SOHO ADSL setup

[HillBilly]

any advice / recommendations for the following setup...

1 x Desktop PC (could grow to 2 or 3)
1 x Laptop (no wifi)
1 x USB Printer

going to be getting ADSL 192 but don't want to get too complicated by having a *nix firewall / router so am looking for a device or 2 that can support a small network (DHCP / NAT / Firewall) allowing all pcs/laptops access to internet and also act as the print server.

at the moment the printer plugs into the laptop and then the desktop can't access it if the laptop is not there.

thanks

 

[arf9999]

ADSL router....get one with 4 ports....and plug your printer into the desktop!

Linksys, D-link, billion etc all have reasonable prices, I suggest that you get a wireless one for future proofing.

-A

 

[HillBilly]

How good is the firewall

Is the firewall decent on routers that 'do it all for you' or do you still recommend installing personal firewall software on the pc.

 

[stoke]

I run a seperate server with 2 network cards. One network card is connected to the ADSL modem, the other goes into the lan switch/router. This server runs xp, with the xp firewall.

It also:
Runs lansuite602 for the mail server and awesome cache/proxy (5 users = free).
Runs IIS for the WebSite + FTP hosting.
Runs backups using simple batch files.

Works fine - catch is, it must be running permanently.

 

[Robone]

I am using a pc as the server and a linksys 54G router after the server which feeds as many computers as you want.

Easy to use and set up. 602 lansuite as the server. Free up 7 users.

Visitors come by and link up without any problems. And it is secure. Not a hotspot yet, but soon to be.

 

[davep001]

Batch files

Talking about batch files..

In the office, I would like a program to back up certain files on each pc to a Linux Box (I have no clue about using Linux) so I would have to set up a location to save the files to. I would then every few days re write the backed up files to cd.

The files mainly consist of Pastel Accounting files, a few ms access databases etc

Does anyone know where i can get such a program?

 

[Robone]

I made a mistake 5 users free on 602 lansuite... Stoke is right.