voyager 105 adsl modem

[Harry Kuhman]

I understand about the firewall I run a software one as one isn't included with the modem. I really don't have the money for a router at the moment. Also I'm inheriting a wireless 801.11g one later this year, A BT Voyger 2100 insidently. The base unit also has a single ethernet connection. As I live in England the cheapest I can buy a router for is about 50usd.

I understand about the firewall I run a software one as one isn't included with the modem.

A software filewall is quite a different beast than a hardware firewall. The Microsoft firewall is completely useless, as the hackers know the back doors that Microsoft seems to have deliberately put in it (can they really be as bad at programming as they want us to believe?) and before any software firewall comes into play part of the TCP/IP stack still touches the packet so there is a chance to use some exploits. I use a software firewall in addition to a hardware firewall. The software one is primarily to alert me if some software tries to send outbound data when it wasn't expected (which I don't think the MS one even does).

I really don't have the money for a router at the moment. Also I'm inheriting a wireless 801.11g one later this year, A BT Voyger 2100 insidently. The base unit also has a single ethernet connection. As I live in England the cheapest I can buy a router for is about 50usd.

I really don't understand the differences in prices, as these modems are not made in the U.S. and even without rebates we can often buy them for $19.99 or less, and as I said with rebates they can be under $5 down to free. But I bought my first one, a 4 port wired Linksys for over $100 about 6 years ago, at a time when I was out of a job, and I consider that it was still a good investment. I wouldn't run on a high speed connection without one.

I'm not clear which unit has the ethernet connection, the one that you have now or the one you expect to get. If the current one has ethernet then focus on making that work with the PPPoE software (Knoppix is pretty safe, after all, when running from an unalterable disc).