Jim Cheetham wrote:
On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 8:23 AM, Bernard Frankpitt
<[email protected]> wrote:
In the end I went for the cable modem option: It is the option offered by
my Telstra, and I already have a cable connected to my house.
...
When you go to a broadband connection, the ISP controls both sides of the
link since they provide you with a stand-alone modem that usually connects
to you computer via a TCP/IP link over Ethernet. That is a much easier set
of protocols to design to. In addition, it is easy to put a firewall router
between the modem and your machines to give you additional security.
Just be aware that with Telstra, by default you get a real external IP
address bound directly to your computer; if you are not running a
pretty aggressive firewall you will now be processing all attack
traffic directly on your machine. Of course, the majority of this will
be stuff that subverts Windows machines, but some if it will be valid
attacks against other services too.
Attaching a Windows computer directly to Telstra's service is severely
negligent. :-)
The Telecom ADSL solution, where there is a NAT layer between you and
the Internet run on a separate piece of hardware, is actually nicer
from that perspective.
I strongly recommend a separate machine of some description between
you and the Telstra connection. Just what that is, depends on what you
want to do with your new connection ...
-jim
Very Very ture guys, you ought to have seen the logfiles my firewall
used to generate, Gigs and gigs of them!
