networked broadband...

Posted by: ken c on 02 April 2004

can someone who knows these things point me to a good reference on setting up shared broadband access in my house? currently i am on tiscali broadband, and my children are fed up of having to take the modem off my my pc everytime they want to access the net.

many thanks

enjoy

ken
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by mykel
Broadband router.
Most have a 4 port switch built in.
SMC, D-Link, Linksys, GVC, etc etc etc

You will need to setup a private address space "inside" for this you can use the 192.168.0.0/24 network. This is what the routers usually default to, tho it could be a 10.0.0.0/8.

If you don't want to wire your house / office, then wireless are also available, but don't forget that you will need wireless nic's for the other hosts.

Note that some of ( mostly the older series ) of routers had a built in parallel port print server. This is handy so you don't have to have a "server" computer ( with attached printer ) running to be able to print.

I will have a look thru my tech docs and see if I can find anything relavent...

just a couple of thoughts.

regards,

michael
WAN guy, County of Oxford, Ontario Canada
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by Not For Me
I have done this with Netgear er.. net gear, thier website explains what bits you need and how to do it.

A Wireless Router, some direct connected PCs and a few wireless ones, and you can mix and match your wireless adapters and ethernet adapters from different makes, as long as they are 802.11b compliant (Sorry for the technobabble there)

DS

ITC - Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind revised
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by Geoff P
The only thing to watch out for is that most providers are officially providing a broadband connection to a single computer which is the one used to activate the link.
So when the guy turns up to activate the broadband connection be a bit carefull about reavealing that you intend to use router instaed of just a direct connection to ONE computer only. (It maybe that Tisacli is not as rigid as this , I am only speking from the experience I had with my provider)

When this is done the I.P. address of the link is created. In theory the connection will only talk through that I.P. address so what router suppliers do is provide their equipment with the ability to "clone" the I.P. address of the link so that the connection still thinks it is connected to the computer used to establish the braodband link intially.
The broadband connection will now happily and innocently continue talking to the router (disguised as your first computer) and what goes on on your side of the router is invisble to the service provider. You can now connect multiple computers and/or printer etc to the outlets on the router and they can all talk to each other and "share" the braodband internet connection.

The other nice thing is that the router acts as a "firewall" which gives your internet connection better protection from invasion by hackers etc (not e-mail viruses though).

To acheive the above setup as smoothly as possible it is best to have the router in hand before you setup the connection, then once the connection is established on the first computer, wave goodbye to the install engineer and immeadiately install the router and clone the IP address.

Talk to your local specialist computer shop and a knowledgable guy should be able to go thru' this procedure in detail for you

regards
GEOFF
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by Mekon
I have Tiscali, and use a Netgear DG824 wireless (with a 4-port switch). It couldn't be easier to setup. Just swap your Tiscali-supplied modem for the Netgear, and it'll auto-detect alot of the settings. One you are done with the rest of the settings, it's just a case of running the lengths of cat5 or plugging in the wireless cards.
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by Paul Ranson
FWIW my ISP, Demon, explicitly allow connection sharing around a household. They frown on reselling to next door though. I think most UK ISPs would take a similar view.

One useful Demon thing is that if your user name is 'flub' then you can get email for 'frog@flub.demon.co.uk' on one PC and 'toad@flub.demon.co.uk' on another without complications and ad infinitum on the amphibians. Anyway it helps with the household networking stuff.

Paul
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by ken c
guys, good stuff!! keep it coming. any ref i can read up would be great also.

enjoy

ken
Posted on: 02 April 2004 by Phil Barry
Ken,

It would be easier to respond if you could say which way you want to go - wireless or wired. Also, how many computers will be involved? What flavors of OS do you run?

Check out www.practicallynetworked.com.
Regards.

Phil
Posted on: 03 April 2004 by ken c
quote:
Originally posted by Phil Barry:
Ken,

It would be easier to respond if you could say which way you want to go - wireless or wired. Also, how many computers will be involved? What flavors of OS do you run?

Check out http://www.practicallynetworked.com.
Regards.

Phil


hi phil,

- wireless
- 4 computers to start with, unlikely to be >6
- OS's are Windows2000 pro and XP

many thanks for the link.

enjoy

ken
Posted on: 07 April 2004 by Rico
Surely it's up to you whether you choose to run NAT within your network back to the ISP's?

Yes yes I know I'm getting boring, smoothwall and a switch/hub does it all for me - simple! Smile

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio
Posted on: 07 April 2004 by sonofcolin
This is an excellent site for all levels (and it has pictures!):
DSLwebserver