OK, you’ve been good, and secured your wireless network. If you haven’t (and I can’t imagine the why of that), then please… please do so
immediately. You can get a good guide here. This is of paramount importance to your identity because illegal and costly activities can be perpetrated on "your" network. The last thing you need is Homeland Security knocking on your door, telling you about "kiddy stuff and piracy" you've allegedly been engaged in.
If you're unsecured, download and run the utility and print a report. You might need it. Then, secure your network! WPA/2 is recommended if supported by your router. If not, then there are ways to flash your router (you might 'brick' it - be careful and read up on it) to install software to allow WPA/2, but that's a subject for another article. Read about DD-WRT here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation . Read that article well!
OK, now you’ve secured your network and you wish to check up if you’ve done well. How do you do that?
Neil Sofer, aka NirSoft has provided yet another free (and freely distributable, if unaltered) tool: Wireless Network Watcher v1.10.
“Wireless Network Watcher is a small utility that scans your wireless network and displays the list of all computers and devices that are currently connected to your network. For every computer or device that is connected to your network, the following information is displayed: IP address, MAC address, the company that manufactured the network card, and optionally the computer name. You can also export the connected devices list into html/xml/csv/text file, or copy the list to the clipboard and then paste into Excel or other spreadsheet application.” – NirSoft
It scans only the network you’re connected to: It cannot scan other networks.
System requirements:
You should take a look at all the utilities Mr. Sofer has created. They are all small, and free. Look for them here: http://www.nirsoft.net/ and bookmark this site!
For starters how many systems are you planning to connect to the internet through the new router?
Are you interested in QoS and/or other traffic-shaping technology?
The reason I ask those two questions is because that will determine if you have need for a router that handles multiple concurrent connections better than the cheap ones. The traffic-shaping question is in relation to "use" of your network bandwidth. If you like to game but your wife/children keep causing latency spikes for you because of their youtube browsing or facebook gaming (some of those fb games use a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth seriously.....hehe) you can configure the better routers (some cheap ones "claim" they can do QoS etc. but aren't really effective at it) to perform traffic shaping so that certain traffic gets priority over other traffic etc.
Then we have the question of remote access or VPN to/from work?
Off the top of my head (without any answers to those questions) I would start with the following suggestions:
(To those out there who haven't read my other posts to this thread, YES I know I could just suggest something from your local compu-deal-mart but since I'm sure StevenAus has read the entire thread he's aware I'm about to suggest routers one might see in a small/medium business office. I am making those suggestions because while the el cheapo routers will "work"......the ones I'm listing will DO everything better and are still not as complex as real dedicated firewalls to configure.)
D-Link DSR-500 (you don't need the N since you don't care about wireless)
Netgear FVS318
Allied Telesys (formerly Allied Telesyn) AT-AR415S - this one is probably the most complex of the bunch and I just added it because I happen to love AT. I have some AT products from 15yrs ago that have outlived every other brand of router I've ever owned including many computers and they're still going strong.
The Dlink and the AT are in the $300 price range, the Netgear (there are other models I might suggest but this is the lowest I would go with Netgear) is the lowest at around $150 and all are fantastic value for the money. Out of the box each of those routers provides excellent "edge-protection" (via intrusion detection and traffic inspection firewalls), solid QoS / traffic shaping, and VPN connectivity.
The Dlink is probably the best bet if your other LAN devices are Gigabit since it has 4 Gigabit LAN ports.
The Netgear has a lifetime warranty, super easy interface but only 10/100 LAN ports (you can buy a more expensive model to get Gigabit ports) and the VPN connectivity requires (as far as I know) client software from Netgear which one would have to license.
The AT is probably the best at performing QoS etc. but then it is also probably the one that would be most "overkill" in the sense that it does some things other routers only dream of.....hehe
My recommendation out of those three even before you give me more info would have to be the Dlink because it seems to be the most "well-rounded" (while the other 2 excel in certain areas the Dlink is IMO decent across the board).
thanks,
the Monk
Mac sells their OSX OS for the Mac for around $30 dollars.
Sorry I took a little while to get back to you. Just one computer (if by number of systems you mean number of computers).
Well at the moment, no.
So does your router prescription change at all based on the answers to your questions?
Thanks again for the help!
Best regards,Steven.
Well that I did not know since i don't care for macs or anything mac related.
Heard from a guy today that in the US laws are now passed so that the Government knows what you are doing on the net 24/7 and they know where you are at. Is that possible?
Sure, but since the Netgear that I listed can be had for as low as $130 and seriously.......anything under $100 just isn't even worth the fuel to drive to the store to get it (IMO) I would look at anything between $100-$150. Taking the answers to the questions in consideration I would knock the D-link and for sure the AT off of the list but there are still things a router in the 100-150 range does many times better than the $50 variety that would benefit even your single-system setup, such as more robust security, better hardware that can take advantage of/use said better security, hardware that won't become overwhelmed as easily by rogue traffic etc. and a router that could potentially "grow" with your network needs should that need to change in the future.
Well up here the politicians have been discussing ordering the ISP's to log everything a user does using their connection (24/7) and to store that info just in case the cops ever have need to get at that info (a warrant would of course still be required).
Something wrong with that?
Yeah. Invasion of privacy.
what privacy? Wait.....you think you still enjoy some form of privacy?!?
Yeah I do. Or do you think everyone needs to know what's on your drives?
I'm not wanting to join this debate, but meanwhile, back on topic;
About this little utility, for those who haven't dl'd it yet.
The good:
1: It works great.
2: It's small and very lightweight. (less than 5k of ram used)
3: WB skins it nicely.
4:It can be collapsed down to sub-widget size.
The bad:
The little eyeball on the icon keeps staring at me.
Conclusion: If you are wireless, you should get this.
@ Doc. Thanks again for this little gem and keep 'em coming.
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