Linksys router: Good firewall, great Internet sharing

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technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Linksys router: Good firewall, great Internet connection sharing

March 28, 2001

Routers and switches: A reader demystifies the topic

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Firewall programs can be very effective at keeping intruders out of your computer. My preferred program for Windows PCs is BlackIce, from Network Ice at www.networkice.com/. At $40, it's a relatively inexpensive way to protect a home or office PC from infiltration across the Internet.
   But a better way dispenses with software and doesn't even need a computer. Companies that have large networks usually protect them with a hardware firewall -- a device that sits between the company's computers on one side and the Internet on the other. Sometimes these industrial-strength firewalls actually have computers built in, but often they're little more than a fancy box containing circuits and chips. Firewalls built that way are far more reliable than firewalls based on computers.
   Recently, a new kind of hardware firewall has started to catch on. This kind of Internet barrier is designed for homes and small offices, and usually includes an Internet-sharing function. These dual-purpose firewalls generally cost between $100 and $200 and can be hooked up in a couple of minutes. They're controlled through a Web browser and don't require any particular kind of computer "downwind" of the Internet connection. In other words, these Internet-sharing firewalls work fine whether you have Windows PCs or Macs on your home or office network. (And they also work perfectly with Linux PCs and Unix computers, too.)
   A few months ago I bought such a device to provide a hardware firewall for my home network. It's an EtherFast Cable/DSL Router, one of two or three models in the EtherFast Router line from Linksys, at http://www.linksys.com/. Mine can connect eight computers to the Internet through a single Internet hookup, with all Internet traffic passing through the EtherFast Router's built-in firewall. I paid $150 for it at a local store.
   The model I bought has the basic functions of a network hub but does them in a smart way. Leaving out the technical stuff, I'll simply explain that a hub serves as the central connection point for a standard network. All the computers on a normal Ethernet network are connected to the hub, and everything that is supposed to go to one computer goes to all computers.
   Hubs are dumb, and there's nothing in the way a hub-based network operates that steers data to the right location. Information gets bounced around from computer to computer until the right computer grabs what it needs.
   The Linksys device is a router. It steers the data in an intelligent way, eliminating a lot of the sluggishness you'll find in a typical peer-to-peer network. (Networks that don't have servers are "peer-to-peer" networks because each computer has equal ranking.)
   This means adding the Linksys Etherfast Router can give your network a boost in all operations, regardless of any Internet activity. If your home or office network has three or more computers and uses a hub, the Linksys Router is almost guaranteed to speed things up. My own measurements showed a 20 to 25 percent speedup in most normal network operations.
   The firewall works on its own, whether or not any of the computers on the network are functioning. Your network is protected around the clock.
   You can customize the way the firewall works by typing the router's network address into a Web browser on any computer on the network. The router's configuration menu will appear in the browser. You have to type a password to be able to make changes.
   The configuration menus also let you bar one or more of the computers on your network from all Internet access, if you'd like. You can even turn off the firewall entirely for one or more ports on any computer. Normally, this would be a bad idea, but it might be the only way to play interactive games such asa Quake. (Be sure to turn the full firewall functions back on after the game is over.)
   I found the Linksys firewall very effective at blocking unwanted access from intruders, and I quickly retired my copy of BlackIce. Using a hardware firewall and one based on software might still be a good idea, however, for those with very sensitive information on their networks. For typical home and small-officer users, the Linksys router-firewall combination probably is all you need.