I want to connect an ethernet router to my built in ethernet port. To begin with I'll only have it connected to my ethernet port on my MAC. I want a 4 port router. Does it have a seporate phone line connection that you can connect a normal phone to and use DCHP to connect to the Internet?

I have a similar set-up at home. You will be using two DHCP servers. Let's start at the router. It handles your connection to your ISP. It will get an IP address from the ISP's DHCP server. As far as your ISP is concerned, you will have only one IP address. The router in turn is also a DHCP server for the computers on your personal (internal) network. Each computer will get an IP address from the DHCP server buit into the router. The next piece of the puzzle is called Network Address Translation (NAT). The router gets information from your local computer. It then translates the IP address to the one that the ISP recognizes. When the information comes back, the router takes the external IP address and translates it back to the internal IP address of the computer that initiated the connection and sends it on. The router acts as a firewall to help protect your internal network. If a hacker is scanning the network for IP addresses, he will see the IP address of the router but will be unable to see the IP addresses of your internal computers. Anything sent to the router will be ignored. As far as the telephone line: A router does not have a connection for a regular telephone line. It will have an ethernet connection for a cable or DSL modem/ router. You will need to have the appropriate service from you ISP. As far as I know a router is not available using regular dial-up as it would not have enought bandwidth to support multiple connections. My set-up uses a Linksys router model BEFSR41 and a Westel modem provided by my ISP. you probably won't have a choice of modems as it should be provided by your ISP. My network is a combination of Macs running OSX and PCs running WIN2K. Good luck! iMark

The only router I heard of with a telephone line is Apple's Airport hub. I believe it has two ethernet ports, so you can connect to ISP by phone or cable modem/DSL, then put your computer in the other port.