2 Cable Modems and 2 Switches??????

[PolishHammer9]

Hi...I'm working on setting up a small network using 2 cable modems and 2 switches. I have one cable modem plugged into each switch and the switches are connected via a crossover cable. When I setup the network this way, everything is fine....for about 5 minutes. For the first 5 minutes, everyone is able to connect to the internet and view other computers over the network neighborhood. BTW, people on the network are using Win9x. After about 5 minutes, the internet goes out, but we are still able to share files over the network. However, the activity light on the cable modem shows that stuff is still being transmitted. Does anyone have any ideas about what could be causing the problem. Thanks for any help

Opps.. forgot to mention..
The swithces are D-Link 8 port DSS+8 and the cable modems are Motorola Surfboards.

 

[cipher00]

Just curious - why two cable modems?

 

[Techwhore]

Hmm, that's quite a setup... how about this though:

What if u setup one computer as a router, give it 3 ethernet cards, two for the cable modems and one for the switch. All you machines behind this will share 2 IPs.

I've never setup two cable modems before, so i'm not entirely sure this will work, though i can't see why it wouldn't... The only problem i see wrong with this is how to make sure the bandwidth is divided evenly. I'm not sure NAT would do it on it's own, but i'm sure there's some third party stuff out there.

But as cipher00 said, why two modems?

 

[spidey07]

strange, I can't see how you could utilize both cable modems without some sort of load sharing software or a routing protocol.

The OS can only use one default gateway.

 

[JackMDS]

That seems to fit the 11th commandment:

If the Plug fit the Jack Plug it.