DSL and cable Internet services are increasing including combination modem and gateways/routers. Their true functionality is often hidden; Verizon sent me a Westell 327W without so much as a quick-start manual. As the last link shows, though, Google finds the full manual easily enough and reveals all its secrets.
One of the those was particularly interesting given some flakiness on the part of the stand-alone router currently plugged into my cable modem. Instead of using the DSL port as a connection to the Internet or external network, it can be configured to use one of the ethernet ports. This feature lets you use it as a stand-alone wireless router with a cable modem or any other kind of ethernet connection. Nice to know you can get some extra mileage out of your hardware!
