[SunRescue] Routers for Mr. Bill (oh-ho!)

[Ken Hansen]

You know, I forgot about this, but the retail router boxes are quite affordable now.

The Netgear cable/dsl router was as low as $80 at CompUSA, $100 seems a more likely price point though.

LinkSys has a 1 port model for $100 (buy.com), as well as both a  4 port ($140 most places) and an 8 port switch model ($200 IIRC).

SMC has a box (and so do a few others) that even contain a print server for similar prices.

But my favorite box (I wish I got this, but I am happy with my 4 port LinkSys unit) is the newest LinkSys box:

	Cable/DSL router
	4 port switch
	802.11b wireless access point
	*and* VoIP gateway!

For about $300.

The VoIP gateway uses your cable/DSL connection to establish a connection to net2phone using a standard phone. You connect a phone to the back of the unit (an RJ-11 connector), pick up the phone, you hear a dial tone, and then dial your call as normal...

Now, if they could just put that in a laser printer/fax machine, with a SCSI port on the back for network file space, it would be the perfect little SOHO box ;^)

Note the ;^)

Ken