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What the article is geared for is setting up a home network that provides a firewalled environment in addition to content- and URL-based filtering.

You mean powerline ethernet? Sure...

• D-Link
• Netgear
• Linksys

"What is the symbol for "lame gateway security"?"

Right here

It's just that, according to the site, there's no fix yet:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101383.a sp

Now, there is a firmware from the 4th:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_details.asp?dn ldID=735

that claims to fix the problem, but I'm tempted to suggest what's happened is they've changed the username and password while they test a full fix. After all, changing data is generally less likely to break stuff than changing code...

It's just that, according to the site, there's no fix yet:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101383.a sp

Now, there is a firmware from the 4th:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_details.asp?dn ldID=735

that claims to fix the problem, but I'm tempted to suggest what's happened is they've changed the username and password while they test a full fix. After all, changing data is generally less likely to break stuff than changing code...

The real fix should be available shortly.

What is the symbol for "lame gateway security"?

This, obviously.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_details.asp?dn ldID=735
Live Link

Suing is probably not an appropriate action. Instead, he should complain to his local trading standards authority on two counts:

1. The product is not "fit for purpose". Letting absolutely anybody mess with your settings is unacceptable.

2. Netgear are falsely advertising. Netgear claim "you can rest assured that your wireless network communications are private" on their website *. When absolutely anybody can mess with your router, you have no reasonable expectation that anything available to that router is private.

* They claim it here. Stupid crappy popups that make me hunt for the URL...

Netgear Firmware Upgrade

who needs crazy shit from the people-fore-down-shit-your-neck-department, when you can simply use your own SX gigabit ethernet card instead of that converter.

doh!

just check the specs of that netgear crap and bring a decent fibre card along, instead of buying crap shit

Netgear GC102
http://www.netgear.com/products/details/GC102.php? view=

do people always believe crap that other people tell them? why not reading the faqs and specs and using your own mind _before_ doing the first step.

get this world educated. brighten up at last

I'd like to keep using my PRINTER when I next upgrade my computer: heck, my old laserjet 4L is still alive and kicking after 10 years of valuable service.

I'll try not to make this OT ...

I'm insanely jealous that I don't have one of those WRT54G routers. I have a netgear mr814v2 ... not a bad little 802.11b router. I figured today I'd try hacking it a bit, see what exactly it is.

My interest was piqued because I found services (locally) running on the router I was unaware of ... a UK site says my router has a DNS proxy and cache, something I've seen nowhere else. I used nslookup and dig, and sure enough, it answers dns queries. I also can tftp into it. (No idea names of files tho).

So this prompted me to take a peek at the .img file for the firmware. It doesn't look like any format I'm familiar with... the linux "file" command calls it a "MS Windows TrueType font" ... well let's run strings on it ... hmm only one word shows up twice at the end of the file "sErCoMm".

So I head off to Sercomm's site... and lo and behold they make wireless routers! Namely, I think my MR814v2 is just a rebadged Sercomm IP706SM. I know this comes as no surprise, many pieces of hardware are just rebadged and sold under a brand name. But look at the specs, they're identical! Right down to the dimensions, the Netgear router is only a few milimeters off.

So this is where my hacking hit a wall. Think I might go home and take apart the router and see for myself. Or just sell it and get a WRT54G. (Hey my birthday's next week, you never know.)

It's also smaller and uses less power (I measured both). It actually uses less power than the early-model 100Base-T switch I previously had. 1/3rd as much.

Netgear 8 port switch

I've been using GbE for home LAN for about a year now. Here's the hardware I use:

Switch:
Linksys Instant Gigabit 10/100/1000 8-port switch
I think I paid ~$200 for this.

Cards:
Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter (~$50 ea)
Use the e1000 driver in 2.4.x or 2.6.x.
Netgear GA302T Copper Gigabit Adapter (~50 ea)
Use the tg3 driver in 2.4.x or 2.6.x

The tg3 chipset runs rather hot, the e1000 is tiny and runs cool. I havent noticed a performance difference between either, and both chipsets run fine regardless of whatever PC I put them in.

Motherboards with embedded GbE typically use e1000 (if theyre good), or realtek (if theyre cheap).

Jumbo frames:
See my post on that here.

