Re: FN-FORUM: BT Voyager 205 ADSL Router

date posted 11th November 2005 17:30

John 'Max' Maxwell wrote:
> Nooooo - don't start this one off again, can someone qualified do the
> 'look-into-my-eyes' thingy please.
>
> Points to note - when someone gives you a load of red hot tips about
> tinkering with port forwarding and services etc - just picture the Mechanic
> with his head under his bonnet cos his car never works.
>
> I have many, many clients on-line 24/7 with a USB speedtouch - zone alarm -
> AVG - spyware guard etc. All default, no tinkering, no interaction - piece
> of cake - no viruses, BHOs no nothing.
>
> It's not Rocket Salad - so I wish techie nerd types would stop pretending
> that it is.

I'm partly in agreement here.

I've come to realise that ignorance is bliss.

I've come across many people with completely crap connections and they
just accept it... but then its fine for browsing the web so it makes no
odds that its crap to them.

90% of users should never need to tweak their router, it all depends on
what you're doing.

I fall into the 10%.
All my server admin is done via ssh. I need a connection that isn't
gonna drop out randomly. I also don't want my ssh connections to become
a crawl I'm uploading to a server.

I expect DNS to always work.
I don't expect poorly configured transparent proxys to feed me out of
date pages.

.... but then I don't run one these small boxes now refered to as
routers. (gone are the days where routers actually did proper routing
rather than just acting as a gateway).

Oh and while we are on the subject of dumb naming conventions:

Would companies quit with the "DMZ" name when its really "Forward all
ports to this IP address" and nothing more. Its bad enough the home
users have to decipher what "port forwarding". Anyone who actually wants
a proper DMZ isn't gonna use one of your stupid little "routers".

... anyway...

The 90% want a little black box that they stick in and works. Moreover
they are interested in speed and nothing else. (Most havn't even
wondered why a 2Mb/s connection downloads at ~ 240KB/s)

As for the 10% thats left:

* There is no magic configuration... it all depends on what you are
doing and what you want from your connection. Generally if you fix one
thing then something else breaks.

* If you really want total control then its gonna cost you (either in
time learning Linux or similar, or money getting someone to do it for you)

* At the end of the day we are restricted to what the ISP offeres. Some
are better than others but you have no way of knowing until you try
them. (I'm still on NTL atm, keep thinking of moving to adsl but then
better the devil you know)


Right its firday evening now... why am I still writing this....

Have a good weekend all!

Nathan