Reference Guide for the Model RT311 and RT314 Internet Access Gateway Routers
Introduction 1-3
• Front panel LEDs for easy monitoring of status and activity
• Flash EPROM for firmware upgrade
• Five-year warranty
• Free technical support seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day
Autosensing 10/100 Ethernet
The Model RT311 and RT314 routers connect to either a 10 Mbps standard Ethernet network or a
100 Mbps Fast Ethernet network. The local LAN interface is autosensing and is capable of
full-duplex operation.
TCP/IP
The Model RT311 and RT314 route rs support the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) and Routing Information Protocol (RIP).
For further information about TCP/IP, refer to AppendixB, “Network and Routing Basics.”
• IP Address Masquerading by Dynamic NAT+
The Model RT311 and RT314 routers allow several networked PCs to share an Internet
account using only a single IP address, which may be statically or dynamically assigned by
your Internet service provider (ISP). This technique, an extension of Network Address
Translation (NAT), is also known as IP address masquerading and allows the use of an
inexpensive single-user ISP account.
• Port Forwarding with NAT
Although NAT prevents Internet locations from directly accessing the PCs on the LAN, the
router allows incoming traffic to be forwarded to specific PCs based on the service port
number of the incoming request.
• Automatic Configuration of Attached PCs by DHCP
The Model RT311 and RT314 routers dynamically assign network configuration information,
including IP,gateway, and domain name server (DNS) addresses, to attached PCs on the LAN
using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). This feature greatly simplifies
configuration of LAN-attached PCs.
• DNS Proxy
When DHCP is enabled and no DNS addresses are specified, the router provides its own
address as a DNS server to the attached PCs. The router obtains actual DNS addresses from
the ISP during connection setup and forwards DNS requests from the LAN.