[Nottingham] Setting up a router at uni

[Steve Caddy]

Danny King wrote:

> I'm going to be a Fresher at Durham Uni pretty soon and I'll be taking
> a desktop, laptop and a server. Do you guys think it'd be worth
> getting a router/firewall box for security? I use one here but it's my
> dads!

This depends how/where you're getting your connectivity from. If you're
plugging into the uni network, then firstly, they'll probably only allow you
to plug one machine in, and secondly, all you'll be fire-walling against
will be other students (probably still good motivation).

If you're getting your own flat with your own connectivity, then the kind of
box you'll want will depend on how you're connecting. For cable, you'll need
something with eth ports input and output. For ADSL, you'll want something
with a built in ADSL modem. You could build a linux router, but I think it's
more effort than it's worth, unless you're really keen.

Since you're wanting to connect more than one machine, then a NAT (network
address translation) router is pretty much essential, to share you're
(single) IP between all your machines.

Steve

-- 
Steven M Caddy, MEng ------------------------------------------------------
Email: steve.m.caddy at ntlworld.com