Router Question

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I have a D-Link DI-704P router.
It's obviously a a few years old (4-5 or more)

Would I see any speed differences in a new router?

[Bungleau]

Probably not. It's a 10/100 router, which means you can choose between 10 and 100Mbit for wired connections. The next step up is gigabit, which would cost a *wee* bit more. The most common household routers are also 10/100.

The most likely bottleneck for speed is going to be your internet connection, not your router. I suspect your router is barely taxed.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Ok,
The modem from my provider has enough ports on it, that I do not need the router. Is there any reason to leave it on, other than the firewall?

[ElfBane]

Do you plan on working wirelessly?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

nnnno,
I would eliminate some clutter though,

[Bungleau]

Does your provider's modem have a firewall? If not, that's enough reason to keep it in my book.

Also, is the modem yours or your provider's? If it's your provider's, I'd keep the router. I prefer having control over things myself, and not being subject to the provider suddenly deciding to pull the modem or change things around.

If you do pull it, store it for later.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

My router, their modem.
Yeah, I'll find out about the firewall thing..

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

It's a Speedstream 6520.

There is stuff on the net, but I couldn't find anything about firewall. Would someone like to have a look?

[Albromor]

Keep the router. It is your first, best defense. It not only has a hardware firewall within but does other things as well.

I have yet to read of a Modem having a firewall. This is one of the major reasons for your ISP connection going first through router and then to your modem

And Bungleau is correct in that the 10/100 router is standard and it is probably far from being taxed. Your speed is based on the type of connection you are using: dial-up, DSL, or cable.

[Felix The Assassin]

Our Windstream provided 'Speedstream 5200' modem *has* a firewall. I can control it from the www in the same way as 'my' USR router. Except, since modem must be connected to the DSL line, mine is wired; modem (hard firewall), then router (hard firewall), then workstations (soft firewall).

Variol, this came from my owners manual, check yours.

Originally Posted by The Book Firewall Security The firewall in the SpeedStream router is a stateful packet inspection filter that works at the IP level. The firewall consists of an IP packet filtering mechanism, a Network Address Port Translator (NAPT), and a Network Address Translator (NAT). When the NAPT/NAT feature is enabled, the local (unreachable) IP addressing used in the LAN automatically protects it from access. Even when NAPT/NAT is disabled and the LAN is accessible from the WAN, you can configure the firewall to protect the LAN from external attacks by creating custom filters to fine-tune access control. Note Because a NAPT/NAT system works like a firewall, though they are not the same, are often referred to interchangeably. In the specific context of SpeedStream routers and associated Web management interfaces, the term “firewall” refers more specifically to IP packet filtering, such as stateful inspection. However, in the generic sense of firewall functionality, SpeedStream products also include NAT and NAPT. The firewall includes the following high-level, industry-standard features: Port forwarding through NAPT/NAT. Numerous Application Level Gateways (ALGs) for proper NAPT/NAT functioning. Stateful IP filtering with sophisticated rules database. Automatic and protocol-specific session tracking. Preconfigured and custom firewall levels. Virtual DMZ. Firewall logging with Network Time Protocol and SysLog support. Attack Detection System (ADS). Session Tracking Some protocols, such as FTP, require secondary network connections on ports other than the main control port. These connections are usually made using port numbers in the dynamic range (> 1024). The SpeedStream firewall allows traffic on such secondary sessions without manual configuration.