ADSL Modem

"Sean" wrote in message
...
dont understand what you mean, you mean setup a slow system as a
router/server for another system, either way adsl is more than fast enough
for any game available at the moment



yeh, basically my friend wants to use the 486 and PCI modem to act as a
router for the ADSL connection. to me this just seems like he's taking the
cheapest option he can think of without taking into account features such as
firewalls.

Andy wrote:

"Sean" wrote in message
...
dont understand what you mean, you mean setup a slow system as a
router/server for another system, either way adsl is more than fast
enough for any game available at the moment



yeh, basically my friend wants to use the 486 and PCI modem to act as a
router for the ADSL connection. to me this just seems like he's taking the
cheapest option he can think of without taking into account features such
as firewalls.


The throughput with 1MBS is easily dealt with on any system. I'm using an
old P1 233 as a router/firewall and it's just as fast as directly
connecting the computer. I'd sugest he use linux/InteractiveBastille then
he will have some serious firewall power!
--

Stacey

On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 20:51:13 +0100, "Andy" wrote:

A friend of mine has informed me that if I use an old computer with a PCI
ADSL modem installed it will increase the ping a lot if downloading files
and playing games so it is necessary. Isn't is actually the case that a
lower ping is better? Any thoughts would be welcomed, i'm sure my friend has
got it wrong but i'm not really in a position so suggest anything else
because I am not much of an expert when it comes to ADSL (as far as i know
he isn't either but still...)

Many Thanks!

Yes, a lower ping time is better, and yes, routing through the old
system with ADSL modem will increase the ping time. Overall download
speed won't be significantly affected but the ping will. This should
be easy enough to verify by pinging *something* in both
configurations.

However, unless online gaming is a very high priority, you might want
to use the old system as a router anyway, it will serve as a basic
firewall for the rest of the LAN and make sharing easier. The other
higher performance option is of course the more traditional
router-with-built-in-switch, connected to an external ADSL modem. For
the $ you get a smaller, quieter, faster, more reliable
network/connection... even if the OS on the old system is stable, it's
old hardware, and so less reliable hardware-wise than a new router
would generally be.


Dave