Technical Help Centre - Gconnect - The Business ISP

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ADSL - What Hardware Do I Need? Routers enable multiple users spread across a network to access the internet through a single exit point such as a phone line, ISDN line or ADSL connection. Routers can also offer additional services to a network such as a firewall, hub or VPN utility.   -   -     -

Common Router FAQ's: Do I want a fixed IP number? Some offices use Microsoft exchange to manage email, traditionally exchange did not have a POP collector built in, so engineers either had to buy a third party application such as Pop Weasel to collect mail from the POP box or ask the ISP to provide an SMTP feed to the exchange box which needed a fixed public ip address. Routers normally have 2 ip addresses, one on the outside of the local network and one on the inside of the network. The internal IP is set so the computers on the internal network can communicate with it such as: 192.168.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 The external IP number is normally provided by the ISP when the dial up connection is established. This IP number will differ between connection sessions and is simply grabbed from a list of available IP numbers in the pool. So it becomes apparent that a machine or device on the outside world cannot find your exchange box if it doesn’t know what the IP number is. Enter the fixed IP number, with a fixed IP the MX record on the DNS server can point to your exchange box and deliver mail, however your exchange server is switched on. Using our smtp feed, if the box is not switched on we try to deliver the mail every 10 minutes or so until such time as the server is switched back on. Multiple Fixed IP’s Of course using a router with a fixed IP only gives the router a permanent address to the router, so a further fixed IP can be allocated to the exchange server. Online Gaming Online gamers have a need for fixed IP on a single user connection so the other members of the dungeons and dragons game can find them. They should go and meet some girls really. What is NAT and no NAT? Network address translation is the process by which the router takes multiple internal IP addresses from the network and allows requests to be processed through the single IP address allocated to the router. In short if you have more workstations than fixed IP addresses, then you need NAT. What is DHCP? Dynamic host control protocol is a system which is installed on the router. This acts as a DHCP server and allocates the IP address, subnet mask and gateway details to each computer on the network as they log on. This means in effect that the workstation may have a different internal IP from one day to the next. What is a Firewall? A firewall prevents users on the outside world knocking on the door or your router or modem and gaining access to your network. Access control can be via ports, IP numbers and domains. Not all routers contain firewalls but Gconnect can provide routers with or without firewalls. How do I connect a router to a Hub? A router is simple to connect to a hub, either plug a patch cable (straight) from the uplink port of the hub to the data cable socket on the router. If you don’t have an available uplink port, use a crossover cable to any available port. Which Routers can I buy from Gconnect? Gconnect sell the following routers which are pre-configured for use with ADSL Vigor 2600 – DHCP, Firewall, Access Control, 4 port hub, VPN support Samsung AHT E300 – Basic Router with DHCP support BT Voyager – Basic Router with DHCP support Gconnect also provide a variety of ISDN routers