A not so networking newbie question;

[sarada39]

Hi

I am a newbie to networking stuff. I have an old windows95 processor which I have connected to cable modem. I just bought a win XP 2 Ghz, 128 mb ram system from dell w/o monitor. Right now, I am short of funds to buy another monitor or a cable router. If I just swap the processor for the cable connection (with installing the cable providers software in XP) and connect to the cable, would that work or I have to call the cable provider about this swapping. Is the connection in particuar tied to this NIC in my old PC?

Also, at later stage, if I have courage to network, with the old system, which cable/router is best for me and is there lot of configuration, I have to do on both systems. You experts help, I'd appreciate

Thanks

 

[jaydee]

What exactly is a "windows95 processor"?

If I just swap the processor for the cable connection (with installing the cable providers software in XP) and connect to the cable, would that work or I have to call the cable provider about this swapping. Is the connection in particuar tied to this NIC in my old PC?
If you're asking if you can connect a cable connection to 2 different PC's, you can. With just a hub or switch, you can connect them both at the same time.

 

[amdskip]

Basically you have an old windows 95 computer and you want to know how to get your new computer to work on the cable internet. I know of two ways that you are authorized for cable internet. You can have your computer named and the cable company checks that or else they check your mac address of your network card. A mac address is a permanant number assigned to your network card. You have to somehow tell your cable company your new mac address if this is how they do it. Best thing to do is to give them a call now before swapping.

 

[carolinaviking]

most broadband companies will require you to set up your lan settings on your ethernet card to DHCP (to receive addressing dynamically). this should be the default config in XP. basically, you should just have to hook the ethernet cable from your modem to your new pc and power cycle the modem, which means just unplug the power cord for ten seconds, plug it back in and give it 30 seconds or so to synch up with the cable provider's router. then the cable provider's router will provide your modem with a private ip and your nic with a public ip and you should be able to surf. you may want to reboot your pc at the same time you power cycle your modem. software firewalls, such as XP's built in firewall, can cause problems, so disable any firewall at first until you get online, then configure the firewall. this lets you verify that any problems getting online aren't firewall config probs.

usually, to share that connection, you will need to get a router...a simple hub or switch will not do unless you set up ics/nat on the XP box, but i recommend you invest in a linksys cable router. it gives you a nice hardware firewall.