Westell Versalink 327w

Greetings,

I have a Westell Versalink 327W Model B90-327W15-06 that I was using
when I had DSL. Was wondering if anybody knows of a flash or firmware
upgrade that will make it usable as a stand alone wireless router over
my cable connection or should I just purchase a new wireless router?

Thanks,
JJ

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:13:15 -0800 (PST), JJ
<jstickney.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote:

>Greetings,
>
>I have a Westell Versalink 327W Model B90-327W15-06 that I was using
>when I had DSL. Was wondering if anybody knows of a flash or firmware
>upgrade that will make it usable as a stand alone wireless router over
>my cable connection or should I just purchase a new wireless router?
>
>Thanks,
>JJ

A router has LAN port(s) and a WAN port. Does this Westell
model have a WAN port or only the DSL jack besides the LAN
ports? If no WAN port it is not likely there would be a
flash/firmware solution.

However, since some cable modems now have a DHCP and very
basic NAT functionality built in, it is in theory possible
that connecting your cable modem to a LAN port, enabling the
DHCP feature in the cable modem (or it may be permanently
enabled if you can't find a setting for this), then
disabling the DHCP function on the Westell router, "might"
allow using it as a wireless switch and access point instead
of it doing any routing. Since the cable model would then
(if this words) be doing NAT it is an additional layer of
security but you would lose features like port forwarding
and others a programmable router provides but we dont' know
if you need these features - if you do, yes you will need to
purchase a new wireless router... but even then you might
still be able to make use of the old Westell as an access
point and switch to extend your network and wifi coverage.