[CLUG] DSL stuff

[Mark Twomey]

adam beecher wrote:

  > The D-Link stuff seems very popular, although Netgear stuff sounds 
cool too
> (aside from the recent sntp snafu). Anyone used Netgear?
> 
> (I'm particularly looking for product recommendations, i.e. make and model.
> I honestly haven't a clue about this stuff. Money is no object. Of course
> that's a lie, if money was no object, I'd have one of these:
> <http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/>. Yum.)
> 
> adam

I've a D-Link 300G+ ADSL modem connected to iStream and an Airport 
Extreme Base Station, (just so my lazy ass can pick up my email via my 
Tungsten C from downstairs, and I can hand people a laptop with an 
802.11G card to prevent people from bothering me when they want to use 
the net), and I've found the D-Link & Linksys stuff to do the job 
without any problems. I played around with some Netgear stuff a while 
back and found it to be a right pain in the backside when it came to 
compatibility between other vendors chipsets. D-Link & Linksys have yet 
to do me wrong though.[1]

I try to ensure it's a single vendors silicon making it's way onto my 
home network, in this case it's mostly Broadcom's stuff, as each vendor 
jumped the gun before the 802.11a/b/g spec was fully locked and you can 
get some weirdness between base stations and wireless cards.

To that end the D-Link 604+ or the Linksys BFDSR41W wouldn't be a bad 
thing to look at. Check the installation guides to ensure administration 
isn't through a Windows app if you intend to drop it into an all Linux 
environment, it should be via a web browser plugged into an ethernet 
jack on the back of the modem, or self assigned DHCP address to the 
station and client via a wireless link for the D-link stuff, but the 
last thing you want to do is to try and get a crufty admin tool running 
under WINE when all you want to do is specify your ISP information.

Mark.
[1]Your mileage may vary.