I am getting high-speed cable internet thru WOW (WideOpenWest Internet and cable in NE Ohio) in a few weeks.
Can anyone tell me if the Asante FriendlyNet FR1004 4 port Internet Router w/ Firewall would be a good product for internet connection sharing and networking an 8500/G3 OS 8.6 and 9.1, an iMac G3/DV 9.1 and an iBook G3/640MB/700MHz OSX 10.2.1?
It should work fine.
wonder if it's firewall capabilities and general functions as a router are decent?
NAT-based firewalls are typically just ip:port filters. Nothing overly intelligent. They'll protect you from probes and other attacks originated externally. But they won't protect you from viruses and such that you "intentionally" bring in, by surfing or email. IOW, a NAT-based firewall is not a complete substitute for a real anti-virus product running on each of your computers.
I'm also considering buying my own cable modem instead of renting the cable company's.
I strongly advise against this, for now. Depending on the age of your coax drop, and many other factors, there may be a period of time where you'll have a LOT of outtages. 4 to 6 months is not uncommon. If you own the modem, the cable company can blame it. And while you're waiting for the manufacturer to swap it out, the cable company will refuse outtage credits (outtage wasn't their fault). If you rent the modem, you can pin their a** down until they get the thing working 24/7. THEN, once you've had at least 6 months of 24/7 service, it might be worth buying a modem.
Also are their any issues between these machines I need to look out for, especially the OSX iBook? The cable company service person asked what Mac OS I'm using and I told him 9.1 since the 8500 and iMac will always be connected but the iBook only on occasion.
From the cable company's POV, the only relevant worry is the ability of your Macs to talk to their DHCP servers. As long as you're runing Mac OS 8.6 or better, this is not an issue.
| So either the iMac or 8500 will need to act as the server, correct?
The Asante router will handle all aspects of your connectivity. It and the modem are what you leave running 24/7. If you want to run server softwares on your Macs, that's fine - nothing to do with the connectivity tho.
HTH, - Dan.
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