[Gllug] ADSL modem -- WTF?

[Bruce Richardson]

On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 01:35:51PM +0100, Tethys wrote:
> 
> Given that there is no modulation/demodulation going on, it's got
> to be a marketing ploy, as that's a term people are used to. But
> what is it? You can buy a standalone ADSL modem, an ADSL router,
> or a single box with the two combined.

If someone is trying to sell you an "ADSL Router" and says you need an
ADSL modem to go with it, then they're just full of it.  What they have
is just a router.

> All I want is a box with two leads -- one into my phone socket and
> off to my ISP, and one into my firewall (and on to the rest of my
> network). It needs to be able to route my IP range frmo the outside
> world and on into my network. It looks like the D-Link DSL-502T
> should do that. Does that sound reasonable?

I actually tested one of those and I think it may not be what you want.
Like many SOHO routers, it's really designed to act as a NAT device.
Unlike some SOHO routers, it doesn't actually give you the option of
having a public subnet behind it.  Instead, all the boxes behind it have
to be on a private subnet but you can specify a default address on the
private lan to which any traffic that isn't explicitly blocked or
redirected by other rules will be redirected.

Have a look at http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ where you'll find some good
reviews of a range of hardware.  However, IME there is no good cheap
option.  All of the cheap routers that I have tested are only really
suitable for being used as NAT gateways.  They all seem either to have
dodgy/incomplete IP implementations or they do hidden bridging tricks
which bugger up complex IP traffic, making a mess of anything complex
you try to do behind them.

-- 
Bruce

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards, apart from
ostriches if you punch them hard enough.
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