Does anyone have any experience with Mediacom (as a cable internet provider)?
My high speed access options (in Maple Plain) are either DSL through Citizen Communications (~$50/mo) or Cable through Mediacom (~$30/mo if I get my own Cable modem).

My employer will allow me to access their VPN (in windoze) over cable/DSL if I use a Linksys Router like the BEFSR41.  The best price I see local is about $90 at MicroCenter or BestBuy, but Amazon.com has them for $70.  Any other good deals I've overlooked?

Does the Linksys Router do anything more than NAT?
(Doesn't a Cisco 675/678 DSL router do NAT? - my church doesn't have a firewall (hardware or pc), but I'd swear the Cisco 675 there is doing NAT)
I don't understand what other benefits I would get if I setup a linux pc to act as a firewall?  (any good sites that explain this?)

Thanks,
Mike Nixon