Server to route internet better?

[rumbl3]

Ok i know i been asking tons of questions lately.

But i was curious if this would possibly work even better for my setup.

I'm running a l4d server right now on my optiplex pentium d 2.4 ghz, 1 gig of ram (might throw another stick in), two hads one for os etc and one for my game server now, two nic cards.

Now i'm curious if my game server would be better if say i put the server directly on the internet then routed the internet threw the second card to the router then to my other machines?

Would my server work better for players connecting to it? It works great for the most part for anyone around the surrounding states by me.

Or would doing this add more of a load to my server making my server worse?

I been reading up on things and tweaking stuff but this is something that i've been wondering about.

Then just firewall the server and open what ports are needed for my game server and run anti virus on it?

Thx in adv. sorry for all the threads lately lol. Guess i've found a new hobby.

[TimoneX]

Ok i know i been asking tons of questions lately.

...and we are SICK OF IT! LOL

I tried this awhile back wasn't L4D though and wasn't pleased with the result. I had a log file around here somewhere. If you try this I'd be interested in seeing the result.

[Trap05]

What kind of router do you have? That might be your weak link

[rumbl3]

eh i'm at work i believe its a
Linksys WRT54GS wired/wireless router.

pretty positive that's the model off the top of my head.

I mean the server seems to work great, most people in the area i said say its works great for them too. I'm just looking to find other ways to gain more juice :).

[gangaskan]

i doubt you will have much improvments, you may see some lag internet wise because now it has another hop to get to the internet. keep it how it is for now :) no need to mess with it

[ppe1700]

this will ONLY improve your gaming online if your router isnt setup for port forwarding correctly as it is now.
what your describing, is having the gaming pc directly on the internet with a internet ip address which is NOT good for a start. you may have an excellent firewall on the pc but i would not advise it.
like gangaskan says, all traffic behind the pc would need to be routed BY the pc in order to get out to the internet..
i feel this will just give you hastle, and i personally wouldnt do it, but if you would like a challenge then go ahead ;)

[petteyg359]

If your WRT54 isn't already running DD-WRT, Tomato, or some other non-Linksys firmware, you might try those. DD-WRT performs much better than the stock Linksys firmware for me.

[Trap05]

You could also try using a smoothwall or pfsense box as your router