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Low Cost Routers with 100Mbps WAN Ports?
Ed asks: "I am getting ready to move into a dorm at Kent State, and they have a 100Mbps port in the room. They allow routers, and switches to connect more than 1 PC, however every router I see at the consumer level has a 10Mbps WAN port. I would really prefer not to waste having a 100BaseTX port on a 10Mbps router. Does anyone make a semi-low cost router with a 100Mbps WAN port?"
If you can demonstrate that your bandwidth to the Internet is greater than about 800 KB/s, I will personally give you a cookie.
Don't waste your money on an expensive router with a 100 Mbps uplink port unless you can take advantage of it somehow.
Build it yourself out of an old box you (or a friend) have lying around. Buy two $10 10/100 cards and a cheap 10/100 switch. Besides, it's more fun that way and you might learn something.
Sure you really need a router?
Maybe you need a switch.... a hub.... you've got 3 PCs and a single Ethernet port.
Or, maybe, you really want a router. This means creating a subnet and putting a static into THEIR router to allow replies to get back to you. Unlikely, but possible (lots of admin overhead for the dorm's net admin, but anyways). In that case, what about a Linux/xBSD with 2 or more Fast Ethernets? That's gonna cost you MUCH less than anything Cisco sells (and not only Cisco)
Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
If they'll allow you to use a switch, why spend some more money and buy a router? These things are usually used when either you're not supposed to hook more than one computer, or when only one computer can't be connected directly to the Internet because of some authentication mechanism (PPPoE, DHCP w/ only 1 address per port, etc.)
If they allow you to grab more than one IP address, and the network is either fixed address or DHCP, go with a switch. A 100Mbps switch will set you back around 40$.
Or use one of your computer as a bridge (NAT) before the switch. But then you'll have to open it anytime you want one of the other ones to go online, unless you let it on all the time as I do... and some protocols still don't like NATted computers.
You can use an old PC with no hd and two 10/100NICs. Linux Router Project should fit the bill.
--Mike
You can always pick up someones older PC like a Celeron 300-500 and make a Linux NAT (Network Address Translation) box out off it. Most of the consumer level dsl/cable "routers" are just simple NAT boxes done in hardware.
look around a simple nat box is easy and cheap to setup and you can decide the speed. I get 50mbs across a p200 NAT box at my work (for test environment)
#include sig.h
I would recommend getting a cisco catalyst 6513 switch with the following configuration:
1 cat 6513 w/redundant ps
2 supervisor2/msfc2 cards
2 switch fabric module-2 cards
4 16 port fabric enabled gig-e cards
1 network analysis module
1 ids blade
3 48 port 10/100 power over ethernet enabled blades
if you can get two ports to the campus backbone i'd recommend using both of the ports and getting the campus IT folks to provision them off of separate switches and configure hsrp for you, then you could get another 6513 configured similarly to the one above and have a good sense of redundancy. One 6513 configured as the one above is should run you >$100k. If this doesn't fall in the 'cheap' catagory you could look at getting a cisco 3550-12T switch. this guy has 12 10/100/1000 ports and comes with basic ip routing functionality. its only $10k or so i think. If that is still too expensive you could look at something like a 2621 router, which has 2 100mbps ports. With the 2621 or the 6513 solution you could also add voice modules. You could have your local teleco provision a few PRIs to your dorm and become the campus CLEC or something. If you teamed up with other students at other colleges you could put voice gateways at a bunch of colleges and use the fat pipes between them to do toll bypass and give students across the world cheap long distance. If you went with the 6500 you'd also have a permanent space heater in your dorm. If you need an even cheaper solution i'd recommend using a linux box or something of that nature, not only will it be a fun learning experience, but it will be dirt cheap. oh, and i'll give you a cookie if you try to order the 6513 with WS-X6369-THC(that's the integrated bong option....ooh...you'll want the WS-X6569-THC, that's the fabric enabled bong option).
If you're running multiple machines off the router, then a cheap solution is to just drop another 100Mb card into one of your machines and let it route. Note that this is not a really secure solution -much safer to have a stand-alone box. But if cost is a bigger factor than security...
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I see all these posts on build it yourself, none of the suggestions seem all that easy...
You can get a first generation pentium now of any speed with ram the whole 9 yards for FREE. If you live in San Jose, I would be more than happy to let you have your choice from 10 boxes I got in the garage ranging from 486 to a P120. You come pick it up its that simple.
Next you need to add some network cards, the bay network netgears do the job nice and at $20 bucks a pop at fry's it wont hurt your pocketbook.
Finally some software to run it. I recomend BBIAgent It's small, runs on a floppy, and should do everything you need it to. Very slick web based setup and java based config utility.
As far as a hub/switch/cat5 cable, well that will still cost you money. I have a tangle of blue wire in the garage that looks like animal from the muppets if he were blue, you'd be more than welcome to help yourself.
Good Luck!
--Toq