Cabling:
Hand crimped cat5e. Works fine. One interesting note about GbE, you no longer have to worry about crossover cables -- the GbE spec requires that devices autodetect crossover. You can make all your GbE cables "straight through" cables.

Do pay careful attention to following strict T568 wiring code though. You can no longer get away with incorrectly wired cables which just happened to work for 100bt. Since all pairs are now used in GbE, your wiring order must be 100% spec.

Here's some wiring guides:
http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.asp
h ttp://yoda.uvi.edu/InfoTech/rj45.htm

While the idea of an enclosure is nice, I think I'd rather spend the same amount of money on something that could be an access point, too. Netgear surprised me with their new router, the WGT634U, which offers a USB 2.0 port for attaching storage devices in addition to 108Mb turbo wi-fi. This is a trend I like.

It's not the gear, it's the functionality.

Netgear only makes you think registration is necessary. It is not. You can use a proof of purchase instead.

Someone should not be required to keep an RFID tag on something valuable just because they may have to get warranty service on it someday.

That's right. Warranty service should be redeemable on a product regardless. However, there are some manufacturers (Netgear comes to mind) who require that you register with them or you don't have a warranty.

It's just like having an RFID tag, imo...

RFID is good technology, with a lot of potential and a number of legitimate uses.

Gotta agree with you there. Some of the potential applications where I think it will be VERY much welcomed include inventory control and shipping (imagine if your FedEx package is tracked by computer instead of having to be barcode scanned)...

Every technology has its upsides and downsides, good uses and bad uses.

This is just one more case where an excellent area of inquiry is ruined by the wording of a Slashdot article, and by people trying to show how much they know without saying anything that could actually be used by someone else.

The article at Flexbeta should not be worded, "An In-depth Look at Firewalls", it should be "An In-depth Look at Small System Firewalls". Most single computers or small LANs have no servers.

The parent post is considering an important issue for systems of 100 users. Systems that large are far out of the scope of the Flexbeta article.

We need two Slashdot articles on firewalls, one for small systems, and one for more complex LANS.

The Flexbeta article considered only Linksys (now owned by Cisco) and D-Link small system hardware firewalls. It did not consider Airlink Plus and Netgear.

I got burned with poor technical support from Cisco. Also, Cisco stopped supporting its 675 router. I don't want to be involved with Cisco again, so Linksys is out, especially because of the confused Linksys web site. Cisco has an enormous conflict of interest. If Linksys sells good firewalls, it will mean Cisco sells fewer.

So, which is the better hardware firewall, D-Link DI-604, or the Netgear RP614?

A. AirPort [/Extreme] Base Station = Home DSL/Cable router with 802.11b/g access point.
Cross reference: Netgear WGR614, Linksys WRT54G, D-Link DI-824VUP.

B. Such products use DHCP servers and NAT to share the Internet connection. That's what they do.

C. Because of A and B, it can be deduced that the AirPort Base Station has a DHCP server.

Perhaps you weren't previously aware of point "A." I guess I could see if you thought it was just an access point?

Netgear's support web site contains the source for some of their routers (eg the DG834 series). Cool idea for people to be able to add their own features.

I keep an eye on my wireless subnet with a separate box running kismet... tells me everything I need to know.

Heh... it also told me immediately the first time my neighbor fired up his brand-spanking-new access point. I went over to his house (where he was washing his car) and asked him if he'd gotten a new AP for christmas? (nod) a Linksys? (another nod) running on channel 6? (confused look and another nod)... I briefly explained wireless network surveillance/network sniffers, and gave him some basic tips on WEP, disabling SSID broadcasting, and MAC address filtering. He thinks I'm some kind of hacker now... got a feeling I'll be getting some "tech support" calls from their place...

Works for me, and it's free... works well with the prism2-based cards. I bought a bunch of these: and they work great with the wlan drivers.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

why not get a wireless router that will handle all of your DHCP, DNS, Firewall etc...

that way you don't have to have any operating system or anything that will just confuse "mom and pop". if they've got this box that just plugs into their ADSL line and if things go wrong they turn it off and on again?

something like this should do the trick nicely.

