Hi, i think this is a really silly qaution but i need to clear it up. Currently i use a straight forward Netgear router with built in modem which i think is brilliant but i do have a cisco router which i want to play around with. Obviously this does not have a built in modem and so i would look to purchase a modem seperately. What sort of modem would you suggest i buy and does this now mean i would have the setup as modem-router-switch-computers? with a simple ethernet cable between the modem and the router. Cheers AD

Yep the modem/router will become a modem and router just use a Ethernet cable to connect: http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=jN7uAYLx...

Why do you think you need a separate modem? Since you just want to play around with the cisco router, why not just plug it into the switch so you can access it via ethernet as well as the console? If all you have is a single subnet, there's not much routing to do after all. If you have several computers, then you could configure multiple subnets and actually have something to route. In which case, you could plug the external interface of the cisco into the SOHO router and then the switch into an internal interface of cisco. Again, this requires no new/extra equipment and allows you to use what you have without spending more money. Keep in mind, a SOHO router is not a "real" router. It's a switch with NAT, a firewall and DHCP added into it. You can probably do more "real" routing with an XP PC that has dual NIC's in it.