Hardware or Software router?

He people...

Was just thinking of upgrading everything the other day, and I started to wonder about my network [at home]...

What would you lot recommend?

Should I...

• Continue using my belkin wireless router

• Buy a new, better router

• Set up a FreeBSD box as a software router/firewall with a switch

• Or a BSD firewall + hardware router

We have a BSD box at work that I have used [a bit], but I don't know how much trouble it would be to setup...?

Cheers for reading!

If your Belkin wireless router is working fine, I wouldn't bother upgrading it. Unless you want a faster speed (from 802.11b to 802.11g for example) or something isn't working, then keep your current one. I don't think I'd setup a FreeBSD box or a BSD firewall with hardware router either, because it'll be more difficult to setup. In the end, you'll end up with something very similar (the Internet being shared across the network), but you'll have to worry about looking after the computer. Also, if something happens to the computer (crashes, dies etc) you'll lose your Internet. The router should be pretty stable.

But then again, you'll probably get far more config options and you'll be in control of more things if you don't go for a standard installation. Unless you really need this though, I don't think I'd bother.

Cool. Thanks for the advice. It's a 54 mBit router anyway, so that's fast enough. I'll just stick with that then!

Hehe - the first time I read that for some I reason I thought you were using a 54Mbit connection to the Internet and that would be fast. But I understand now