Just get an older computer (200-500 mhz), setup IPCop with some bandwidth shaping and throttle those ports down. Heck, I'd even firewall it to maybe web, mail (pop3/imap, no smtp), aim/icq/msn/irc, and possibly ssh. The next version of IPCop will be even better for wireless setups. For hardware, consider something like the Netgear WAG311 "dual band" adapter, and cover all the bases.

• MSI MATX I865PEM2-ILS
• Samsung black combo 52X24X52+16X CD-RW/DVD
• WAG311GE Netgear Wireless .11ABG+ PCI
• Intel P4 2,6GHz 800/512K
• Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350
• MSI GeForce FX5200 TD128 with DVI and TV-OUT
• 512MB PC400 DDRAM
• Maxtor Dmax Plus9 200Gb 7200RPM 8Mb SATA
• Coolermaster ATC 620C-BX1

The reasoning for the different items are as follows:

A similar model of the motherboard got good reviews by Toms Hardware Guide (yes, I know some people in /. hate Tom). The integrated sound on this board was recommended to me by an ALSA developer. It's also got SATA, LAN, USB and Firewire and, as a nice bonus, both coax and optical digital sound outputs.

Samsung...didn't matter much as long as it had DVD and CD-RW capabilities, black front was a nice touch though.

WAG311GE, one of few cards that support A, B and G wireless networking. Supported in Linux by the MadWifi drivers, unfortunately not truly open source, but neither are any other ABG card drivers.

Intel processor, I usually like Athlons but temperature (and thereby cooling requirements) is much more important in this box than speed.

Hauppage, well supported by MythTV and able to do MPEG2 recording and playback in hardware.

MSI GeForce, has VGA, DVI and TV-Out, also fanless and really cheap. Closed drivers but that's kinda hard to avoid.

Maxtor drive, I really wanted a more quiet Seagate but the SATA models were kind of impossible to find in any nearby store for decent prices. Also most stores seemed to have the ones with the least storage capacity.

Coolermaster, the case isn't "designed" to be a HTPC case (such as this one) which means it doesn't have the same silly price tag. It was also the exact same width as my stereo components (well, 3mm wider) and similar color.

Now all I have to do is wait...

Check out some Netgear Print Servers that are priced for the home user market. Basically you connect your parallel port printer into the little box and that box connects to the network via WiFi or standard cabling. It runs a standard LPD service (i.e. unix printer daemon) and you can easily print to it from linux, OS X, windows and probably a bunch of others as well. No SMB sharing required.

As to whether or not these will handle your queuing constraint, I'm not really sure. I do know they have some sort of manageable queue, but I'm not familiar with the details of it.

Another wireless access point that runs Linux is Netgear WG602. You can find some very limited information about it here.

Is anyone working on something similar for this device?

Another wireless access point that runs Linux is Netgear WG602. You can find some very limited information about it here.

Is anyone working on something similar for this device?

How about this?
Use one of these and one of these to create a filtering E-Mail server in this form-factor(1).

If people insist on running Windows? I insist on making money off them.

(1) Get them one of these or these to store additional E-Mail(2).

(2) Hell. Add LDAP so the worm will have a bigger addressbook to work through. Backups will be easy though.

To Netgear's credit, on their main support page they are strongly suggesting that owners of affected models update their firmware. If you follow the link given there, they do sort of explain what problems they are addressing with the updates. I can bet the corporate lawyers went over that explanation with a fine-toothed comb before it was released.

And yes, they are now doing ntp serving for their customers.

To Netgear's credit, on their main support page they are strongly suggesting that owners of affected models update their firmware. If you follow the link given there, they do sort of explain what problems they are addressing with the updates. I can bet the corporate lawyers went over that explanation with a fine-toothed comb before it was released.

And yes, they are now doing ntp serving for their customers.

1. Download MR814v1 Firmware Version 4.13
   
2. log on the router, choose router upgrade & upload the firmware
   
3. wait...
   
4. PROFIT!!!
   

According to Netgear, only RP614, RP614v2, DG814, MR814 and HR314 NETGEAR routers are affected. Patched firmware can be downloaded from Netgear's support website.

