What's the best (cost effectiveway to share a DSL connection at home?

[Mark]

I currently use Earthlink's DSl residential service in southern California. They supply an external Fujitsu "PPPOE" type dsl modem. My desktop is Athlon based and running on Windows 2000. I use a standard Linksys ethernet card by the way. I want to share my connection with a couple of old, old laptops (W98 and W95 pentium and pentium 2). I have 3com pcmcia ethernet cards in both. I can use the dsl connection in either one when I want independantly, however I'd like to share the connection with the desktop so that I can use both at the same time. I've been to a few computer stores and have seen standard ethernet hubs for "home use" as well as "dsl specific" routers. What is the difference between these 2 devices, and how do I get started? Any recommendations on hardware specifics would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for all your help.


Mark

 

[josphstalinator]

go buy a cheap 4 or 5 port hub. one of the ports will be an uplink port, the dsl modem connects to this port. connect the other comps to the remaining ports. thats all you need to do as far as hardware. as far as software look into wingate. instal wingate as a server (you choose this during installation) on the computer you use to connect to the dsl service. instal wingate as a client on the remaining computers. if you have any problems getting wingate to run properly you can find faq's on wingates homepage. i share a connection using this method and it was very easy to set up.

 

[Pretty Cool]

The Basic Options to Share Internet Connection (Internet Sharing 101)

 

[Lord Evermore]

Actually that setup will fail to work. The server setup will need to be done using a second NIC in the server computer, and the first NIC connected directly to the DSL modem.

You can't connect the DSL modem to a hub and also have the rest of the network connected to that hub, if you're using a server using software connection sharing. This is due to the IP addressing required (the network computers won't be able to use the same IP address block that the DSL provider is assigning to the server, so the network won't be able to see the server on that network card).

Use one machine, install two network cards. Get it up and running with the DSL line connected to one of the cards. Install Wingate or some other connection sharing program (don't use Windows ICS, nobody has gotten that to work WELL yet). Set it up as a proxy/firewall doing network address translation, using the second NIC as the connection to the network and the first NIC as the Internet connection. The second NIC will have a hard coded IP address of something like 192.168.1.1. Connect the other computers to the hub, connect the hub to the server's second network card. The server may be able to do DHCP to auto-assign addresses to the other computers, or you can hard-code addresses into them. The networked computers will use the server's IP address (192.168.1.1) as their gateway.

If you have a spare machine laying around (a 386 will even work) with at least 8 megs of memory in it, you can also make a Linux or FreeSCO router out of it. No hard drive is needed, no keyboard or mouse needed, no monitor needed. It boots off a floppy disk and runs entirely in memory. (The initial setup can be done by editing the files on the floppy, or possibly by telnetting to the server from a networked computer after it boots.)

For ease of use, a hardware router is also an option. However they do cost at least 100 US dollars. I personally prefer that option, as it's just a small box sitting in the corner near the cable or DSL modem, and doesn't require that a second machine be running to make a Linux router, or to have extra software running on a machine to make a server.

 

[Trashman]

either way ya go make sure you get a firewall.....thats another advantage to going the router way, built-in firewall.

 

[John]

<< either way ya go make sure you get a firewall.....thats another advantage to going the router way, built-in firewall. >>



Specifically the Linksys BEFSR41

 

[Gunbuster]

slam a second $5 ethernet card in the 2k box, pickup a el-cheapo 10 megabit hub $25-50 (10/100 or switched hub if you see yourself needing to transfer large files)
Click the ICS checkbox in 2k and your done

With this setup you will have to have the main machine running ICS turned on for the other machines to get on the internet.

 

[LickEmSmack]

I don't think FreeSCO supports PPPoE quite yet. I looked just now and didn't find any info on PPPoE, but about 6 months agao I looked and it said it wasn't supported. Sorry to burst your bubble. You could install a standard distro of Linux or BSD and roll your own router like I did (using Linux). It's not tough. I'm planning on redoing it with BSD this summer.

 

[formulav8]

Just get a router. The one I have which is the Netgear RT314 can be had for under $100 as some places.

 

[odog]

smc router for cheap ..


just keep you eye on the hot deals forum... at least once a week a deal can be had on a broadband router...


example: a couple of months ago i picked up the linksys BEFSR41 for $50 after PM and rebate

 

[Paladinexe]

The router/switch will use only 1 IP as far as your provider is concerned also. Check out your ISP to see what their stance is on sharing. Some ISP's don't like for people to share especially when it ties up another IP. You also should be aware of some issues when gaming with the various methods of sharing.
Check out the Networking forums here at Anandtech and also check out the &quot;How to&quot; section here

 

[Olias]

Linksys BEFSR41 DSL/Cable router = way 2 go...
- Plug n' Play ICS (no need for ICS software or second NIC)
- Has stay connected option for DSL
- Sets up username and P/W (no need for connection software)
- Config through a web browser
- Hardware firewall (no need for software firewall)

Aprox. $135 USD

 

[jmcoreymv]

Ive used the Netgear and its great, Ive also used the linksys and it was okay in my opinion, but alot of people seem to like it. With that said, Id say go with the SMC since it has a built in print server and dialup backup capabilities