Dumb Question

[Glenn Crocker]

Hey there.  I just joined the mailing list after recently moving to Overland
Park from Sunnyvale, CA.

> From: Joe Brouhard [mailto:jbrouhard at home.com]
>
> My recommendation: Get a LinkSys Cable/DSL Router.  They work
> wonders for me
> (They have NAT Firewalls in them, and an internal DHCP server.  they're
> prefect for my needs, and provide security for my network).  I no
> longer run
> a Linux server, but that may change in the future.

I like the idea of using a dedicated, simple, reliable box for things like
NAT & firewall, but one word of warning on the LinkSys:  The older version
didn't support some of the more difficult protocols like Microsoft
NetMeeting.  So if you anticipate needing to route something weird, make
sure the box you get can handle it.  (What makes NetMeeting hard is that
video and audio are peer-to-peer-ish, so someone has to act as the server.
On top of that, it doesn't use a static port, so the NAT device has to watch
the outgoing "use this port" packet, then let the other machine come back in
on that port.  Ugh.)

I've got a SonicWall SOHO/10 that I've been very happy with.  They support
crazy stuff like NetMeeting and they do frequent updates of the firmware.

-glenn