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Not bad... So far we should have at least one computer on the net. Yes your right I did say we could get more. Here's how to do it...

We all know what a DHCP server is right?! NO. What are you doing on the net anyway?! Well here a short explanation... a DHCP server basically hands out IP addressed in and assigned range. A good example would be how a cable modem get's it's address from shodgers! How you ask is this going to get me more computers on the net... like this... Every computer needs an IP address. (It's like your house address.... without it you would not get any mail) without an IP address other computers would not know where to send the information. So we have 2 choices.... we can give out addresses ourselves or we can let the BEFSR unit do it automatically for us! the problem is where do we start?! well there are 3 different class's of private IP ranges and the one we are interested in are the 192.168.#.# range.

Wait wait wait.... is that a 253 I see in the "Number of DHCP Users: " field?!?! Yep that's right.... if you really wanted to you could set up 253 other computers to use the same Cable/DSL modem (Lord only knows what it would do to your bandwidth!) and all the IP addresses are automatically assigned. All you have to do is tell each computer the that gateway (the computer that the browser looks to to get onto the Internet) is 192.168.1.# where # is the IP number of the BSEFR unit.

You want still more?!? Greedy little bugger aren't ya! OK then here's where the real power of this unit shines through. THE ADVANCED TAB!

The first thing you see after clicking on the advanced tab is filters. Filters enable you to prevent certain PCs on your network from accessing your Internet connection.

Say for some reason... oh like RED LEADER jumping in CS all the time ... you want to block his IP address from getting on the Internet. Well just enter it in the "Filtered Private IP Range: " and Wala ... no more Internet for jumping RED! Say there is a port that you don't want shared... like the Microsoft sharing port 139.... enter it in the "Filtered Private Port Range: " and guess what.... no more unwanted hacks getting onto your hard drive! the best filter by far is the next... "Block WAN Request:" WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?! by enabling the Block WAN Request you can prevent Internet users from pinging or even being detected! SWEET eh? Want to know something else.... it also hides your ports.... no more port sniffing! sorry shodgers! So go ahead have that FTP server!

The next 2 setting I'll skip seeing as you'll probably never have to use them but the last 2 I'll touch on. The Remote Management and Remote Upgrade. Let's say you are over at a friends house and you locked down everything tighter than a fort knox. Dam.... I need that file on my hard drive... How am I going to get it now?! No Prob. my friend... just enter your IP for you Cable/DSL modem and WALA just like being there. Let the guard down for a few seconds get the file and back up goes the wall! (Now that's SEXY!)

But let's say you don't want to have to do that every time you want a file. Want to run an FTP server? Remember we are not allowed to by the Fine print. Well now you can... just click on the Forwarding tab and I'll tell you more...

You see the Service Port Range fields? You can tell the BEFSR unit to allow certain ports to be forwarded to specific IP addresses. Say you have and FTP server on 192.168.1.2 ..... well put 2 in the IP Address field and 21 in the Service Port Range fields and there you go.... all requests on port 21 goto the computer at 192.168.1.2

There is one little problem... SOME GAMES DON'T WORK WITH PORTS BLOCKED OFF! Well there is a way around that as well. It's called DMZ... and yes it the same as in the military.

You can if you want let one computer seem to be directly on the Cable/DSL modem. Why? Well, games is a good reason (Stupid Microsoft!) another is so that when Shodgers comes a sniffing' they can see this harmless computer while all the others are happy behind the firewall you setup. Sneaky no?

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