when I have Dynamic on for all my rigs, they always end up with the same IP they had last time, regardless of when I boot them up. I find this to be less problematic than assigning static IP's, at least in 98. Win2k doesn't seem to have any problems with static IPs.

 

[Athena]

<< Thus, even when I have Dynamic on for all my rigs, they always end up with the same IP they had last time, regardless of when I boot them up >>

That's generally true. You can always assign a static internal IP to a machine though. For a Windows machine you use WINIPCFG to release then IP then edit the protocol properties via the Networking control applet to assign a specific IP.

Not sure why you would want to do that though, the router assigned IPs should be fine.

 

[tigerbait]

For those of you who received the router, but only one Cat 5 cable, you can call SMC. They sent me another cable.

 

[Jzero]

Ionizer--if your PC is not in the DMZ and ShieldsUp says you're all-stealth, then you're good, but if you are in the DMZ, you're in a bad spot. Someone can easily dump Sub7 or some similar remote control program on your PC and use it to launch DDoS attacks. When an admin checks his log to see who is slagging his system, he finds YOUR IP...that's bad. When you were on dialup this wasn't as bad b/c you don't stay on long, your connection is too slow to send all that many packets, and your IP can change often.
If you are on a broadband connection, you're good meat b/c you have high bandwidth to launch ping/syn floods, AND even though you're DHCP, most users keep their connection live at all times and thus the IP doesn't change often.
The reason you can play (but not host) games without punching a hole is b/c the firewall drops ALL incoming traffic and allows ALL outbound traffic. However, if an incoming packet has a valid ACK header, meaning the stack believes that the packet is in response to one that it sent out, it will accept it. That's why AIM and UT and all work without any holes. Also, you might still want to consider using ZoneAlarm to restrict outbound packets from trojans, etc...it's an added layer of security if you're paranoid/careful enough...

Ender510--Alls you got to do is point each port to the appropriate IP of the linux box and the Firewall should handle it appropriately.

 

[Ionizer]

chexi:

of course it matches it
192.168.123.1
is what is my DMZ
and that is also what I statically set my ip to

 

[chexi]

That's really weird then. Shield's up should be going crazy when you run the test.

 

[RedBadger93]

<< that would make my life easier if someone did that...
and how come when i test my computer w/ that SHIELDS UP from grc.com
it doesn't have any of my ports opened? says all stealth and sh|t, maybe the DMZ doesn't even really work? hehe >>



Make sure you have the correct IP set for the DMZ computer. Also make sure you have the box checked to enable it. And make sure you go to the &quot;toolbox&quot; option and reboot the router there.

If that doesn't work, you must have some other software firewall loaded perhaps.