Commercial

For General Users

The relative advantages of a separate gateway/router are discussed at Firewall_Software

A packaged commercial uint is the most suitable option for most people

• ADSL modem/router for ADSL users
• "broadband" roiuter for other connection types
  • as of 2012, a commercial router for dial-up connections appears to be unavailable
  • dial-up users having intermediate skills could consider a DIY unit - see "Getting Technical" below

Disadvantages

• generally regarded as "abandon-ware" by manufacturers - typically
  • firmware updates are not announced
  • only a few updates provided
  • for about three years only
• firewalling functions eg SPI, often default to DISABLED
  • apparently to ensure that it "just works"
  • ensure that these functions are re-configured to ENABLED

Recommendations

1. A commerical uint that overcomes the above disadvantages at a price is the FritzBox
   • available from http://www.internode.on.net
   • note that the upmarket model is required to support IPv6
2. A much lower pirced unit is the DLink DIR-615
   • this is a broadband router only (no modem)

Rpeters11:12, 21 September 2012 (EST)