[H-GEN] CRUX (A programmers linux distro)
David Jericho
davidj at tucanatech.com
Fri Aug 13 01:24:18 EDT 2004
Robert Brockway wrote:
>A dedicated router could be out of the reach of many home users because of
>cost, or they may just wish to avoid buying something else when a spare PC
>will do.
>
It is? It's only scale of solution.
To use http://www.umart.com.au/ as a source for prices,
* D-Link DI 704P Gateway Router - $85.00
Provides:- Firewall
Printer sharing
4 Fast Ethernet ports
DHCP
* Netcomm NB1300 ADSL Modem + Router - $133.00
Provides:- Firewall
USB and Ethernet connection
DHCP
* Netgear DG632 ADSL Modem + Router - $105.00
Provides:- Firewall
ADSL2+ capable
USB and Ethernet connection
DHCP
For another hundred dollars or so, you can get one that will allow you
to plug a USB or Firewire hard drive in and share it as a file server
would.
As for wastage of an old machine, pah I say! A dedicated router is far
lower power consumption, easier for an uneducated person to setup and
maintain, and the old machine can be dragged down to Cash Convertors or
a favourite charity. After all, a 500 MHz machine is still usable.
But either way, these units are dedicated routers even if they're based
on your favourite OSS Unix variant. They're not Unix machines in the
traditional sense, even if someone were to get the password to the
administration side they're usually difficult to abuse on if you're not
local.
Infact, I was arguing with Andrae last week that a Cisco Catalyst
6513[1] could be viewed as a glorified high power appliance. Combined
with the right tools and the right process, a user unfamiliar with the
core of the system could use 9/10ths of the functionality present.
[1] http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/index.html
--
David Jericho
Senior Systems Administrator, Tucana Technologies
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