On Feb 21, 2004, at 2:54 PM, ec wrote:

> Chris, total newbie here, just thought I needed stuff.
> Didn't know it had 4 ports, never been on dsl before
> nor been around one to even look at the modem.
>
> Thanks.
>
> I want a smoothwall firewall even IF it has 4 ports.
> Wife is paranoid about that. She wont go online
> without either being on a 'don't care machine' or
> knoppix live cd and the 'don't care machine'. But I am
> getting dsl because dialup is too slow with two people
> trying to use it at once and I am tired of waiting
> hours for her to finish and vice versa.

I don't think she understands what a firewall really does. The way 
Qwest configures their routers, only  the router itself is addressable. 
Your computers are on a private network behind the router. It's like 
having an old style switchboard operator that only puts through 
outgoing calls.

Where they really screw up, though, is they set the wireless side 
completely open by default. The wireless side even broadcasts its own 
network name. Note that the wireless is 'behind' your router so any 
protection between your LAN and the internet has already been bypassed.

So I'd for get the Smoothwall and concentrate on turning off the 
wireless.

> What with the smoking deal..$6.99 isp and $15/mo dsl
> thing, the $22+ tax deal for 256k/256k is hard to pass
> up considering dialup is at least $15 for true
> unlimited, and with d/u you still have all the
> problems/slowness. We don't mind dialup when it
> smokes, but so much of the time it is getting down
> into the 1 and 2K/sec range on a lot of site.
> Hopefully dsl..even 256k will be at least as fast as
> single user 56k dialup at its worst.

Depending on where you live you may get better than 256 K. I get around 
400. There is no comparison to dialup.

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