network/router question

[airis2001]

My roommates and i are getting dsl in a week or 2 and are going to share in on a network. One of them has a linksys EZXS55W - EtherFast 10/100 5-port Auto-Sensing Switch and seems to be very convinced that it is a router. I went to a staples today and saw the box for it and it said something about sharing an internet connection over it but nothing about being a router, I assume this means that they ment sharing using windows connectioin sharing or something. Who is right here? Is it a router or can it be made to work like one by simply plugging in the dsl modem to the uplink port (what would happen if i did that?) or am i right ans it is a switch, and we need to get a seperate router, use a pc to share the connection, or buy a router/switch? I am looking at teh linksys befsr41- is that any good? if not what would be a good one to get? I can get the befsr41 for 80 at microcenter now.
BTWE, what is an uplink? teh EZXS55W - EtherFast 10/100 5-port Auto-Sensing Switch has a port labled uplink and i have a netgear 10mb 4 port hub with a button on it for normal/uplink. what does that do?
Thanks Ari

 

[Hard_Boiled]

Your friend is wrong, this switch will not do routing. I'm pretty sure of that. You'll need to either run some sort of internet sharing software or buy a router. Since you already have a nice switch, I would just run Windows ICS and save some money.

In that situation the computer hooked up to the DSL would have to be on for the other computers to get internet access.

Uplink ports are for connecting switches to other switches.

 

[airis2001]

Thanks, thats what i thouhgt, The problam with using ICS is that we have 2 xp machines, 1 me machine and 2 macs, i tink one running os x and one os 9, not sure on teh mac os's. we also have a 2 other laptops that will be hooked up at times, what ICs should we use?

 

[Hard_Boiled]

If you have mac's in this equation then I would definitely recommend a router. You'll either have to purchase special software or a router to get internet sharing to work with windows and Mac OS.

I helped my boss setup his home network with an Imac and an old Windows machine, bought a router for him and had it working in no time.