Scratch that, all of the fixes are listed on this page.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101176.a sp

Linksys 802.11g cards (and the new version of their 802.11b PCI card) don't work in linux. The chipset manufaturer, Broadcom, is holding back specifications on the card. If you want 802.11g in linux, the best solution is the D-Link card, or the Netgear one. Both use the Intersil Prism GT chipset. Intersil is very open about their design, and supports the development of open source drivers for Linux and other operating systems. Even if Broadcom were to open up, Intersil is more likely the company you would be wanting to give money to.

Still, drivers for the Broadcom chipset would be nice, so take a minute to sign the petition.

IANAEE but it appears that there are two on there tho.

But these shipment numbers made sense. I bought both a wireless router and AirPort card for my iBook this year.

Stateful, multi-layer inspection firewalls
[...]
High level of cost, security and complexity

I have a Streamium MC-i200 in my garage (yeah, I spend a lot of time there). Here's the environment: Connected to the Ethernet port is a D-Link DWL-810 Ethernet-to-wireless bridge, which talks to a Netgear MR314 in my upstairs office. Also in the office is a media server, which is simply an old PC with a big hard drive. Finally, I have an old notebook that sits on my A/V tower downstairs, with a Y-cable from the stereo minijack out to an unused set of audio ins (MiniDisc, I believe). The notebook is perfect for playing Rhapsody through my main receiver.

With that out of the way, here's a quick review of the Streamium:
Good
- Ability to play MP3s from media server anywhere on your network.
- Limited Internet streaming capability. Rhapsody or something similar is needed.
- Really good sound, with decent bass thump.
- Remote control is handy when I'm working underneath the car and want to change tracks.

Bad
- Requires a special version of MusicMatch Jukebox on the "server" PC, even though I had already paid (yes, I paid) for the full version of MusicMatch. Now I have two versions on my music server. This server app must be running for the Streamium to find it and play music from the hard drive.
- Horrid navigation. My music is stored in folders, with an artist at the top level, and album folders underneath. It's a chore to page down through the alphabetized list of artists. So I play more Geoff Achison than I would like, and less of the Zombies.

Bottom Line
- While this is a good first step, $500 is far too much to pay (I evaluate this gear for my job). For that jack I'd buy a two-year-old notebook, PC speakers, and slap in a wireless card.
- Keep an eye out for a Digital Media Adapter from Linksys, which should be released soon. It, too, sits on your A/V tower, hooks into your receiver, and should have an out to the TV, so you can navigate playlists and such on the big screen.

BTW, the Wall Street Journal reviewed the Streamium last month. Yup, you gotta have a subscription.

Hope this helps.

-Ray

PS: Haha. I just noticed that www.linksys-sucks.com redirects to www.netgear.com. Sound advice if you're considering buying Linksys.

If you have broadband in your house, chances are you have a router and a spair port. Here, i'll make your life a little bit easier if you're confused about what's out there.

Netgear RP614 Router (4 Ports) = $44 bucks. Dig around for the other rebate and you can even get it for $30. It beats SMS, Linksys and 3Com's $200 dollar routers into the ground with it's ease of use and superior performance.

Of course AOL users aren't really on top of the Microsoft's priority list when it comes to Live. Even my grandmother has a router in her tiny house. She's pushing 92.

As you can see, the connectivity is a non-issue.

OK,

Yesterday, I needed to do a side job for a friend and instead of running CAT5, I used some of the new powerline ethernet stuff. What has me impressed is that this stuff was *dead reliable* and quite compact for its first iteration. What happens when it shrinks and we see this stuff built into TVs and alarm clocks?

Aside from your toaster manufacturer snooping your toasting habbits, your alarm clock will be able to pull MP3s from the home server. Your TV will pull the funniest commercials (ala the late adcritic.com) from the Tivo ranking database. Create a standard for it all, and you've got some remarkable integration.

With this, it hopefully will not be called "DirectHOME" or something like that...

yeah, and netgear, proxim, hp... so?

the poster already linked to plenty of manufacturers of these products. he's asking which solution is best, not which brand...

