OT: ADSL safe practices and setting up a home network

[Debbie Deutsch]

James Wilkinson wrote:
> Richard England wrote:
>> I'm looking into entering the 21st century and need some help finding out how 
>> to go about setting up an ADSL connection at my home. Can anyone give me some 
>> good novice references for what is required for a safe connection in
>> the way of cable modems, routers, hardware firewalls, and how this is
>> all connected?
> 
> Usual advice is to get a hardware "ADSL router" that connects to one or
> more computers via Ethernet or (possibly) wireless Ethernet
> 
> phone line -> ADSL port on the router <- Ethernet cable -> PC
>                                     ^----Ethernet cable -> PC
> 
> James.
> 

Sometimes the ISP supplies an ADSL modem that you are required to use.
In that case, you can purchase a regular hardware router.  It would be
similar to what James described, except it plugs into the ADSL modem
(via an ethernet cable) instead of directly into the phone line.  It
should cost a bit less because it does not have any ability to "speak"
ADSL. In this case the picture would be

phone line - ADSL modem - ethernet cable - router - ethernet cable - PC
                                                  - ethernet cable - PC

These days, routers come with the "firewall" capabilities built in.  If
you stick with any of the major brands you probably will be fine.  (I
have no horror tales about obscure manufacturers, but I *know* you will
almost certainly be okay if you get a model from, say, Linksys or NetGear.)

Remember that the major difference between dial-up and broadband is that
your computer is always connected; therefore the big difference in what
you have to protect against is probes from the bad guys who are looking
for computers that they can break into.  Whatever you were doing about
spam and viruses and nasty websites can remain the same.

HTH,

Debbie