filesharing probs w/ router

[Diablo]

Recently purchased a factory referb SMC BARRICADE SMC7004ABR at MicroCenter for $20. Got everything set up without a problem, but was rather pissed off to find out that by default, all/most of the ports are closed. I run file servers on various programs, and literally spent hours trying to figure out which ports to open for which program, etc

I feel I have good enough internet security w/ zone alarm pro, would it be ok for me to open all ports then? (any suggestions for the SMC7004ABR specifically would help a lot)

If thats not a good option, then does anyone know a way to hook one's cable modem/dsl up to their pc, then have a 2nd NIC running a patch cable to the router? Havent tried this at all yet, but doesnt seem possible

(simply unplugging the router & hooking my pc back up to the cable modem isnt an option...have multiple ppl using it now..which is why i got the router )

thx for any help

[NuTs62]

ur not having filesharing problems within your own network are you? if so, what OS's are you running?

Personally, I like my router firewall just fine. I have the Netgear RT314 and the SMC 7004AWBR. What I do is just log onto the router, and then map out those ports that you want opened. That kinda cured my issue with it. But I do still have problems transferring files to other people with routers/firewalls.

I did used to have two NICS in one computer.. connect one to my dsl line, the other to a hub to connect to the rest of the network.. that worked ok I suppose.. didn't need to create any patch cable.. that was relatively easy to set up, I just gave everything static addresses. But I never tried with a router. Problem with this is that your computer needs to ALWAYS be on in order to share the internet.

[Diablo]

- Running win98 & win2000 PCs. I havent tried to share files w/ other comps on the network yet as none of them have file/printer sharing set up.

- My main problem is w/ irc (sometimes it works properly, sometimes fserv wont work at all). Also fxping (ftp to ftp transfer) doesnt seem to work. Those are the 2 main things that are bothering me, but theres other progs i use occasionally that arent working properly

- Having my comp on all the time is no prob at all...its on 99% of the time as it is. Plus whenever i need to shut it down for an extended period of time, i can always just plug the cable modem back into the router. No one else really uses file-sharing progs, so I'm really the only one that needs to find a way around this