Florida is the lightning capital of the world. Kaboom!! Dead router :-/

[redrumloa]

Yup, I thought the PC was dead to. Luckily it survived and came back up after a VERY long hard reset. The router is dead as a door nail. YES everything was on a surge protector. Unfortunately it's true that Florida is the lightning capital of the world.

Anyhow falling back to dial up is scary stuff :-o So I'll be getting another router within a day or so. Any considerations I should look out for? I'm going to be diving into VPN real serious soon. Any feature I should look out for?

[SWAUG]

Most Surge protectors have manufacturer guarantees for the kit thats plugged into them.  Eg Belkin will give up to 30,000 GBP on some surges

There may be hope for you

[KennyR]

Uh...nasty. I hear surge protectors aren't much use unless you use them properly (without extentions or other surge protected stuff), and many people don't. Though, in your case it sounds like the charge went through your phone/cable line. Most surge protectors shield this too now, fortunately.

And if you used the surge protector correctly and with a shielded network, maybe god got angry at you. ;-)

My router doesn't do VPN, it just passes it through, which is enough for most people. I've never, ever needed it though - I'm not even sure what it is. ;-)

[xaccrocheur]

Anyhow falling back to dial up is scary stuff So I'll be getting another router within a day or so. Any considerations I should look out for? I'm going to be diving into VPN real serious soon. Any feature I should look out for?

I humbly suggest getting your hands on a old ATX PC (a 333 celeron with 256Mo PC100 is FINE) , and use Linux to route your IP through.

It's a VERY price-efficent combination compared to Cisco prices

AND IPtables, the IP Packet filtering built into the new kernel,  DO work.

As for Your VPN (bit of an overkill for a small LAN, provider stuff, man) It can do that either.

pX

PS -   redrumloa, I *love* your avatar, and laugh stupidly each time I see it  :-P

[strobe]

Bullcrap.

You haven't seen lightning until you've been to Manaus.

Use optic fiber next time :-)

[Lo]

I've seen that central florida lightning swoop down out of a sunny sky, some folks are afraid to ride two wheeled vehicles.

Isn't a UPS a better surge protector?  If I lived there, I'd have a UPS for my Television as well!  

[N7VQM]

redrumloa wrote:
Yup, I thought the PC was dead to. Luckily it survived and came back up after a VERY long hard reset. The router is dead as a door nail.

I feel for you.  I'm quite attached to my router.  

As far as routers with VPN support, the SMC7004FW and the Linksys BEFVP41 are the ones I found quick.  I didn't get too deep into the details. They both have intergrated 4-port hubs.

A quick search on Pricewatch found the Linksys product for $105US w/shipping and the SMC product for $92US w/shipping.

If you haven't already, you might want to check your ISPs policy on VPN usage.  My ISP requires the user to have a 'business grade' account to use VPN.

[SilvrDrgn]

As far as routers with VPN support, the SMC7004FW and the Linksys BEFVP41 are the ones I found quick.

I use a LinkSys BEFSX41, which has a 4-port switch in it and VPN capability.  It performs marvelously when I'm working from home.

[logicalheart]

What kind of router is it?  T1, ISDN, ADSL, Cable, Ethernet?  

[SilvrDrgn]

What kind of router is it? T1, ISDN, ADSL, Cable, Ethernet?

Mine, the BEFSX41, is 10/100 Ethernet.

[redrumloa]

Ok stupid question. If a router doesn't specifically mention VPN support, can it be made to just pass it through? I'm new to this obviously.

As for accounts, 2 buildings are buisness accounts, only my home is a residential acct.