2 machines share a cable modem?

[Dee67]

I'm an absolute know nothing when it comes to networking..

I was wondering if there was a quick, easy, cheap way to share a cable modem with 2 computers.

I currently have my machine into it and want to use my other machine also. (Without getting the cable company involved).

My first thought was hub, but there would be ip address conflicts to share the same ip.

Also, if it helps, one machine (the one currently using the cable) is windows98 and the other is windows95.

Thank you.

 

[sun818]

Do you have Win98SE? 98SE includes ICS (Internet Connection Share) which allows second computer to share Internet Connection as long as the first one is on. Otherwise, to use one IP on multiple computer, you will need a router. Hardware routers I recommend is the SMC Barricade, LinkSys Router. Get the 4 port switch version. SMC version also comes with print server.

If you have an old 386/486 with 8MB and floppy, you can use a software router called Freesco. Really easy to configure.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Sun

 

[Dee67]

I do have SE

So would I need a 2nd network card in this machine? or do they make network cards with 1 in and 1 out?

Thanks

 

[coopa]

Nope. one nic in each computer if you are using a router
with a router the cable modem goes strait to the router and from the router take a cable to comp one then a cable from router to comp 2.

you would need in all:

router
2 cables
2 nics
cable modem


and that is all the hardware.

 

[puritan]

Save yourself some money and time first. Ask your cable company how many PC's you can connect to the modem. Most will allow at least 4. Mine allowed 8! You would just need a hub to do it then and they are about $28 these days.

 

[nighto]

I just recently tryed sharing 2 computers on my parents cable w/ 1 ip. First i installed win 98SE because it had ICS(internet sharing). Tried it and it workds fine, but i really noticed a slowness, and most internet applicatins dont work unless you configure them. I followed the www.pricatallynetworking.com on how to ICS share.

THen i deinstall ICS and tryed Sygate. Wow was i impressed. I did the traditional setup on both, 2 nic cards on host and 1 nic card on client. This program rocks. THeres a setup in Sygate where you can use only 1 nic card on host. All applications (icq, halflife,online video etc...) tried worked without any configuration, while ICS on win98se was really lot harder and complex to configure. I expected lots of bonelnecks on bandwidth, but to the conrary it works great.

Then i decided to test with Linksys Cable/Dsl router, which works good, had minor problem logging on cause of ATT/mediaone Cable serice in LA cause you have to register your nic mac address. But easlily solved my changing mac address on rougter.

Decided to buy Linksys cable/dsl router due to the fact internet connection was dependent on host computer being on and not crashihng or whatever, built in firewall etc... plus everybody seems to recommend the router approach to sharing. Personally i really liked Sygate, only big draw back was scenerio where host crashs and client losing connection. Plus the router(Linksys Cable/dsl router) was only $100 so just got the router. +)

Hope my little experience on internet sharing w/ cable helped.

P.S check the numerous step by step networking web pages. Heres some off my head.

www.praticallynetowrking.com
www.homepclan.com

 

[Dee67]

Thanks for your responses!!!

I'm sitting here with my new Linksys cable router and the setup took all of 10 minutes and is working great.

Thanks again, I appreciate it!