Here in a couple weeks I'm going to be moving, and where I'm moving is already set up with a cable modem and all that. My question is, what all do I need to do to my computer to set it up to use their connection? I've heard from some that I need to use the other computer as a server and put a network card in mine to connect. Does any of this make sense? Thanks for any help.

well, i think you can set up a network with a few computers. But if you only have one computer, I think all you need is a nic card. You can find them for $15-20.

Are you moving to a place with an existing modem/user?

Then your best bet is buying a cheap router. (LinkSys or DLink). Basically the router replaces having to have a computer with 2 network cards and a hub constantly on.)

To give some background. To share an internet connection, you'd need a sever, and an incoming network card from the modem. You'd need software on that computer to 'split' the connection and assign addresses to the other computers on the network. Then you'd need an OUTGOING network card that goes to a hub, where the other computers plug in. This is a complicated method, and would require that this server be on 24/7.

A router has software (firmware) on it that basically does all that for ya. It has 1 incoming and then 1-8 outgoing ports. Plugin, setup small details and you're set.

All computers however still need a network card.

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Manu Narayan

Thanks Manu that was the info I was looking for. And I know this should probably go in another post, but what is an ethernet card and what does it do?

An ehternet card is basically a modem for high speed connections. (In application, not in how it works or anything.)

But basically, it is a card that you plug into the back of your computer (where your sound card/modem/vide/etc go) and it has a 'port' in the back that looks like a big phone plug.

You can plug that into a network, and that is how your computer communicates with the network. Through that card.

Another name for ethernet cards are NICs or Network Interface Card.

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Manu Narayan

Routers are really expensive. The cheapest one I could find was about $150.00. Of course, you could probably get one cheaper than I can, as sometimes things are expensive here. (But not always. I just bought two 256MB DIMM's at Costco for $35.00 each. Now my computer has 576MB of memory, and my wife's has 320MB! Oh Yeah!) But you don't really need a router anyway.

When I got DSL, as part of the deal I got the equipment package free for signing a year contract, which would have been $150.00. It had an external Efficent Networks Speedstream 5260 ADSL modem (with power supply), a Kingston NIC, 5 phone line filters, a standard 10 foot phone cable (RJ-11 connectors), and a 25 foot Cat-5 cable (RJ-45 connectors). This set up my main computer for a DSL Internet connection.

Then I bought a "two system" Netgear network starter kit for $50.00 that had a Netgear model EN104 4 port hub (and power supply), two Netgear NIC's, and two 25 foot Cat-5 cables. I also bought an extra 50 foot Cat-5 cable ($20.00), to add a third computer to the network. I installed the NIC that came with the DSL modem in my computer, and the NIC's that came in the kit in my wife's and kid's systems, and wired it all up so that each of the three computers plugged into the hub's inputs, and the DSL modem was plugged into the 4th port on the hub and set it to "uplink mode". (With this kind of hub you can connect 4 systems as a LAN, or daisy chain two of them together, useing a cable plugged into port 4 in uplink mode to connect to an input of a second one, or use it like I am.)

I installed the software for the modem on all three systems. All three could be used to access the Ineternet with DSL, but not at the same time. Then I downloaded a copy of the Sygate Home Network (http://www.sybergen.com/) software, (which is well worth the registration fee of $39.95) so all three computers can access the Internet using the same connection at the same time. In the end, this was about 1\3 cheaper than a router would have been.

My particular setup is kind of funny though. Depending on which computers are turned on, it has different ways to log on. If my computer is on, which is set up as the Sygate Server, the other two which are set up as Clients, can just open the browser and go. If mine isn't on, and since I installed the software for the modem on all three systems, and the way the hub is set, the others can run the program and individually log on.

But since there is no Sygate server active, only one of the other two computers can be logged on at a time, thus if both of them want on the Internet at the same time, my computer needs to be on since it is the server.


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Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Footprints.

[This message has been edited by Ax Slinger (edited 09-01-2001).]

Good work around Ax!

Seems a bit complicated though. Routers are essentially plug and play.

I just saw on pricewatch that a 1 port router is 79 bucks. (link sys) get a cheap hub and you're set.

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Manu Narayan

It's actually not complicated at all. You gotta plug in the NIC's, same as any other network, it's just that the cables go to the hub, and the hub's port 4 is sent to the modem, which in turn connects to the net, and Sygate allows everyone to get on at once.

I guess the point of all that was, 1) you don't really nead a router, a hub will do, and 2) The Sygate Home Network is a great program to have. When I installed the software for the modem and NIC in my computer, it made two network adaptors for TCP\IP. One for local networking assigned to the NIC's, to connect to the local network, and one assigned to a "virtual NIC" ethernet PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet), to connect to the internet.

Since I installed the modem software on all three computers, it made the network setup easy. I just did the same thing to all of them. The PPPoE network adapter gets an IP address automatically assigned to it when I log onto the Internet, but I set an IP address of 90.0.0.1 for my computer, 90.0.0.2 for my wife's, and 90.0.0.3 for the kid's computer for the local networking adaptors. This made the installation of the Sygate software easy. After I installed it, I just had to tell it which adaptor was which, and it worked like a charm.

The rest of it was just to save a penny or two in electricity. I didn't want to have to have my computer on if my wife or kids wanted to go onto the Internet if I wasn't using my computer. I'm sure you know what the deal on electricity is in California. Short supply, high prices... Blah blah blah de blah. Give me a wind turbine... I'll hold it up in front of a bunch of politicians when they talk about how bad all the problems are, and Voila! Power to the People!



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Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Footprints.

I plan on getting the link sys router that says "for broadband sharing/home network" when I get my next puter.. just to share my cable modem with both puters etc. I saw one at compusa, but will prob just get the model number and find it way cheaper on www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com)

I did a home phoneline network for my mom, since her second puter is mor than 250 feet from the first. IT worked ok, but it was still dialup. Now that it quit working (bought the kit for $10 at Officemax when it went out of business) they can't make the new modem work. The shop that built the puter is formating the hd to fix it.. sheesh.. some tech

anyways. I guess I need to start looking for a better phoneline network for here. She is getting DSL soon, but the second computer is still too far for cat 5.

Question. Do they make a multi puter phoneline network kit? My dad has a laptop on the desk next to the main puter, how would it plug into the network? I don't think she wants to spend the money for a wireless network. The laptop has a modem and 10/100 card

thx!

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www.krawdaddy.net (http://www.krawdaddy.net)
http://www.themelee.com/smilies/s/contrib/sarge/happyNeo.gif
geoffrey@krawdaddy.net
etc.....

I recently purchased a "home gateway" - it includes an implemented 4 port switch.

It rocks. Easy to use, and priced at $89 (Best Buy).

Here is a link to the product: http://www.dlink.com/products/broadband/di704

http://discussanything.com/Ubb/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by buggy (edited 09-06-2001).]