Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Good to hear you got them going, did you end up moving the modem off the USB port, or create a Lan bridge or something ?
quote:
Originally posted by Philip Taylor:
I would like to use VoIP to save on long distance calls. What would I need to buy other than the DrayTek to use VoIP?
The draytek router and any ordinary telephone (plugs into a port on the router) is all you need to make calls from your internet connection to anyone else with an Internet connection and VOIP capabilities.
To call someone who *doesnt* have VOIP setup (at ~1c per minute anywhere in Australia), you will also need to subscribe to a "PSTN Gateway" service - They provide a connection between the internet and the normal "Public Switched Telephone Network" - There are heaps of people offering this service, I'm trialling my first one now http://www.siphone.com.au/ and so far they seem OK.
There are also free programs like "Skype" http://www.skype.com that can use your computer to do a similair sort of thing to VOIP capable routers, but they use a proprietary language that can only free-talk to other people who also run Skype (which requires Windows XP to work well).. and you have to tinker around a bit getting a microphone and speaker working on your computer (without feedback between the two) which can be fiddly. also, I've found Skype calls to normal telephones (at 3c/minute - triple the rate of a SIP Voip solution like the draytek) a little voice-laggy compared to the local PSTN Gateway provider, so I like the the router solution better so far.
quote:
Would I need internet security on both computers with a router. I currently hook up to the net on one computer and run Norton in it.
That depends on how secure you want to be. Most routers have a pretty good firewall built into them that will stop people from getting *in* to your computer very well, but as standard dont do much to stop data from getting *out* from your PC to the net. They are all configured by default to allow anything that wants access out to the internet to be granted it without question. You can lock them up to block outgoing access as well if you want to, but need to understand how to custom configure their internal firewalls to do so, which is not a job for a novice in TCP/IP Networks.
Software firewalls (like Norton Internet Security and ZoneAlarm) also stop outgoing data until you have authorised a program to have net access (they usually pop up and say something like "Program X is trying to access the net, do you want me to allow it ?"). This can be good if you're not careful about what software you install on your computer and know what it does, but can also be a PITA since most people dont know enough to say for sure whether some obscure named program like "WinSvc" should be allowed net access or not.
I personally dont run software firewalls on any of the 8 machines I have connected to the net through my router and I have never had any trouble, but I'm careful about what I install and do Internet security as part of my job, so I know what to watch out for.
If you want to really lock up tight and dont mind something like ZoneAlarm or Nortons bugging you on occasion (and making it harder to get the machines behind a router talking to each other without Interference from them) then they do add another layer of defense at the cost of the inconvenience of having multiple locks on your "front door"..
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