Router?

A router or router-firewall (which I'll use the terms interchangeably, when I say 'router' I mean 'router-firewall') in the simple sense is something that sits between your ISP connection ( whether a dial-up modem, a DSL modem or cable modem) and allows data (eg, the Web page you visit) to be routed between the Internet and your home. "

Your house may be just a PC but a router allows you to block all types of receiver or network attacks, for example, any type of Internet worm which works by connecting to RPC or DCOM ports and many other types of attacks that try to connect from the Internet. In simple terms, a router firewall protects your computer (s) against the evil people on the Internet very efficiently, you know nothing about how it works and how to establish the "firewall" of things to be protected, the Most routers are configured to work well together, no real configuration required.

The second major advantage to using a router, then you can leave it on 24 / 7 and connect any number of PCs on your network at home to all share the Internet connection with a minimum hassle. A router must be very stable and many people leave them on 24 / 7 to give them a more or less permanently connected to the Internet.

Some people suggest running a 'Personal Firewall' is not a bad thing, but it suffers from some major drawbacks. The term "personal firewall" in my opinion means a firewall program that runs on your PC, which is the problem with him! Anything that runs on your PC is vunerible to a possible virus or malware that you can download and run accident. Some malware explicitly personal goals and disable the firewall applications, sometimes in ways that are not obvious to spot. A 'router-firewall "on the other hand, runs on an area dedicated, and is therefore much more difficult to circumvent or disable. This does not mean they are useless, they are certainly better than nothing, which is free to, check if you do not have a router!

Why should I make my own?

because you can, and it's fun!

An ADSL router can be bought and they are not much more now than a USB ADSL modem, but many people already have USB modem and you want to 'upgrade' to use a router firewall, if you do yours, you can use the existing USB modem and the router to build firewalls, to save money.

Many routers, you can simply buy waste, simply find the intarweb (Ian) for people trying to use a router with a purchased app peer2peer (like eMule / Kazz etc) to see the amount of questions .

A good router bought in many cases, a tendency to crash or "reset" when you press on your Internet connection with lots of downloads or uploads. In my experience, I have over 1000 simultaneous connections and the router, I have not even built a break sweat, let alone to become unstable.

Make your own router gives you the kind of flexibility that you can not get a router purchased, it is updated by a simple download, and new features will be added as time goes on. Once you have purchased a router, you are stuck with the features you have when you bought it before you buy a new course!

Aid to build a router based on free software and open source is a lot of people like you, who is an active community of people who will help you configure and offer advice if you want to make your router something more than your needs and understanding grows.


Setting up the router firewall

to a router, you will need the following

a) 1 old PC (a P100 with 32MB RAM and 500 MB or 1 GB HD is more than sufficient), it will be the router firewall dedicated.

b) a means to connect the router to the ISP, namely a USB ADSL modem for ADSL or a network card (Ethernet card) for a cable modem or a telephone modem if you use telephone. If the old PC does not have a USB port so you can get a PCI USB card for about 15 quid or less.

c) a network adapter to connect the router to your network (wireless is an option very soon!) a network card costs about 5 contribution, you also need a network card in each PC plug.

d) an Ethernet switch (or hub) if you have more than one PC, connect a switch operates as a multi-extension cable, but it has been designed to split an Ethernet connection between your computer to you can connect multiple PCs (8 positions for connecting 7 computers are about 50 quid or less now, at 4 positions for connecting 3 PCs is around 20 quid) if you have more than 7 PC, you then get another switch and connect or get a bigger change to begin.

Once you have the bits you are

In my opinion, it was the easiest and best firewall router can be done by downloading the "IPCop 'from http://www.ipcop.org - it's free, open source firewall.

Installation is simple, you can burn a CD from the downloaded file (the operating system is only 30 MB!) And boot from the installation CD. If your old / Donate PC can not boot from the CD, you must use a floppy, which can be created on another PC using the IPCop CD you made. (There are other ways to install it without needing a second hard drive - but it is outside this txt!)

IPCop is a complete operating system, which means that no sub-Windows operating system, for the P100 / Donate PC and no licenses to worry. This part is really nice, an OS that is pre-configured to install simply and give you a good quality router dedicated firewall, which is simple to install and easy to use.

If you install IPCop for the first time, please read the installation instructions on http://www.ipcop.org/modules.php?op=...pDocumentation, he thought that the reading of the record instructions of your VCR, it is not long and you will understand and IPCop become more familiar with the installation. I think you can install in about an hour after reading the installation guide, a quick glance at the FAQ that should answer most questions you May

If you do not ask!


Secrets Acquisition routers

ok - not so secret and mostly conjecture

many people have the impression that there is something called a "router-firewall", which is magic, safer and more stable than a "router-firewall, you can do yourself. . It is wrong to 2 counts

bought an ADSL router, if you opened it up, is really something like a 486 processor with little memory is running firewall software that is loaded from a storage device disk disk, ie it is not a router firewall. if such a thing still exists, you can plant and is unlike any other computer, you never used.

if it can be more secure is not so easy to dispute, all things are missing, firewalls are no exception. Generally, a firewall based on Linux (as IPCop) is safe if installed correctly, IPCop is easy to install and difficult to set up wrong (but who bought a router firewall, it can be configured to be sure, if you try!).

IPCop regularly fixes for the code, the type of corrections you want to see are generally not fixed Internet side of the router, they are generally small problems can be exploited with great difficulty by a determined attacker who can connect their computer on the network at home (of course there are other ways that can happen, for example, in one form or another Trojan horse remote access).

It is difficult to know what kinds of problems with a router bought, if there is a so-called "upgrade firmware" May contain these patches of uncertainty in firewall - it's hard to say because they could not want this information published?