I'm contemplating purchasing this little device, but I am curious if anyone here has any advice on other products or even if it will suit my needs at all. I believe it will. Let me describe what I would like to do.
I work at the University of Utah and one of the perks of my job is that they pay for my DSL connection. The only caveat is that it must be through their internal ISP, that is, the department on campus that runs our telephone and network systems. Unfortunately, their QOS leaves much desired. Their single line to the Internet (however 'big' enough) isn't very assuring to me. I was spoiled by my old ISP as far as reliability and competence is concerned. I have had a few experiences with "Netcom" (the campus department) that don't make me feel very safe in their hands. As such, I am seriously contemplating the need and desire of a 'backup' or secondary broadband connection, even if I pay for it. I am considering cable for this service (AT&T). I would probably opt for another DSL line on my second phone line to another ISP, however if I'm going to have multiple connections, I might as well 'try' and make them as geographically seperate as possible. At least this way (hopefully) if the physical phone line is damaged in some way, I wouldn't lose BOTH connections.
So my first requirement is that the device supports 2 WAN connections, specifically DSL and cable. From my research the 200R does this... Comments? It also has a auto-dial external modem backup method that I would probably utilize since it wouldn't be very expensive at all (the cost of a modem).
The second issue involves personal circumstances. My house is in close proximity to my parents house. They currently have DSL as well and pay the monthly fee for it. I think it's rather stupid for both of us to have connections and have been thinking of a method to share them, without running Cat-5 between the homes if at all possible 😉 I have come to hope a simple WAP would do the trick, perhaps the Linksys model, although I haven't decided for sure yet... We're close enough that distance isn't an issue... Here IS my issue however. WEP is fairly shotty IMO. I don't trust it very much and am extremely timid about implementing it at all. It was a required evil I was going to shut up and swallow until I found this device. From my understanding, it would be entirely possible to utilize the VPN functionality of the 200R to provide the data security that WEP attempts to provide. As such, I could use NO encryption at the wireless level and leave it to the 200R to process via VPN. Am I correct in assuming this?
There are a few other things I would actually like to do, but I think if these issues are resolved it shouldn't be too difficult to implement the rest (getting my grandmother who lives about 2 miles away connected is also a goal 😉) sometime in the future. Thanks for your responses, I have personally found the 200R to be a fascinating product, especially given its price. Cheers!
Some additional general questions:
1) Does anyone know if I can hard code specific non-routable IP's to specific layer-2 addresses with the 200R? For instance, even though I'll be doing all of this through VPN, I'd still like to be able and maintain a table of MAC addresses that map to specific IP's (static non-routed IP's assigned via DHCP). It would add another level of security (however needless) that would make me feel better about doing this.
2) I have read that the firewall will actually filter content at the application level. Does anyone know if this should be taken as "program" or filetype? For instance, I might want to restrict access to certain filetypes (mp3, etc...) and am curious if this device would do this...
I work at the University of Utah and one of the perks of my job is that they pay for my DSL connection. The only caveat is that it must be through their internal ISP, that is, the department on campus that runs our telephone and network systems. Unfortunately, their QOS leaves much desired. Their single line to the Internet (however 'big' enough) isn't very assuring to me. I was spoiled by my old ISP as far as reliability and competence is concerned. I have had a few experiences with "Netcom" (the campus department) that don't make me feel very safe in their hands. As such, I am seriously contemplating the need and desire of a 'backup' or secondary broadband connection, even if I pay for it. I am considering cable for this service (AT&T). I would probably opt for another DSL line on my second phone line to another ISP, however if I'm going to have multiple connections, I might as well 'try' and make them as geographically seperate as possible. At least this way (hopefully) if the physical phone line is damaged in some way, I wouldn't lose BOTH connections.
So my first requirement is that the device supports 2 WAN connections, specifically DSL and cable. From my research the 200R does this... Comments? It also has a auto-dial external modem backup method that I would probably utilize since it wouldn't be very expensive at all (the cost of a modem).
The second issue involves personal circumstances. My house is in close proximity to my parents house. They currently have DSL as well and pay the monthly fee for it. I think it's rather stupid for both of us to have connections and have been thinking of a method to share them, without running Cat-5 between the homes if at all possible 😉 I have come to hope a simple WAP would do the trick, perhaps the Linksys model, although I haven't decided for sure yet... We're close enough that distance isn't an issue... Here IS my issue however. WEP is fairly shotty IMO. I don't trust it very much and am extremely timid about implementing it at all. It was a required evil I was going to shut up and swallow until I found this device. From my understanding, it would be entirely possible to utilize the VPN functionality of the 200R to provide the data security that WEP attempts to provide. As such, I could use NO encryption at the wireless level and leave it to the 200R to process via VPN. Am I correct in assuming this?
There are a few other things I would actually like to do, but I think if these issues are resolved it shouldn't be too difficult to implement the rest (getting my grandmother who lives about 2 miles away connected is also a goal 😉) sometime in the future. Thanks for your responses, I have personally found the 200R to be a fascinating product, especially given its price. Cheers!
Some additional general questions:
1) Does anyone know if I can hard code specific non-routable IP's to specific layer-2 addresses with the 200R? For instance, even though I'll be doing all of this through VPN, I'd still like to be able and maintain a table of MAC addresses that map to specific IP's (static non-routed IP's assigned via DHCP). It would add another level of security (however needless) that would make me feel better about doing this.
2) I have read that the firewall will actually filter content at the application level. Does anyone know if this should be taken as "program" or filetype? For instance, I might want to restrict access to certain filetypes (mp3, etc...) and am curious if this device would do this...
