Hi Geekzone patrons.
I'm after ANY advice you can give me on how best to set up my home network. Where am i going wrong & what can i do to improve how i have things set up? I have a few specific questions, but if anyone can think of anything else that may be helpful, please do chip in. First some info about my existing setup:
Telecom Adventure
DSE1169 router Rev 3 REL9 v5 Firmware REL9P-B1
USR8054 Wireless router
PC (which I'm using here) connected wireless via Belkin F5D 7050 USB device
Laptop connected via USR5410
The DSE router has an Lan IP of 192.168.1.2 subnet 255.255.255.0 which connects to the USR8054 through the USR's WAN port. The USR has a WAN IP of 192.168.1.3 and LAN IP of 192.168.123.254. DHCP is turned off and the laptop and PC have static IP addresses of 192.168.123.XXX etc
NAT is active on both routers. The PC has the free version of Zone Alarm and the laptop has no firewall as it is just used for surfing & if it fries can be rebuilt reasonably quickly.
WEP 128 is enabled, SSID broadcast is off and MAC filtering is on. I can't seem to get the Belkin & the USR8054 to communicate with WPA otherwise I would be using that.
Should I set up the USR so that it is conneected to the DSE via the Lan port & not the WAN. Should I activate the firewall on the USR, and if so, how do i do this?
I use Skype a LOT. I have friends all over the world and Skype saves me an absolute fortune in toll bills. Since telecom have introduced Go large skype doesn't seem to be performing well so I tried port forwarding. I opened the ports on the DSE router for the IP of the USR8054 192.168.1.3 & then the ports on the USR8054 for IP 192.168.123.XXX for the PC for both UDP & TCP traffic. Is this correct? I know that the DSE port is seen by www.grc.com as open but it doesn't seem to be making any difference with skype. How do i know if I have portforwarded correctly? Can i filter traffic through the port open to my PC only, so that it doesn't act as a security risk for the laptop? Skype is set up under tools to look for the open port. Could it be because NAT is enabled on both routers and this is causing soe network confusion?
I understand that I can upgrade the DSE router to the equivalent of an XH1175 using a firmware upgrade and a spare jumper. Has anyone tried this, and what beniefit would i get from doing this? Is it difficult to do? and is it worth the trouble of doing so?
Thanks y'all. ANY advice at all would be more than welcome.