I have a quick question regarding the better mode to operate a modem in. I'm not entirely sure if the is best suited to hardware, but it seemed as good as anywhere else.

I am about to get a new modem and upgrade from from ADSL to ADLS2+. In the past I have operated my modem in router mode, and simply forwarded all ports to my firewall/gateway box. In this configuration, the modem has my public IP, and a private IP that I can see from my firewall/gateway machine. My firewall/gateway has one NIC on the same subnet as the modem and one on another subnet for internal traffic.

Question is, since I'm changing modem, and will be reconfiguring, etc., should I be thinking about using bridge mode rather than routing? As I understand it, this puts the modem in dumb mode, and the I'd have to change the IP of the NIC connected to the modem to my public IP. Am I opening additional security holes (recall I forward all ports anyway), making things less stable or whatever. Would I need a physical router between the modem and firewall/gateway (I assume tha tthe firewall/gateway box effectively performs this function)? Anything else I should consider.

I'm happy with my current setup, but it seems a good opportunity to review things.

I had a search through previous forums but couldn't find anything particularly relevant, note on Google.


Rgds


Bill

whether you bridge or route is more often that not at the choice of the ISP, not the user. bridging ADSL connections is really just plain odd imho. not having your machine directly internet routable is an initial frustration of routing but quick as a flash you use port forwarding and have an even more preferabl scenario as you are no longer exposed to all sorts of threats that are attacking ports you are not interested in using to your own ends. stick with routing absolutely, but as above i'd wonder if you even had a choice...

Thanks Chris


Bill