Managed Router

[SIRCOOKS]

I would like to buy a managed router, in order to run a small network. Only thing is, i cannot find any buy linksys or one inexpensive enough, for the small consumer market.......only the switches for small to medium sized businesess and up...can anyone help me???????////

[Soopafresh]

A cheap PC running the free IPcop app will do it. Even a 386 will do it. 2 ethernet cards.

[SIRCOOKS]

Really...how efficient is it though, compared to me setting up the managed switch/router???????????//

[Soopafresh]

Efficient as in performance? Perfect. Plus, the add on modules are really nice. Lots of statistics for throughput, number of connected users, attempts of break-ins, etc. I've installed it for lots of clients. One client didn't have to reboot the machine for over a year.

http://www.ipcop.org/index.php?module=pnWikka&tag=IPCopScreenshots

[SIRCOOKS]

How many computers do you think i want to handle. and when you say use two network cards...what do u mean....how should i go about setting this up...is there a diagram i can look at....

[mill48]

How about the documentation? That might be a good place to start ...

I just might give this a try after building my next box. I think I know just where to put my hands on an old PC ...

[stiltman]

My first home network (before I could afford Cisco stuff) was built around FreeSCO

I had 2 NICs and it worked like a champ on an old 486 computer

I even set one up at a remote office as a firewall/router with VPN access.

However, now a days you can pick up an old but still one of the best routers ever built for next to nothing
Cisco 2500 series


BTW, I've never heard of an unmanaged router

[Soopafresh]

Yeah, exactly. Freesco is good as well. Setting it all up is pretty easy. You can easily support 50 or more users on a 1.8 Ghz machine with 128MB of RAM, especially if they're just surfing the internet and sending some e-mail. Want to support many more? Use a 2.4Ghz Pentium or AMD. Routers don't have to be that smart, they're just traffic managers. They don't use very much CPU power at all. The machine would need the following:

CPU - Whatever Intel or AMD CPU you've got that's less than 10 years old.
128MB (more if you have it, but more than 256 would be a waste)
2 x 100 Mbit Ethernet Cards - $10-$20 each
CD Rom Drive to Install the software
1GB Hard Drive

1 Ethernet Card gets plugged into your local area network switch/hub
1 Ethernet Card gets plugged into your DSL or Cable Modem

[rallynavvie]

The passthrough PC is good for setting up a formidable and ultimately configurable firewall but if you're talking about a managed switch as in setting up different ACLs simply dependent on which port on the switch you're plugged into then you're probably going to have to drop some cash for the switch. However you can still set this up and tie it to MAC addresses of individual machines via the PC firewall it just takes a little more time to program.

I think the difference is going to be the heat/noise/power consumption concerns of a full box, even if it's only an old machine, as opposed to a switch. The advantage to the PC firewall is it will have a lot more flexibility in programming for less cost (depending on what kind of deals or parts you can scrape up). I did pick up a used Cisco 2950 managed switch to play with for only $350 so it might be hard to compete with a price like that if you have to build new for a firewall PC. Besides you still need a hub that can support all your devices so you'd still need some network hardware. However if you go wireless AP then you would definitely be better off coding your ACLs to MAC addresses from the PC.

[bigstusexy]

what exactly are you trying to do? You first say you are trying to buy a managed router, then you say you can't find a switch?

Do you know the difference between a regular switch and a managed switch? Are you looking to connect a few computers together or connect one or more computers to another network or the Internet?

[stiltman]

To the OP,

Basically,
Unmanaged switch = doesn’t have its own IP, can’t do VLANs, doesn't route subnets…etc
Managed Switch = Has its own IP, can do VLANs, doesn't route subnets …etc
Routers = Has its own IP, can’t do VLANs, routes traffic by subnets…etc (yeah that’s basic without going into Access lists…etc)
Layer 3 Switch = Basically combines a managed switch and a router.

[Soopafresh]

Ah, right. I immediately went to internet router/firewall rather than vlan/lan segmentation device.