spec me a router

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 00:12

I'm getting ****** off with my current Netgear router, because it's not working properly. I have flashed the latest firmware and set everything up correctly but still it gives problems. Having come to the conclusion that it is a piece of junk, I'm in the market for a replacment.
It must have DNS, VPN and port forwarding facilities with at least two ethernet ports (LAN and WAN).
Budget is £500, but I reckon it should be possible to find a model for far less.
Of utmost importance is stability. My current router looks really good on paper, but in practice it is flaky at best.
Please can you give me suggestions as to what would be a good solution.
thx.

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 00:18

DNS and VPN? You mean you want it to act as a DNS proxy and do VPN passthrough?

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 00:24

I want to be able to accept VPN connections on the box itself without having to use a software based VPN Server. As far as DNS goes I need it to maintain a list of hostnames for the LAN, as well as forwarding DNS request to my ISP's server. I should be able to manually enter hostnames against their corrosponding ip address. If it picked up hostnames from DHCP requests and automagically added them to the host list that would be a bonus.
My current router does all this, but it's just a tad unreliable.

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 00:47

Whatever box you want plus your choice of linux distro would do all that and more, or perhaps a Linksys WRT54GL and one of the third party firmware options that are floating around (www.linksysinfo.org is your friend).
Depends what type of connection you want to hook it up to as well - ADSL or cable?

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 00:58

tolien said:
Whatever box you want plus your choice of linux distro would do all that and more, or perhaps a Linksys WRT54GL and one of the third party firmware options that are floating around (www.linksysinfo.org is your friend).
Depends what type of connection you want to hook it up to as well - ADSL or cable?

I'm only considering single box solutions right now as running a dedicated linux router would use up a considerable amount of electricity. Even some of the mini-itx solutions suck up at least 60W.
Thanks for reccomending the linksys. I will look into it. I already have a Linksys NSLU2 which can do quite a lot and hardly sucks up any power. I'm intending to use this as my linux server so I'm really just looking for a standalone router without a lot of extras.
My internet connection is Cable BTW.
Any more suggestions?

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:08

Not that come immediately to mind - VPN and DNS server on a router are fairly abnormal (though I doubt it was full DNS on the Netgear, more likely some kind of WINS and a DNS proxy, unless it was some expensive business device)...

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:13

tolien said:
Not that come immediately to mind - VPN server and DNS server on a router are fairly abnormal...

Not really, just less common in "consumer" grade routers. I could just go for any medium level CISCO box, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some advice first, rather than just randomly choosing a model that might not be the best thing for the job.

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:14

DeeJay-Mo said:
Not really, just less common in "consumer" grade routers.

Like my Cisco 877 (with Advanced IP Services), that'll do neither (and sits at the upper end of your budget)?
Suspect the majority of Ciscos won't directly handle either DNS or VPN themselves (besides either acting as a VPN client or VPN passthrough), hence why I suggested *nix or a WRT.

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:24

@ Tolien
Replied to your post before you'd finished editing. lol
You may be right about the DNS on the Netgear. The host list was very WINS like, hostnames were resolved via DNS however (when it worked properly).
I guess it is more of a business device rather than a consumer grade router. It wasn't really expensive tho. Probably why it doesn't work properly.
Any particulary reason why you suggested the wart? Have you succesfully used one of these babies with the 3rd party firmware. I got the unslung firmware going on my slug relatively painlessly. I'm liking the idea of going down the Linksys route.

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:28

DeeJay-Mo said:
hostnames were resolved via DNS however (when it worked properly).

I can run nslookup [host] and get an IP, and nslookup [IP] and get it's hostname. No DNS server has that stored though.

Have you succesfully used one of these babies with the 3rd party firmware.

Yup.

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:29

tolien said:
Like my Cisco 877 (with Advanced IP Services), that'll do neither (and sits at the upper end of your budget)?
Suspect the majority of Ciscos won't directly handle either DNS or VPN themselves (besides either acting as a VPN client or VPN passthrough), hence why I suggested *nix or a WRT.

Can't you load extra programs onto your CISCO box? I haven't got much experience with these things, but I was under the impression that it was possible to load up modules to handle extra functionality with CISCO boxes. I once had to program a few 2600 boxes with special configurations. I'm pretty sure you can get VPN and DNS running on them. Or not?

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:34

tolien said:
I can run nslookup [host] and get an IP, and nslookup [IP] and get it's hostname. No DNS server has that stored though.

If no DNS server has that information stored, then where is nslookup getting it from? I thought that nslookup checked whatever DNS servers are setup on your nietwork connection, and that's how it got the info.

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 01:40

DeeJay-Mo said:
Can't you load extra programs onto your CISCO box?

Extra programs? You mean third party software?

I was under the impression that it was possible to load up modules to handle extra functionality with CISCO boxes.

Sounds like you're under a wrong impression.

Having dug around, it looks like you can indeed do both on a Cisco router :shrug:

If no DNS server has that information stored, then where is nslookup getting it from?

WINS, evidently.

I thought that nslookup checked whatever DNS servers are setup on your nietwork connection, and that's how it got the info.

And the hosts file, and Windows' internal DNS cache...

DeeJay-Mo · 25 Nov 2006 at 04:13

tolien said:
...Having dug around, it looks like you can indeed do both on a Cisco router ...

I believe in most cases you have to use the Cisco IOS sofware. Do you know if you can run it on your box? If so that could be an alternative to the Wart.

tolien · 25 Nov 2006 at 10:32

I believe in most cases you have to use the Cisco IOS sofware.

Near enough every case.

DNS works, VPN would probably work.

Bear in mind the 877's an ADSL router so it wouldn't work on your cable service - you'd need an 871. I'd probably go for the WRT.