[clug] Calling all Linux n00bs

Hal Ashburner hal.ashburner at gmail.com
Fri Jun 5 22:21:34 GMT 2009


Felix Karpfen wrote:
> On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:50:17 +1000, Francis Markham wrote:
>
>   
>> it will be a lot easier to use an ethernet capable router.
>>     
>
> Firstly, I would like to thank all CLUGers who took time to post answers
> to my query.
>
> Bob Edwards also mailed a copy of his reply direct to me and my direct 
> answer (below - edited and additio nal comments added) fills in some of the
> gaps in my first post:
>
> || In most cases, the ADSL/ADSL2 line will terminate in a dedicated ADSL
> || Modem/router box and all that is left to do is to point a web browser
> || at that box and set up your username and password etc.
>  
> | This is - more or less - the info that I got from my ISP (iinet). 
> | But there is a longer story.
> |
> | I need some help in selecting a basic "Modem/router" without upteen 
> | bells and whistles that I will never use. The choices listed on the 
> | Whirlpool site are legions!
>
> e.g. does a "router with built-in firewall" supply mandatory features over
> and above those provided by my (adequately-configured) "ip-tables"?  I
> need some guidance on reliable makes and models that are designed to
> handle ADSL2+ (as offered by iinet).  In my experience, ebay is a good
> source - once you know what to look for.
>
> | And I need some surety (from iinet!) that I will not lose my current 
> | 56k modem access before I have successfully got the new setup to work. 
> |
> | Other tweaks to my system will be needed, in order to persuade it 
> | to  logon to the broadband site. 
> |
>
> I was hoping for pointers on configuring and using "pppoe". I note that
> my Debian's pppoe documentation (like Debian Etch) is dated 2007; the "man
> pages" have dates of 2003 and earlier. And I do not know enough to be able
> to distinguish between the relevant and the obsolete in their content.
>
> Switching to Internode is likely to create more headaches than
> attempting to tweak "pppoe". I would prefer to stay with iinet -
> especially as it collected a few "Brownie points" in recent posts to
> this mailing list.
>
> Lastly, my use of broadband features is likely to be very modest. Like
> all Linux addicts, I distrust multi-purpose tools. I have yet to identify
> the benefits of VOIP and podcasts.  And there are probably lots of other
> "features" available to broadband users, of which 56k modem users are
> blissfully ignorant. So I would welcome suggestions on appropriate
> broadband "plans".
>   
I use an ASUS WL600G ADSL2+ modem/router/wireless AP
The firmware is linux, you can compile your own and re-flash if you want 
to but this is not at all necessary.
The web interface is much the same as most wireless router web interfaces
you can telnet (or after some configuration ssh) into it, where a curses 
style menu awaits.
if you type 'sh' instead of the menu numbers you get a shell and can do 
whatever iptables you want. The web interface provides an easier way of 
doing the simple stuff. Having your firewall at the router rather than 
your main box is good because it means everything your side of the 
router is firewalled. You can port forward to specific boxes for your 
webserver and/or mailserver if you want. Your mates who drop by and want 
to connect to your wireless to check their mail are protected by the 
firewall.
The WL600G work well with the WL500GP wireless routers doing WDS if you 
need to extend the range. You can plug a printer into the wl600 if you 
want. It has 2 usb ports and will happily mount a usb drive. The default 
firmware has an ftp server ready to go. If you want to drop in a custom 
firmware you can have samba. There's a community around these for 
support if you're doing funky stuff.
They cost something like $100-110 each. Pretty much any adsl 
modem/router that you connect to via ethernet will do the job for you. 
Whirlpool will tell you which to avoid, I had bad experiences with 
netcomm myself (the wireless was dodgy). I've heard people say good 
things about 'billion'
I think all of them will have some kind of firewall and dhcp server 
(probably something like dnsmasq).
The router itself runs pppoe, your desktop/laptop don't need to know 
anything about that. The web interface will make this as easy as enter 
your isp login here: enter your password here: click done.
So your desktop, laptop and other wireless do-hickeys you might have all 
just connect with an ethernet cable or to your wireless ssid (and you 
can switch this off if you don't want wireless), get an IP via dhcp and go.
Remember how people used to suggest connecting a windows computer 
directly to broadband was a bit foolhardy but we don't hear that so much 
anymore? Making the modem also a router with a firewall is what fixed that.
It's all pretty easy, it's all client OS agnostic. You're unlikely to go 
too far wrong. Once you've got fast internet you'll seriously wonder how 
you lived without it before. You may also find you use a lot more 
bandwidth than you were initially expecting. Do check your ISP's quota 
free mirror. Hopefully they have one for $your_distro_of_choice. In 
addition to regular bulky OS updates not costing anything extra the 
download is likely to be pretty fast.

Hal Ashburner


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