ICS no good?

[kold]

Does ICS work properly or is it just me? 10 computers, ICS, and it seem
to work when it feels like it. My dial up performance shows it's onl
pulling at about 5%, so I don't think it's the ISP. Internet and emai
timeout frequently. Sometimes if you reconnect the connection it seem
to perform normally for maybe 20 minutes or so, then continues t
timeout.

I'm trying this as a simple solution for a small office, but I'
starting to think I should get a proper router and use NAT. We wer
using a separate machine for the gateway using proxy software, but th
software was too restrictive, not allowing a lot of traffic that it wa
configured to allow like secure web. Should I go the NAT route anyway

 

[Chuck]

Does ICS work properly or is it just me? 10 computers, ICS, and it seems
to work when it feels like it. My dial up performance shows it's only
pulling at about 5%, so I don't think it's the ISP. Internet and email
timeout frequently. Sometimes if you reconnect the connection it seems
to perform normally for maybe 20 minutes or so, then continues to
timeout.

I'm trying this as a simple solution for a small office, but I'm
starting to think I should get a proper router and use NAT. We were
using a separate machine for the gateway using proxy software, but the
software was too restrictive, not allowing a lot of traffic that it was
configured to allow like secure web. Should I go the NAT route anyway?

What does CPU utilisation on the ICS server look like? Depending upon activity
by the clients, I'd bet it's nasty.

If your internet service permits (either broadband, or dialup with a PPP
compatible client), I generally recommend a NAT router. With 10 clients, this
is definitely justified.

ICS is essentially a software (Windows) based NAT router. Internet traffic is
processed by the NAT router (firmware or software). The difference between
using a separate NAT router, and an ICS server, is:
1) Efficiency. A firmware NAT router is designed for only 1 thing - routing of
internet traffic. A software (ICS) NAT router handles multitasking on a gui
interface, even if you don't use it as a desktop system.
2) Resources. A firmware NAT router uses less electricity, and takes up less
space, than a desktop system.
3) Security. A firmware (Unix) based NAT router is less susceptible to hostile
internet traffic than a software based (Windows) NAT router.
4) Stability. I keep my Unix NAT routers online 7 x 24 x 365, with no
problems. A Windows system has to be restarted periodically, if used as a
desktop system. To say nothing about the monthly security updates.

And please don't contribute to the spread and success of email address mining
viruses. Posting your email address openly will get you more unwanted email,
than wanted email. Learn to munge your email address properly, to keep yourself
a bit safer when posting to open forums. Protect yourself and the rest of the
internet - read this article.
http://www.mailmsg.com/SPAM_munging.htm

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.