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Which is better; Lan or Wan?
I went from a Linksys Befsr41 router which worked very well and hid my ip address and was Lan based, to a Lnksys Befsx41 firewall router which works fine ,but is more complicated and wants to use the ip address instead of the router address and is wan based. I switched from the router to the firewall router because I was told that it was much more secure.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you.
>> Which is better; Lan or Wan? <<
Not a valid question, they are two different things.
A router has two address. The Wide Area Network address, that is the Internet, which is supplied by your ISP. This is open to the wide outsde world. Everyone and his dog can see it if they care to look. It has to be for anything to communicates with you.
The LAN addres which communicates with your Local Area Network. This is hidden from the outside world. It is in one of the private address ranges.
Between the two is a Network Address Translator (NAT) which translates the LAN address to the WAN address and vice versa, keeping tabs on which LAN address information is for.
The NAT acts as a virtual firewall by virtue of the address translation that takes place.
Stuart
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Stuart
I have a smc 7004vbr router & below is how i configure all my pc in the company...All PC IP: 192.168.2.2 - 192.168.2.100
Router IP: 192.168.2.1How i need the configure the NAT features in the router so all pc can access internet together ???
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Both the BEFSR41 and the BEFSX41 use NAT. I have an X, never used a R, but sounds like they work the same for NAT. They both use the ISP provided IP address & create a LAN behind it. check the linksys website. it has an 'educate me' page.
The X does have a built in firewall which is much safer. It stops intruders before they get to the computer.
Get WallWatcher software to record & view the log from Linksys routers. It is free.
http://www.sonic.net/~sraaii/wallwatcher/Index.html
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Okay, but how do you configure the X router so that it shows the 192.168.1.1 (router address) instead of your actual ip address.
The X router wants to use gateway mode instead of router mode.
Thanks.
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I don't understand what you mean by gateway mode vs router mode.
The real WAN IP address has to be displayed so you can get responses. If the other end doesn't know your WAN IP address, how can it send you a response??? There are thousands of Linksys routers out there. They all have the same LAN addresses.
The router keeps track of who sends out a request & who should get it back. Everyone on a Linksys LAN shares 1 WAN IP address.
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I am refering to the firewall routers internal settings. When I would go to a website that displays ip addresses the R router would display the 192.168.1.1 (router address) for the internet to see, but the X router displays the actual ip address and doesnt seem to want to use the router address like the R router. Do you know how to make the X router display the router address instead of the ip address?
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the X router uses the IP address. It works like it works. ask the linksys help site if you have more questions.
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You cannot have an address like 192.168.1.1 being open to the Internet. This is a private address reserved for use on a LAN. Ther are thousands of routers and computers with this address throughout the world.
If you are trying to do what I think you are trying to do and that is use one of your PCs as a server, then you are barking up the wrong tree. You need to be looking up port forwarding which is a whole different ball game.
Stuart
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I understand that, what I am saying is that the firewall router is exposing my ip address and isp and it should not. At least the non firewall router hid everything. There are websites where you can check to see if your ip address and isp are exposed, they do not have to be when your on the internet; and when I was on the non firewall router (Befsr41) it hid everything, but I cant seem to get the firewall router (Befsx41) to do this like it should.
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You are getting me confused now. Which IP address is exposed 192.168.1.1 or the one supplied by your ISP.
If 192.168.1.1 is exposed then there is something seriously wrong with the router. You dont want this address exposed under any circumstances. If it is you open to every hacker in the world. Seems you might have a serious configuration problem. You do have NAT turned on dont you? The only IP address that should be exposed is your ISPs address that they have allocated to your router via DHCP.
Stuart
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I must be the one confused;
This question should fix the problem because I think we are misunderstanding each other is all, although you guys are the gurus and I am just learning still, everyone has to be good at something I guess so I dont feel too bad. LOL:)
And now the question; I was possibly mislead into thinking that a router can protect your identity from the internet? Is this true? If so then I am not configuring my firewall router properly because it is divulging my identity to the internet.
Thank you.
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Depends what you mean by your identity. It wont hide the IP address that you ISP gives you. As I said earlier, you need people to see that in order to be able to communicate. Every time you send a packet over the internet, the header contains your IP address. It like not telling anyone your telelphone number. If you dont do that you are never going to get any telephone calls.
As for the the LAN IP address, that should be hidden. I have an FTP server running, but no one know or needs to know the IP address of the computer that it is running on. The router takes care of that. All the outside world sees is the ISP IP address. They do not know how many computers are communicating through that IP address.
As far as protecting yourself, its port addressing you need to be looking at, not IP addresses.
The differnce is like giving everyone your home addess, but still keeping the door locked to stop unwelcome guests.
Stuart
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Every router has some firewall protection by virtue of Network Address Translation. If you router had added firewall facilities, by all means use them - but make sure it is configured correctly. A misconfigured firewall can give you a false sense of security and give hackers a way in.
I have just a had a look at the Manual For your router. Everything you need to know is there.
Stuart
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So its okay that websites that show your ip address also shows your isp, your os and what ie version your using, because its all tied together with the routers wan address? Its showing the routers wan address and not the computers?
Is this correct?
Sorry I am just trying to get this straight.
Thanks for your patience. :)
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I just implemented a test and it is the routers ip address that is showing which is okay ,but my isp, os and ie version are showing, is there any way to block that or is that info that goes with the router?
Thank you.
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Your ISP can be found by DNS lookup from your IP address. Cant avoid it. Notice the your IP and ISP address is posted on the top of the page when you post any messages.
OS and IE information is part of the IP packet header. Nothing to do with the router, happens with any internet communication by any means. You can hide this information by using a firewall like Zone Alarm and setting the privacy controls.
Stuart
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