Farallon NetLINE Broadband Gateway

Broadband Internet is still in its infancy in the UK, but already we're seeing products aimed specifically at early adopters. Farallon's NetLINE is intended for cable modem or ADSL Ethernet modem users who want to share their connection across a network. The small box houses two Ethernet ports - one for the Internet connection, one for attaching to the local network. However, it won't be of any use to you if you have one of BT's USB ADSL modems, but for cable modem customers the Farallon could help you turn a single PC connection into a network-wide one without having to rely on Internet connection sharing and two network cards.

I installed the Farallon on a Telewest blueyonder cable modem service, but you could also, in theory, use it with the Ethernet version of BT ADSL to extend the number of supported PCs. However, BT only supports up to four PCs with its basic Ethernet service - extending this with the Farallon would be unsupported. Physical setup of the Farallon is as easy as plugging in a couple of RJ-45 cables. Like ICS (Internet Connection Sharing), the Broadband Gateway acts as a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, doling out IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.x. So long as your client PCs' network cards are set up as DHCP clients, they'll be leased an IP address and can access the Internet via the gateway.

The Farallon itself is set up entirely using built-in Web pages. Point a client PC's browser at 192.168.0.1 and the main page will be loaded. The deeper configuration pages can be password protected to prevent unauthorised changing of settings. A plethora of options abound. You can alter the router's base IP address and the range of addresses it leases via DHCP, and configure the way the router accesses the WAN or Internet connection. Two types of Ethernet modem are supported - ones which use the Mac address for authentication and ones that use PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) with a login and password. For Mac address authentication, the gateway can be set to spoof an existing Mac address, which can be useful if your broadband supplier is unwilling to let you use an alternative address to the one the service was installed on.

The Farallon has quite a range of security features, the most basic of which is NAT (Network Address Translation). This makes client PCs on the network appear to the external world as the one external IP address used by the NetLINE for Internet connectivity. Should you need to make systems visible for specific tasks, such as Web servers or streaming media, these can be set up as virtual ports through the Farallon. There's a large selection of presets, or you can configure your own TCP or UDP virtual servers. Alternatively, you can block traffic through certain ports, such as RealAudio.

The NetLINE packs in a lot of routing functionality, and its Web interface is relatively easy to use considering the extensive range of features. The security options aren't in the same league as a hardware firewall such as 3Com's OfficeConnect Firewall 25 (reviewed p184), but are more than you'd expect for £139. If you're looking to share a broadband connection with a small network, the NetLINE offers you much more than ICS.

Author: James Morris