Anyone use a router?

[Harry Kuhman]

I'm wondering if anyone has had any success running a router from home off a cable modem? I have several KNOPPIX cable ready PCs in my home office and would like to run them all concurrently off the cable modem. Is this doable?

I know, I know, I've already been told to use a hub and iptables, etc. I don't have any hubs laying about and I don't see any for cheap. I'm wondering if there's a cheap and easy way to do this?

TIA,

It's very doable. In fact, I wouldn't consider running without one. I personally connect with a router to DSL, but have connected knoppix through a router to cable at several friend's houses (in one case where I took the router there myself and set it up in about 15 seconds).

In addition to the firewall protection (which, granted you need less when running from a CD), the router will present a simple common interface to the ISP. For DSL this means it will log in for you, take care of any PPPoE issues, and such, no special software needed on your computer. For cable it will present a single static MAC address (which you can set to be the present MAC address the cable company already sees if it matters). The router does DHCP, so you can know locally that your system is working without even needing to be connected to the ISP, as well as providing a handy way to network multiple systems together or provide for additional access when you're visited by someone with a notebook.

Overall I think half of all network problems posted here would go away or at least be resolved much faster if the posters were using routers.

Yes, hubs are getting hard to find. And you don't really want one (or a switch) to replace a router, at least you don't if your ISP doesn't provide you multiple static IP addresses. With a hub (or a switch) each computer must have an IP address that is valid on the Internet. With a router the router gets the valid IP address, and assigns each local computer a local IP address (usually from the 192.168.xxx.xxx group) that can not be routed on the Internet. Of course, the router takes care of making sure all local packets get translated into valid Internet IP packets when required. About the only reason to use a hub any more is for packet sniffing with software like Ethreal (that's what I got mine for). Otherwise use a router and, if you need to further expand the network, use switches).

In general the routers work great (although I have had problems with the Belkin brand). There are a few problem applications, like Microsoft's Netmeeting, but even for these ther are generally solutions like putting the computer into a "DMZ" mode where it gets all incoming packets that are not for other computers. At the current costs (often as low as $10 U.S. after rebate for 4 port wired routers), the simple answer is get one and see for yourself.