Routers... LMK if I got this right oh humble guru's...

[JugStafe]

I'm looking to get a router because frankly. I know a lot of people are going to think I am crazy, but. I have a beta ISP in my area that is testing a 100mbit connection to the public and its my city that is the only one beta testing it. It is a really sweet isp, my friends have it and I can connect to their comps directly by pluggin in the internal ip. My speed I get with this isp, is the max I have gotten is like 1.8 megaBYTES a second. It works really good both ways up and downstream. A couple of months ago they put up a 500mb a day limit. Over a weeks time I can't have over 500mb limit so if i go over one day it wont matter. Before they put this up I was hosting a server and pushed 42gB downstream and upstream together. This internet is costing me $60.00 a month for 3 basic ips. I am pushing about 450mb a day and soemtimes hit 800mb. If I go over I will get a $100.00 fine. I am thinking about getting DSL, one that will let me have unlimited bandwidth. So what I want to do is get a Router. Here is what I know about routers, tell me if I am wrong.


With a router, I can plug the 1 IP that my ISP gives me into it and then have multiple computers connect to that 1 IP in the router and still be able to access the internet?? And is the router also a switch with 10/100 autosensing? I have never used a router before, but I have used switches and hubs. I know router is different because there is a interface and programmable functions in the router that you can alter. Let me know if I am correct. This is what I want to do. Also, I am considering getting a SMC router.

Get 1 static ip. Get a router and connect up 4 computers that can also be able to use the internet. 1 or 2 of these would use the static ip to host servers. Operating systems I will be using are most likely Win2k and FreeBSD 4.2. LMK if this will work, and if you would also recommend the SMC routers.

Thanks...

 

[JackMDS]

Hubs, routers, switches, DSL, LANs, WANs...?

 

[TedM]

You are basically correct. Most so-called "residential gateways" have multiple Ethernet ports. One 10Mbps connects to your internet service and uses one IP address, either static (like you have) or dynamic (DHCP or PPPoE). The others (acting as a switch) connect to your home network and will service up to "n" IP clients, where "n" depends on the unit. Each client gets its own private IP address, which can be either dynamic or static (some units may not support static). Most of these unit use a standard called NAT (Network Address Translation) to map requests between the two networks.

Basically, all of your PCs can freely request connections out to the Internet. However, requests from the Internet into your network are very limited. Basically, you can map Internet requests for a specific port number into only one of your local PCs. For example, if you want to run a web server (port 80), that must be on only one of your PCs and you must set up the router to route port 80 on the WAN side to port 80 of one specific address on your LAN side. If you want a second web server, it must service a different port number.

I have no specific knowledge of the SMC unit. I use a NetGear RT311 (which has only one port on the LAN side) together with an external hub to connect 3 Win2K PCs to a DSL line. They also have a version with a 4-port switch on the LAN side. I do not run any servers out to the Internet.

Hope this helps.

 

[WyteWatt]

JugStafe please tell me about that new 100 Mbps connection!!!
is that up and down or just down? and what is up if its not 100 Mbps?
curious. And is it thru cable lines or what ?
Or is that UltraBand?

thanks

 

[JugStafe]

i replied to your email imtim83, feel free to send that to other people who may be interested, ill put a link up to the my isp's site.

AirSwitch.net
SwitchPoint.net (same company as above)

they changed their name from AirSwitch to Switchpoint, same company though.

 

[Passions]

if you are downloading/uploading 400mb-800mb a day, I am sure your dsl isp will complain also.

 

[JugStafe]

hehe i dont have dsl right now, the next isp i plan on getting is one i can go mega all out on, so like no bandwith limit whatsoever. Heck i guess id have to get my very own T3 line or something, thats like 600-800 month or something. I pushed 40 gigs on one day on my hotline server. Oh well I don't know what to do just yet isp wise...stick with it or get a new one...