Quoted:
Within the past year, my ISP has gone from 9 local acces numbers down to 2! And I live in a heavily populated area. We have 3 area codes now for what use to be 1 with 10 digit dailing.
Did they get a couple of SuperCrays or something? Or is it more like they're making it more difficult for dail up to push DSL and Cable?
Looks like I'm going to be getting DSL soon anyway, but probably not through my current ISP.
Also, do any of you guys that have DSL or cable ever have any problems with them? If so what are they?
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none, just be sure to get the Ethernet modem.
you will need to buy a DSL router and a network card for your PC(if it doesnt already have one)
the advantage of this setup is that the router has a hardware firewall in it. those are very difficult to break. even more so with the home ones because the holes change by the microsecond(more or less).
the hardware ones work like this
you type www.ar15.com into your browser, your PC knowing its internet connection is somewhere beyond the network card sends it out there. the router gets the request for www.ar15.com, rewrites the request to make the internet think IT wants it(removes your internal ip and writes its ip on there) and the router assigns a random port to the packet. that port remains open until the data comes back(or until a timer runs out of a few seconds).
each click on a link or webpage you visit generates a new request and the proccess is done all over again.
easy way to understand it
IP = Telephone number
Port = Person they caller wants to reach.
of course the real descriptions are far more techincal and loaded. but that should suffice.
the wirepath would be DSL Modem - Router - PC.
the DSL modem is hooked into the Router on what is labeled a "WAN port" the PC Network card is then hooked up to the routers LAN ports.(note : the network card must be installed in the pc for it to be useful)
program the router with your user/pass and viola your online.
--edit--
Benjamin is overly paranoid but yes that crap does happen. however with these nice routers and their hardware based firewalls. my server with firewall software has never ever seen an attack or even a port touched that was not specifily opened for a specific use. this is because the attack has to be EXTREAMLY lucky to even see it. not only does he have to get my ip (which is dynamic so it changes), but he has to guess the proper port at the proper time. and since the ports change from moment to moment to random ports(if there is a constant connection like IRC) even if he does get a responce from my pc on a portscann by the time he has a chance to even respond to it its changed again.
so as you can tell these devices are well put together.
just be sure to change the admin password on these. you would be surprised how many people do not change them. if you dont change it the invader can access and change your routers settings. (if you leave remote admin's on).
all in all my network is very secure from outside invaders that hit the firewall. now those damn viruss/worms/trojans that sneak in on emails are usually caught by norton antivirus.