OT: Suggestions for DSL and VOIP

[Joseph Sinclair]

The easiest way to get a firewall set up (if there isn't a proper (i.e. SPI) firewall in your DSL router), is to pick up a basic hardware firewall (such as a Netgear FR114P or WGR614 or a Linksys BEFVP41 or WRT54G).
Whatever firewall you end up with, make sure it has "Stateful Packet Inspection", also termed "SPI".
Many "firewall" routers are really just NAT routers (NAT is Network Address Translation, and all routers can do this), and provide no real defense.
Unless you have a spare machine handy to set up as a firewall, it's actually cheaper to just buy the hardware firewall, and you have the advantage of not needing to do much more than plug it in to get things running.

==Joseph++

Siri Amrit Kaur wrote:
> On Wednesday 28 September 2005 09:36 am Craig White kindly wrote:
> 
>>One of the problems that I see that you get into is to worry about
>>things before you know all of the details.
>>
> 
> I tend to start things then later find out a little detail I didn't 
> know about is a dealbreaker if I can't get it worked out. I hate it 
> when that happens. 
> 
> 
>>Qwest has typically shipped a router/modem combination (Actiontec)
>>with wireless in the past which would probably give you what you
>>need in a firewall. A different ISP might arrange a different modem
>>be sent. 
> 
> 
> I wasn't talking about wireless- don't even want to think about that. 
> I don't know anything about routers or modem connections, so unless 
> someone had mentioned a firewall to me, I wouldn't have even thought 
> to ask about it.
> 
> 
>>Why not choose your ISP, get the DSL stuff ordered and see what
>>you get before you put everyone through the paces of what you 
>>might want to use for a firewall.
> 
> 
> Of course, that's good advice. I'm glad Alan mentioned I'll need a 
> firewall. Now that I know that, and I'm assuming it could maybe be a 
> router and not necessarily a separate box like IPcop, I know a little 
> better what questions to ask when I talk to some providers. 
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