Using a WinXP box as a router?

[Sphexi]

I have Adelphia HSI, with a D-Link DI-524 router, that amazingly enough sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Every now and then my pings will just go through the roof, and I'll have to reset the router for everything to work right again. Seems like it has something to do with the DHCP portion of it, when I set it to use a static IP from Adelphia it's better, but still not great.

I have a Dell SC420 Poweredge I got through one of the Dell deals a while back, just sitting here doing nothing. WinXP on it, Professional, I was hoping to set it up as a replacement router. It has dual NICs, one gigabit Broadcom and the built-in Intel 10/100 jack, I have it working now with a shared connection, but obviously that's not very ideal.

Is there any software out there that can manage the connection for me, manage DHCP on my network, bridge the two connections, all that, with fairly low overhead? Or would I be better off going to Linux and using that to handle it instead? Is it even worth it, or should I stick with the router even though it's giving me a load of crap?

 

[The Green Bean]

I would like to know the exact same thing

 

[n0cmonkey]

You could try ICS. It's icky though, use a *nix.

 

[JackMDS]

If you can effort Win2003, it might be a very Good Experience.

Using a Client OS (Win2k, WinXP) you need to use basic software NAT.

Not a very good idea. In addition the cost of electricity running a computer is much more then the Entry Level Router.

There are millions of people using Cable/DSL Router and having No problems.

:sun:

 

[Sphexi]

It's kind of odd actually. When I reset the cable modem and run a tracert to something like Yahoo.com, pings are all under 40ms or so. After an hour though, pings to everything outside my house (even Adelphia's switches/routers) jump past 300ms to 500ms+ or so. The modem is going crazy even though I'm not doing anything, not running anything, nothing on the network is using it constantly.

Starting to think I have an issue outside of my own little network, I'll look into 2003 though, but I'd rather not have to invest in a whole new OS when I have the extra XP license I'm not using.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
It's kind of odd actually. When I reset the cable modem and run a tracert to something like Yahoo.com, pings are all under 40ms or so. After an hour though, pings to everything outside my house (even Adelphia's switches/routers) jump past 300ms to 500ms+ or so. The modem is going crazy even though I'm not doing anything, not running anything, nothing on the network is using it constantly.

When the "modem is going crazy" try unplugging everything from the router, but leave the router plugged into the modem and tell us if the the modem is still going crazy. If it is, then yes the problem is probably your router (or possibly your modem), due to power consumption issues, it may ultimately be cheaper (and easier) to pick up a new home router, I suggest Linksys.

You could also try plugging a computer directly into the modem, to be sure the problem is not the modem, or even your ISP.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Brazen

Originally posted by: Sphexi
It's kind of odd actually. When I reset the cable modem and run a tracert to something like Yahoo.com, pings are all under 40ms or so. After an hour though, pings to everything outside my house (even Adelphia's switches/routers) jump past 300ms to 500ms+ or so. The modem is going crazy even though I'm not doing anything, not running anything, nothing on the network is using it constantly.

When the "modem is going crazy" try unplugging everything from the router, but leave the router plugged into the modem and tell us if the the modem is still going crazy. If it is, then yes the problem is probably your router (or possibly your modem), due to power consumption issues, it may ultimately be cheaper (and easier) to pick up a new home router, I suggest Linksys.

You could also try plugging a computer directly into the modem, to be sure the problem is not the modem, or even your ISP.

Done that a few times already, currently I'm running through a computer directly with dual NICs, not the Dlink router. I've disabled everything on that computer with the exception of what's required for Internet sharing, and even installed ZoneAlarms basic to see what kind of traffic was coming in, and didn't see much in the way of abnormal incoming traffic. I'm currently running continuous pings, and they're ranging from 30ms to 300ms, almost completely at random.

Edit:

I think I MAY have found one of the problems, my roommate's computer seems to drag the network down significantly when it's connected. There's still issues on the ISP side, but I unplugged just his box and it dropped the ping by half, to about 150-200 rather than the 300-500 it was at before. Still way too high, but he's got something on there that's eating up my precious (and expensive) bandwidth.

 

[nweaver]

For the love of all that is holy, don't use XP for routing, get either a cheap router (20-60 bucks) or get an OS that can handle it correctly, i.e. linux or BSD

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
It's kind of odd actually. When I reset the cable modem and run a tracert to something like Yahoo.com, pings are all under 40ms or so. After an hour though, pings to everything outside my house (even Adelphia's switches/routers) jump past 300ms to 500ms+ or so. The modem is going crazy even though I'm not doing anything, not running anything, nothing on the network is using it constantly.

Starting to think I have an issue outside of my own little network, I'll look into 2003 though, but I'd rather not have to invest in a whole new OS when I have the extra XP license I'm not using.

I say go with a linux solution and use smoothwall. Worked for me. He he, complaints over 300ms to 500ms. I know thats bad for you, but boy would I love to see that on my connection. It's Satellite. I've never seen it below 3,200ms 🙁

 

[wkinney]

http://www.ipcop.org/

 

[okb]

Tell your roomie to get some spyware/antivir and use it. 😉 Did you try updating the router firmware and your NIC cards too? I had some connectivity issues (same router) where the connection to the router would get sketchy after a little while, updating everything did the trick. Smooth as buttah.

Oh and ditto the XP-as-router sentiment. That's like nails on chalkboard. If you think the router's bunk take it back (if you can) and get a Linksys, love mine only it doesn't have wireless. 🙁