As a current CWRU student who is currently living in the dorms over the summer and currently has his computer hooked up to the network I can try to clear up any confusion on this =) The network does, indeed, feature fiber running to every desktop. As several individuals have stated previously, the University ran fiber optic cable to every dorm room and office several years back (longer back than I remember). That same fiber is now being used to provide gigabit connections to every room. Every student was (or will be) provided a Netgear GA621 gigabit fiber optic network card for their personal computer, which does, indeed, equate to "fiber to the desktop" =)

I'm used to dorm room ethernet so its torture to use dial-up when I am home between semesters. Last summer I finally got a netgear router so I could leech off my parents @home connect. It was working beautifully and I eventually shared the other two ports to my brother and mom's machines. So we have had 4 machines connected for a while.

Two days ago I got a call from my mom asking, "Why doesn't the internet work???"

RO318 is pretty damn good for a home broadband router.

Also my Linux server and dual-boot linux/win2k dev machine and wife's windows laptop all are happily easily connected simultaneously without any hassle.

I'm not a sysadmin by nature; having an appliance that is secure and easy has allowed me to keep focusing on the stuff I'm interested in.

http://www.netgear.com/product_view.asp?xrp=4&yrp= 12&zrp=55

• Price: In the $150 range, it's not cheap, but not expensive. However, its other features quickly make it worth every penny.
• 8 port switch: more than I've seen for this price. This is good, seeing as I have an obscene number of computers in my house.
• Web-based setup: I really didn't want to telnet into the router and set it up, so I made sure this one has web-based setup. It does, and it's easy to configure. It took me about 5 minutes to get it set up with my DSL (Verizon).
• Stateful Packet Inspection: The RO318 is a real firewall, not just NAT (although it does do NAT).
• Web-access policies: You can block certain computers from going to websites containing keywords, etc. This is useful if you don't want your kids to be visiting teenieporn.com
• Email reports: The router will email you and let you know if a) you are being attacked (automatically detects portscans, etc) and b) if sites are being visited that shouldn't be (of course, you set this all up).
• Design: It's flat and sturdy, which means I can put my other switches on top of it. Couldn't do this with the Linksys due to its design.

Overall, I love it. No problems with Quake III Arena, easy to set up, works flawlessly. The reasons the above poster listed are also true: with 8 ports, you can always plug in a laptop; port forwarding works well, and Netgear also has a great reputation.

Here is the product information page at Netgear. It can be had from buy.com for $155.

I wouldn't bother with the PCI cards (too much work). There is no driver for their USB adapter (PA101).

about one year ago. i set two limitations to the design of my "lan party computer"

1. it must use standard components (to make it easier to find parts to buy)
2. it must be cheap (at least cheaper than a comparable laptop)

this is a list of components that i used to build the system.
i updated parts of the list to reflect what components i would buy if i was going to build it today.

case mini tower $60
monitor 14" lcd $600
motherboard micro atx $100
processor P3 800Mhz 100FSB $160
ram 256MBpc100SDRAM $100
video Geforce2GTS64MB $195
keyboard mini-keyboard $40
mouse cordless optical $70
hard drive 40GB ide $100
cd-rom drive Plextor16/10/40A $250
floppy 1.44MB Generic $10
sound card SB Live Value $40
network card netgear FA310TX $20
cat5 cable 14 feet $20
headphones koss td61 $20
carry strap GearGrip Pro $35

other stuff:
cable bag a small, strong bag to attach to the side of the case to hold all the cables
power cable with 3 outlets that have 3 prongs each to accommodate the power cables for your system and monitor

i attached the lcd monitor to one side of the case and the cable bag to the other side. i put all the cables attached to the computer inside the bag to get them out of the way. then, when i went to a lan party i would only have to take one power cable, one network cable, the mini-keyboard, cordless mouse, and headphones out of the cable bag. everything was already connected at the back of the computer so there was no onsite setup involved.

i also screwed a piece of plexiglass onto the lcd monitor to protect the screen. (yes it was stupid to drill holes into a monitor that i just spent $900 on at that time, but it worked)

i had a lot of fun with that computer. i even dropped it down a flight of stairs once and the case was bent and all the pci cards popped out of their sockets. i put it back together and it worked fine.
the only downside to building this system was that it weighed about 30lbs. although if you spent more money on a lunchbox case with integrated lcd it would still weigh a lot.

unfortunately i never took any pictures of it for posterity and i ended up dismantling it for parts about 6 months ago, but i'm sure you get the idea.

-stan