Advice on ADSL Please

[ronin'dhib]

Hi all,

am about to purchase ADSL for the office and need a bit of advice....

1) I have the option of NAT or Fixed IP. I understand the security concerns of fixed IP but it still looks tempting, can anyone reccomend any good Firewall Hardware or Software (only gotta protect 4 pc's behind the firewall). Bear in mind that some of these are used for on-line games (AC mostly) so the firewall needs to be able to handle configuration changes on the fly. Or should i just go NAT?

2) Which ISP - have had quotes from Claranet, ADSL, OPenworld and OnCue. Oncue offer the best deal.. anyone else ever used em?

3) Router - which router is best, or doesnt it matter (i understand the ISP supplies this but as im still choosing an ISP I can use this as part of my buying decision)

Any other advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[ToXik-yogHurt]

Well I too am going to get ADSL, probably from openworld cos its simplist to get hold of them, and so far...

1)
As far as I know you can't connect more than one computer to the same server if you're using NAT, but this could easily be wrong. Zonealarm (try http://www.zonelabs.com) is a good free software firewall.

2)
No idea

3)
Depoends, if you end up with a usb modem you can't route it with a router, and if you get ethernet they sell/hire you a router or router/modem combined (probably)

Anyone out there who knows a way to get hold of an ethernet ADSL modem and router? I would rather use a router than mess about with sygate or ics.

(Edited to fix URL)

[Edited by ToXik-yogHurt on 22-01-2001 at 02:25 PM]

[richardadc]

It depends on how important your work is. If you really need it to be safe get the Nat version. Otherwise get the Fixed IP.

Go with easynet, it is the cheapest and no one has any complaints about them.

The router is supplied by BT, you have no choice what so ever.

[ronin'dhib]

Thx Toxic but we are going for the non usb version which does allow concurrent multiple access through a router.

Richardadc - thx for the reminder about easynet, i'll give em a look over.

Any other thoughts anyone?

[rider]

you can't do anything but a non-usb adsl for a setup like that - although, I suppose you could with a share setup, but it wouldn't work as well as Network/Router method, than a usb one and I doubt support for it would extend to it through the software

personally, NAT is my choice - but you don't sound like you're actually running a business. If you are, I'd NAT it.

[ronin'dhib]

hehe we are indeed actually running a business! I think NAT is the safer approach myself.

I talked to easynet and asked if we started nat could we then change to RIPE if we wanted.. they said yes but it would cost £150 to do it later (mmm me thinks rip off).

There prices appear good (£79.00 a month for 500/250) but when i asked about e-mail (we dont have an smtp server) they said they could provide POP3 but it would cost another £150.00. So im not really too impressed.. also they won't bill monthly.

Any other ISP's anyone could reccommend?

[rider]

I only got this through word of mouth, so I don't actually know much about them, other than the word "brilliant" being spouted from their lips

Claranet

[Hades]

Nildram ADSL user here. A bit more expensive than most but I've found their helpfulness and professionalism nothing short of brilliant.