Overclocker Cafe - Netgear RT314 Router

Today we live in a world of high speed information exchange. Protection from intruders is desirable and often critical. Many of us have more than one computer in the home and often more than one user. But how do we network the machines? How can we share an internet connection without a hassle? A router could be the answer for you. Today we look at the Netgear RT314 Cable/DSL Router and see if it can meet those needs.

Overview

What is a router, and do you need one, is a question that many ask. I know when the cable guys came to install my cable Internet service, they recommended a couple of routers without really explaining what they were or could do for me. Routers do three main things. They help you network multiple PCs in your home. They let you share one internet connection between multiple PCs. And lastly they act as a firewall.

Let’s start off with Firewalls. A Firewall protects you and your data by filtering out unwanted packets of information and shielding your computer(s) from the outside world. This is important for many reasons. You may have a money management program on your computer with credit card information, social security numbers, bank information, etc. that you want to keep from the outside world. Or you could own a business that has personal and confidential information about your clients that you want to ensure remains private. With the advent of high speed internet access, the speed in which files can be accessed and monkeyed with, is every bit as fast as the speed it gives us when surfing the web or doing some online fragging.

Sharing an Internet connection between several PCs on a network should not be a major undertaking. With the Netgear RT314 it isn’t. We talked a bit about Firewalls above. Notice the diagram below.

INTERNET--->MODEM--->ROUTER (Firewall)---->PC

Sure you want to guard against intruders but you also want to share your Internet connection. You could use Microsoft’s Internet Connection Sharing but this method eats up valuable resources that could otherwise be used for more important tasks where as a router functions independently and does not task your CPU. Another method is to employ the use of a hub to split the data to multiple PCs. The problem with this is that you need more than one IP address. With most ISPs you get one and there is a fee for any additional IPs. These fees vary depending on which provider you use. Another problem of Internet connection sharing without a router, is that with a hub data is sent out equally to each port on the hub. Which effectively slows the signal. Netgear’s router addresses this in two ways. First there are four switched ports on the back of the RT314 unit to accommodate four PCs. Each PC now functions with basically a direct line to your data source.

Now we just said the RT 314 has four 10/100mb switched ports. What is a switch? Well briefly, a hub carriers (really divides) data transfer equally to all points connected without discriminating. A switch routes the data to the specific machine requesting it, subsequently decreasing the congestion and bottlenecks. This obviously, is far more efficient and desirable than a hub. Switches are good.