Building a router

[raoulvaz]

Hi

So I recently discovered that I could make use of my old computer by turning it into a router. Our current one is nearly as old as the computer itself and its constantly causing issues, so I figured I would turn this thing into one.

I saw the guide where it recommends getting 2 NIC's which I was thinking of doing, would intel ones be overkill or the best for the job? I can get them for fairly cheap @ 27 bucks for the gigabit PCI, and even getting 2-3 (one extra for my main computer) would be cheaper or around the same price for just a single router - a midrange one at that.

Is it worth dropping the cash on them over say 2 realtek ones and an intel one for my main computer? Or is having them all running intel worth it? Theres alot of transferring and streaming (have a single computer with a ton of movies/tv shows/etc on it) between computers so I do have a use for it, just want to know if you guys think its worth the premium.

 

[Bookmage]

intel nics are best... PCI? no PCI-express? that'll work, but you can max out the PCI bus with a Gig nic or two...
having all intel nics is worth it... but remember, the data goes through your router to the outside world... so usually you'll have your cable/dsl modem connected to the router. That's usually going to be a 100mb nic. So if you have an old 100mb nic lying around, you don't need to pick up a gig nic for that interface... but if you're running gig inside your network, you would definitely want an intel gig nic