Q & A on Cheap routers Q: I am a student and need a cheap IP router for networks at home. Where do I buy it? A: Several students have asked me almost the same question recently. Unfortunately, commercial routers are fairly expensive. If you only need to connect a few computers at your house, you should investigate using a single LAN such as Ethernet (a hub will cost under $50 retail). If you definitely need a router, you can build it yourself for *much* less than the cost of a commercial unit. Pick up an old PC such as a 486 (dirt cheap these days), buy two network interface cards, and run Linux, which has the capability to act as a router. The resulting system won't break any speed records, but it is certainly less expensive than any commercial router product.