[H-GEN] Good practice and home networking

[Wayne Sierke]

On Sun, 2007-09-09 at 15:20 -0500, bjf at bjf.id.au wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm in the process of getting ADSL hooked up in the flat, and are  
> wondering what general advice is going around these days on the 'best  
> practices' for setting up a enthusiast home network connected to the  
> internet.
> 
> Should I go for an all-in-one ADSL modem/router/hub/wireless box from  
> Linksys or Netgear, or go for a lower end network-layer device, and  
> hook it up to a cheap beige box running BSD or Linux?  Tradeoffs: I've  
> heard enough horror stories about the bad guys carrying out automated  
> hack attacks on crappy Chinese-made consumer home routers, but on the  
> other hand, properly configuring a PC-based router is a lot of work.   
> Having a PC do the job means I can keep a closer eye on the network  
> and do upgrades.
> 
While using a 'cheap beige box' can appear an attractive option
cost-wise (a common spiel is to 'use an old PC that's laying around') do
keep in mind that a typical ADSL modem/router will consume in the order
of 10W of power, whereas the typical 'box' will likely consume something
around an order of magnitude higher than that. Along with any other
energy-related considerations that you might happen to care about
there's also the direct cost to you (e.g. 5c/day vs 50c/day for a 24/7
connection).

A worthy alternative is to run one of the available open firmware
versions such as OpenWrt on compatible hardware, such as the LinkSys
WRT54GL. Such a combination offers the 'best of both worlds' - a
customisable, open-source solution on dedicated, low-power hardware.


Wayne