DSL What a rip off

[Charley Lillard]

"I packed up the dsl crap and put it back in the box... Off it goes"... You sure showed them...LOL

[Mr70]

Put it on Ebay.

[Norm reynolds]

Rick glad you got it up and running the next thing you will what to do
Is down load zone alarm for a fire wall because of the router you are all ways connected
They have a free version that works well

[DjD]

[ QUOTE ]
Rick glad you got it up and running the next thing you will what to do
Is down load zone alarm for a fire wall because of the router you are all ways connected
They have a free version that works well


[/ QUOTE ]

Zone alarm is a good idea but there is a misconception here. The router is a hardware firewall and the rest of the world cannot see inside your router. Your DSL or cable modem is what puts you online 24-7 if you do not turn off your computer. If you don't have a router and leave the computer on you will learn the hard way why a firewall is necessary.

The Linksys or most other routers do several things. First it's a hardware firewall and if you want a software firewall will work with it. When you access your router with the ip address 192.168.1.1 you will find access to setting up and even downloading zone alarm. Next your router issues privite ip addresses to each pc you have hooked up to it either off the ports provided or a seperate hub. It uses DHCP to do this. My private home network uses the same addresses yours and most others are using. These are not used to communicate across the internet. There are two sides to your router the outside if you will gets the address your ISP/DSL provider issues you. Without the router it would be assigned to your PC. Then there is the inside (192.168.1.1) you communicate with from your PC and browser. This is all part of the hardware firewall and is your best home internet security device... Your router should be fairly secure out of the box but if you got it used it may have open ports for file sharing or VPN from the previous owner...