Pro. DSL router suggestion for XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter DenoxiS
  • Start date Start date
D

DenoxiS

Hi,

I'm going to set up a network to a new office. Their internet connection
will be via DSL. PCs will have Windows XP professional. The old setup has
several PCs connected to a 4-port router with a cable modem. The cable
routers we have tried were OK (LinkSYS, Siemens, SOHOWare), but I want
something more professional. Each has different problems or lack of features
I need.

1) Are there any DSL routers that has 10 ports or more, or do I have to use
some hubs?

2) XP's Remote Desktop will be utilised in the new office. Are there any
router that can handle more than one remote desktop connection at a time?
i.e. Can I direct the requests to the port X of the router to the port A of
one PC, and the requests to the port Y of the router to the port A of
another PC. Siemens and SOHOWare couldn't handle that, Linksys seem to allow
you to set this up, but doesn't work.

Thank you very much in advance,
 
DenoxiS said:
Hi,

I'm going to set up a network to a new office. Their internet connection
will be via DSL. PCs will have Windows XP professional. The old setup has
several PCs connected to a 4-port router with a cable modem. The cable
routers we have tried were OK (LinkSYS, Siemens, SOHOWare), but I want
something more professional. Each has different problems or lack of features
I need.

1) Are there any DSL routers that has 10 ports or more, or do I have to use
some hubs?

LinkSys has an 8-port router which is the largest number of switch ports
I've seen on cable/dsl routers. I would strongly suggest the use of
low-cost unmanaged layer-2 switches instead of hubs.
2) XP's Remote Desktop will be utilised in the new office. Are there any
router that can handle more than one remote desktop connection at a time?
i.e. Can I direct the requests to the port X of the router to the port A of
one PC, and the requests to the port Y of the router to the port A of
another PC. Siemens and SOHOWare couldn't handle that, Linksys seem to allow
you to set this up, but doesn't work.

I'm not sure what software you are running on the target PC's, but I'm using
a LinkSys to perform port-forwarding to an ssh host and a web host (ports 22
and 80 respectively). This has worked flawlessly for about two years. This
almost has to be a misconfiguration somewhere.

JW
 
1) Are there any DSL routers that has 10 ports or more, or do I have to
use

LinkSys has an 8-port router which is the largest number of switch ports
I've seen on cable/dsl routers. I would strongly suggest the use of
low-cost unmanaged layer-2 switches instead of hubs.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definately consider switches instead of
HUBs.

A

I'm not sure what software you are running on the target PC's, but I'm using
a LinkSys to perform port-forwarding to an ssh host and a web host (ports 22
and 80 respectively). This has worked flawlessly for about two years. This
almost has to be a misconfiguration somewhere.

I can do that too, but imagine you have same services on each PC, let's say
a web server. They are all listening to the same port. Suppose you cannot
change the server so they can listen different ports. In this case, I want
to adjust the router like this:

External Port Internal Port PC
------------- ------------- --------
80 80 1
81 80 2
82 80 3
.... ... ...

If someone make a request from port 80, that will be served by PC 1.
If someone make a request from port 81, that will be served by PC 2 etc..,
but all the PCs will be using their port 80.

Or is it just impossible?
 
DenoxiS said:
I can do that too, but imagine you have same services on each PC, let's say
a web server. They are all listening to the same port. Suppose you cannot
change the server so they can listen different ports. In this case, I want
to adjust the router like this:

External Port Internal Port PC
------------- ------------- --------
80 80 1
81 80 2
82 80 3
... ... ...

If someone make a request from port 80, that will be served by PC 1.
If someone make a request from port 81, that will be served by PC 2 etc..,
but all the PCs will be using their port 80.

Or is it just impossible?

I'm not on my home lan and have disabled remote admin, so I'm having to work
from memory re: the LinkSys configuration screen for port forwarding. I am
fairly certain that you can change the internal assigned port at the router.
However, if you have more than one device "listening" for traffic on the
same port you can never be certain which system will respond (probably the
one physically closest to the router or the least busy).

That said, with more advanced (read costly!) routing equipment it is
possible to route traffic from a specific inbound port to a specific IP
address (port address translation). I'm sure Cisco sales would be glad to
help you with specifics.

JW
 
Jacob Westenbach said:
I'm not on my home lan and have disabled remote admin, so I'm having to work
from memory re: the LinkSys configuration screen for port forwarding. I am
fairly certain that you can change the internal assigned port at the router.
However, if you have more than one device "listening" for traffic on the
same port you can never be certain which system will respond (probably the
one physically closest to the router or the least busy).

That said, with more advanced (read costly!) routing equipment it is
possible to route traffic from a specific inbound port to a specific IP
address (port address translation). I'm sure Cisco sales would be glad to
help you with specifics.

JW


Dlink DSL-504 and Zyxel 650HW/652HW are all reasonably priced DSL routers
that will do all you want them to do!
 
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