Broadband Router Feature Guide

The first thing you should consider is WAN connectivity, AKA your Internet connection type. Make sure that the broadband router selected supports the type of Internet connection you have. Ethernet connections for cable and DSL modems are the most popular.

Cable Modems (two way)

Cable modems can require special configurations if you have @Home or RoadRunner. @Home requires a 'host name' setting to be configured in your router. Roadrunner can require that you type in your original MAC address of your network card into the router itself (sometimes called spoofing). All modern broadband routers support these settings.

DSL Modems

Some DSL modems use PPPoE, a special kind of data transfer protocol to communicate. Most modems support PPPoE very well. If your DSL provider mentioned anything about 'multi-session' PPPoE then you may want to look for a multi-session broadband router for added functionality (this is very rare).

NexLand's products support multi-session PPPoE

Satellite Two-Way internet service

This service should work just fine with any broadband router as long as you have an ETHERNET version of the satellite modem.  Some 2-way sattelite services are USB and therefore will NOT work with a typical broadband router. Note: Using a router with a sattelite service may dramatically decrease your broadband performance. (see http://www.starbandusers.com/ )

Fiber to the home

Some new communities are offering fiber to the home. This is often a 2-10Mbps connection to the Internet. Your connection point will be a standard RJ45 ethernet connection. Any broadband router should work fine.  If you are lucky enough to have a connection over 2Mbps or so, be sure to look into a fast broadband router. Many routers will peak around 3Mbps or less.

Serial 56K Dial-up modem

(POTS or Plain Old Telephone Service) Some routers have serial ports that support analog dial-up modems (56k modems). Most often, the use of a dial-up modem on a router is for Internet connection backup purposes.

Serial ISDN modem support

Many routers that have serial ports support ISDN connections. The ISDN connection might be used as a primary or backup internet connection.

USB Modems

There are a few rare broadband routers that support specific USB DSL modems. Be very careful when purchasing a router for your USB modem - it must specifically support your modem and service.

Examples: Drayteck

A few rare routers support more than one broadband connection at once. For some networking applications the bandwidth of both Internet connections can be utilized. This is an uncommon practice but it does exist. NexLand supports a connection teaming technology and Compex supports a parallel broadband technology. See the reviews here: Nexland Pro800Turbo & Compex NetPassage 15B/BR Also see, increasing cable modem throughput with connection teaming and Multiple IP’s

All broadband routers support NAT , or network address translation. This is what allows all your computers to share a single IP address on the Internet.

If you plan to host many servers through your router and expose them on the internet, you may want to look into a router with Multi-NAT functionality. Multi-NAT provides the ability to utilize more than one IP address on the internet for INCOMMING communications. It does nothing for outgoing communications. In short, you could run two web servers on port 80, one on each IP address.

Standard NAT - all outbound and inbound traffic happens on a single IP address

Multi-NAT - all outbound traffic is on a single ip address, support for traffic on multiple ip address is supported

Continue:  LAN Selection -->

Broadband Router Feature Guide