what kind of router should I choose?

[yixiong]

my network is that there are 5 PCs, 1 windows2003 server,
and about 10 notebooks. I bought a cheap router (about $40)
but I found that the intranet communication is not very good. Now I want to buy a better router with firewall.
I hope that I can set up the router so that only known
IP addresses can visit computers inside router. Which kind
of router is fit for me? Thank you very much for your help.

 

[bcastner]

You may have undersized the router. Most "cheap" routers use store-and-forward technology and the amount of RAM available to the router is roughly sized by the number of wired ports it supports.

I suspect you were trying to use a router designed to handle on the switching side 100 mbs. maximum communications for four clients in a network setting of 16 clients.

Given all of your needs a flexible hardware firewall applicance connected to better-sized switches might be a better choice.

 

[opediggitty]

I think that a Cisco PIX 500 series firewall sounds like a good option for that size of a network.