[Bob Haller]

Anyone here networking AOL DSL? I really like my dsl service and AOL now offers networking and multiple screen name sign ons on one account. But they tell me I can only use $130 linksys router that somehow uses the phone lines to communicate. Now I have had interference problems in the past, figured I would pick up cheap wired router. Heck I already put in the ethernet cable.

I dont like wireless stuff, of course in the past I have had light dimmers and motion sensors and other stuff cause interference. So wired feels better to me...

This is ALL so my wonderful wife and me can both surf onn the net at the same time.

Any advice would be appreciated.

BTW aOL includes a built in firewall which cuts port attacks and such to near zero. I REALLY LIKE THAT!!

 

[James_F]

I have a netgear wifi router which I use to share a cable modem connection in the hose. It uses 2.4 ghz signals, not phone lines, to send the data. It can be interfeared with 2.4 ghz phones. I've never had trouble with it.

AOL with built in firewall. Its a software firewall which isn't much help. If you don't leave your computer on all the time you have nothing to worry about. In fact, unless you are running a computer with filesharing on, I wouldn't worry about it at all. There are so many computers in the world with no security, its too much hassel to hack into a home computer when there is a faster comptuer on a better network, wide open. The bigger issue is somone "stealing" you wifi network. I can see the neighbors network from my house. He has a crappy DSL connection so I wouldn't bother using it.

 

[Bogy]

I have not ever used AOL, but I have had good luck with a dual NIC card setup, with cable modems. My setup uses a standard Linksys hub with four computers networked. My daughter and her room mate are connected with a peer to peer setup. I'm cheap and a $10-$20 NIC is a whole lot cheaper than a router.