| Etherfast Cable/DSL Router Reviewed by: Michael Flaminio Rating: **** Review Date: 3.27.00 Updated: 4.23.00 Manufacturer: Linksys EST: $169 (US) |
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The EtherFast Cable/DSL Router is a stand-alone hardware device from Linksys.
It is designed for home or small office, which can perform numerous network functions.
The Cable/DSL Router offers three major features. First it is a 10/100-Mb four-port
Ethernet switch, second, it can act as a DHCP server and third, it can act as a network
firewall. These features are pretty useful, especially when found in a single device.
DHCP
To be on the Internet, a computer must be assigned an IP address, which is how your
computer communicates among other computers on the network. There are two main ways
of doing this; first is to manually enter in an address and second is to have the
computer automatically request an address from a server. If you enter an address
manually, your computer keeps that address permanently. This is a static IP address.
If your computer automatically obtains an IP address, this a dynamic address. With
dynamic addressing, a computer will likely have a different address once it leaves
the network for an extended period of time.
Cable and DSL
ISPs usually offer these different types
of services. For pricing, static addresses are usually more expensive than dynamic
addresses. Also, ISPs usually charge fees for extra IP addresses. So say for example,
if you wanted to add Internet access to three computers, you may have to pay extra
for the two additional computers. Or perhaps you’re only allowed one IP address,
whether it’s through an ISP, a company or school.
The Linksys router can serve IP addresses for up to 253 computers. The router itself
only needs a single IP address from an Internet provider. The address can be assigned
manually or the router to automatically pull a dynamic address once it’s added to
the network. This feature can save money in ISP fees and allow greater control of
your network.
Switch
Unlike a regular Ethernet hub, the Linksys device has four ports, each offering a
full 100-Mb of bandwidth. Say for example, if you have four computers capable of
100 Mb Ethernet, each can communicate at the fastest possible speed. While helpful
for faster Internet connections, the real speed benefit is seen while file sharing
between computers. Besides adding greater port bandwidth, the device offers direct
routing within the LAN, which will ensure faster, more direct transfers.
Firewall
A firewall offers a number of functions. It can protect computers from the outside
and it can keep computers from reaching outside. It also provides privacy for the
computers behind it from prying pings. A firewall is sort of like a locked door into
a room. There’s only one way in and out of the room (or network), and it is that
door. To get into the room, you first have to enter through the door. To get out
of the room, you again have to get past the door. Finally, to see into the room,
you have to again get past the door. Without a firewall, your network is basically
a room without a door, or at least a door without a lock. Without a firewall, there
is really nothing preventing people from sticking their head in the room to look
around, and perhaps staying for a while.
So let’s say you have three computers on the Internet behind the firewall. All outside
traffic is funneled through the firewall, which itself 
has
an IP address. To someone on the outside, it looks like these three computers are
actually one. If all three computers loaded the same web page, the web server will
think that a single computer, with a single IP address, loaded the page three times.
This is an example of how no one really knows what’s going on behind the firewall.
You can have one computer or 250 and no one will know the difference.
By hiding behind a firewall, machines can be much more secure. Often, unscrupulous
individuals like to run port scans, pings or other services, which basically allows
them to figure out what’s running on a computer. Running a port scan on a computer
is the equivalent of trying a handle on a door to see if it’s locked. By being behind
a firewall, others will not be able to first find a computer and then subsequently
do something to a machine. One other benefit could be that any other types of superfluous
network traffic, malicious or not, will be stopped at the router. This will relieve
your computer of dealing with a wide array of unneeded network traffic.
Finally, the Linksys router can be used to control activity behind the device. If
say for example you don’t want people surfing the web or <gasp> using Napster,
you can block the access of a single port number for specific machines. So say for
example, if Bob the customer service guy spends too much time on ESPN.com, you can
block port 80 on his machine. At the same time, however, Pete the webmaster can still
access the web on his machine with no problem.
Configuration/Setup
The Linksys device was a snap to install. We just unplugged our 10/100 hub from the
cable modem and jacked in the router. We then connected individual computers and
a hub into the four ports and we were off. The router automatically pulled an IP
address from our ISP and each computer automatically pulled an IP address from the
router.
The router is fully configurable from a web browser (Netscape 4 and IE 4 or later) on a Mac or PC. The router can be configured for many options such as its own network address, DNS, DHCP address and port protocol settings. To configure the router, you just need to enter in its IP address (http://192.168.1.1/ by default) in the browser and log in. For obvious reasons, only computers connected behind the router can access the administration tools. Also, the router allows you to assign addresses to computers. Say for example you have an older computer that doesn’t support DHCP, you can assign that computer a static IP address manually.
"We don’t need no stinking Macs"
So this is a super cool little box that does so much for a pretty good price. The
problem is Linksys won’t support Mac users. The router works fine on a Mac and can
be configured on a Mac, but the company does not offer tech support to Mac users.
Additionally, Mac users will not be able to upgrade the firmware on the router. The
company only provides a PC solution for upgrading.
We tested the router for about a month. The first two or three weeks we ran the router
out of the box. We then upgraded the firmware via a PC. Linksys didn’t really specify
what the latest update does and I haven’t noticed any differences. In my opinion,
the router works fine out of the box. Worst case scenario would be to bring the router
to a PC buddy for a quick update, or perhaps use a Windows emulation package. Our
firmware upgrade was quick and painless.
Other Topics
Aside from Mac support, I found a couple other issues with the Linksys router. The
biggest problem is that the router only allows you to configure 10 port forwards.
Say for example you wanted to access a computer via FTP, you’d need to make a port
forward entry for the machine. If you wanted to host a network game, another entry
would be needed. These few forwards could quickly be used up considering the number
of applications out there. The problem compounds itself as you connect more machines.
One other problem dealt with the DHCP client table. At times, the table was wrong,
as it did not always see all the connected machines.
A feature that I’d be interested in seeing would be a dial up modem. Similar to Apple’s
Airport, the router would dial in to a 56K ISP and share the Internet service with
multiple computers on one line. While it would be slow, there's still many people
sharing dialup service between computers.
Conclusion
This device is almost too good to be true. I’ve been looking for something like this
for quite a while. It provides fast network links, Internet privacy and security,
and nearly unlimited DHCP client support. It will quickly wire your computers together,
protect your computers from the outside world, save you some cash with your ISP and
give you flexibility with your personal LAN. To do this before, you'd have to set
up a dedicated computer to act as a router.
Mac support is an issue, but frankly it seems to work very well. If it works for
you out of the box, I don’t see any reason why you’d absolutely need to update the
firmware. I’m aware of a similar device from MacSense, which is basically the same
thing except only 10-Mb, instead of 10/100 Mb. Called the Xrouter, this device does
have Mac support, but is more expensive.
Pros: Inexpensive, quick and easy way to take control of your local network.
In the old days to do this, an expensive piece of hardware or a dedicated computer
was needed.
Cons: Lacking Mac support.
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