Need a new home router...

Hay thar guys, my linksys router is taking a slow & steady **** on me, so i'm considering using my cisco 2620 and a 2924 switch to power my internal network. I've considered 2 options so far:

picking up a 10MB interface for my 2620, and then hook the cable modem to the ethernet interface and the FA int. to a switch for my LAN... What interface is supported by the 2620? I couldn't get my NM-1E2W to work and so i'm not sure what to do

the other thing i came up with is i coudl connect the cable modem to the switch, and run my local network off of that same switch, and just have them on different vlans. Having no experience with anything of this sort, i'm not really sure if this is a good idea or not.. i deffinitely don't want to bottle neck there if i can avoid it. anyone see a problem with this?

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Comments

dtlokee

II don;t think you want to use an Ethernet interface for a cable modem, you could wnd up artifically limiting the download speed (some providers are now passing 16Mb/s and the ethernet interface is good for about 8.5 Mb/s after you subtract out framing and what not) You can use the switch and create a trunk to the FE interface, or buy a NM-1FE-TX module for a second interface.

You will need to make sure your router has an IOS that supports DHCP client functionality and you need to do all the security yourself. The IOS FW feature set will be your best bet because there are a few protocols that use dynamic ports you may need. You will also need to configur NAt and a static route, and whatever else you may need (static nat for port forwarding?)

Althoug hthe idea of using a Cisco router for this sounds cool, if you don't feel confortable with all this then I would say get another soho router and keep it simple.

Darthn3ss

good point. i'll think about wating until i'm sure i can secure it properly before i attempt that. i haven't really seen any SOHO routers that i like. not sure where to look for one. I'd like something with a little more control over stuff and more memory than most i find such as my linksys wrt-54g.

dynamik

If you're just looking for something fun with some decent features, check out this: http://games.dlink.com/products/?pid=370&#DGL-4300

It does a lot of neat stuff like dynamic DNS and QoS. I love being able to use dynamic DNS to access my home network from a domain name (instead of trying to keep track of the DHCP-served IP) as well as prioritizing my Xbox Live traffic over my wife's WoW traffic. I'm sure other devices offer those features, but this is what I have and am familiar with

JDMurray

Consider buying an older revision of the WRT54GS from eBay or other dealer. There are several 3rd-party firmware packages for the WRT54G/GS that have many features. I like DD-WRT myself. Check out Linksysinfo.org for discussion on all of the firmware releases for Linksys routers.