I'm new to cable internet access and am researching Modems. From thes
discussions, the Motorola SURFboard 5100 modem seems pretty hot, an
Linksys seems to be good for its routers. I'm trying to keep my tota
footprint very small (cute little Shuttle XPC), and wondered if ther
even was such a thing as an internal cable modem, just as there is fo
dial-up access.

Also, I need firewall hardware, not just the firewall software. Do
need to buy a modem and router (only one PC needs access at a time) an
a firewall all separately, or are any of these manufactured in
combined product

--
Jen

Jen wrote:

Those "routers" also contain a firewall.

Jen wrote:
There are some internal cablemodems, but they aren't on most cable
companies' lists of acceptable modems. They may be DOCSIS compliant, but
that's only the first level of compatibility. The cable company has to be
willing to support the modem with config files, and firmware updates. An
internal cablemodem also has the disadvantages that it cannot be separately
reset, and would also require OS-specific drivers. So even if the stars
align, and your cable company allows any of the internal modems available,
you'd be paying a high price just for cosmetic purposes.

Most OS's can also act as routers. Windows has Internet Connection Sharing,
for example. With multiple NIC's, and the right software, it can be done --
just not well. The computer's primary purpose is to run applications, and
while pre-emptive multitasking is a wonderful thing, it's not a great
environment to be running network routing services at the same time. And if
you have an undersized case, there probably isn't room for multiple NIC's.

The simple, consumer-level "broadband" router combines basic router
capabilities, and provides a basic firewall as a side effect of using NAT.
NAT means that each computer on your LAN has an internal IP address, and the
only IP address that faces the rest of the world is the single, shared
address of the router. Thus incoming packets need to be expected so they can
be translated to the right internal node. A true firewall goes far beyond
NAT, and would be a separate box. However, based on the questions you're
asking, you are highly unlikely to be in a category that requires more
firewall protection than a NAT router can provide.

There are cablemodem / router combinations, however they also have
deficiencies that far outweigh any cosmetic reasons for wanting them in a
single device.

If aesthetics are so important that you just can't have these boxes near
your desk, Cat5 Ethernet cable can be up to 100 meters long, so you can
always place your cablemodem and router in another room, and have nothing
but the cable coming out of the wall.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Care for your landscape with Black and Decker cordless tools
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blac...ker/index.html

No, not ALL cable modems are external. I'm trying to find one that's
internal (I'm looking at the Zoom 5001) that also works with linux.
The zoom 5001 is DOCSIS 1.0 out of the box and can(I've heard) be
upgraded to DOCSIS 1.1.

If you want to set it up in a computer you have to enable ip forwarding,
probably NAT, and possibly a firewall and dhcp. This is why most plp go
with external boxes - simplicity. That and the fact that external boxes
seem to be the only thing supported by most cable providers.

Fitting the internal cable modem in a SFF case like a shuttle along with
other NIC's is (theoretically) doable assuming you have enough PCI slots.

Good luck with this, I'm having a hard time figuring it out as well,

Cheers,
David

Jen wrote:

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote in message
news:elmop-007336.06494704042005@text.usenetserver.com...
LOL. That is all good in the theoretical world but in the real world you
will find that its not the case.

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

DOCSIS compliant means the modem meets a number of standards. The modem has
or does certain things, and hasn't or doesn't do certain other things. There
is a whole lot of room between the does and the doesn't, and quite a bit of
that involves things that can be set within the config file. If the cable
company is only setting generic settings, a generic config file could be
sent to all the modems, and should work. But that's not the case for most
cable companies. That's one of the reasons why after the recent upgrades
some specific modems had problems: Features beyond the DOCSIS standard being
accessed with the config files.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "no, they don't" regarding firmware
updates. DOCSIS modem firmware updates are routinely pushed-out by the cable
company. In most cases they can't be done from the user side of the modem,
and even in the cases that they are, they can be rewritten from the cable
company side. Some modems even have specific firmware updates for specific
cable companies. Sometimes this goes hand-in-hand with certain parameters in
the config file.

These are just some of the reasons why cable companies have lists of allowed
modems that don't match the list of DOCSIS approved modems.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Care for your landscape with Black and Decker cordless tools
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blac...ker/index.html

Jen wrote:
one box, but I don't recommend it. Unless space is a paramount
consideration, it is better to have these items separate so that you can
replace one without having to replace the other(s). I don't know your
application, but a software firewall, like ZoneAlarm or Outpost Pro is
more than adequate behind a router.




--
Ron Hunter rphunter@charter.net

Giles Harney wrote:


--
Ron Hunter rphunter@charter.net

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
Beg all you want. It doesn't change reality.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Care for your landscape with Black and Decker cordless tools
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blac...ker/index.html