Sharing an internet connection
 

OK, I've been googling to the max and not having much luck. Perhaps you can help me.

I have a broadband router which is attached to a DSL modem. I have three computers which are connected to the broadband router.

Question is, how do I get my computers on the internet? Oh, I have AOL Broadband, which from the little I've learnt so far seems to complicate things quite a bit.

Any links/advice would be appreciated.

I assume your DSL modem provides an ethernet port that is hooked up to the ethernet WAN port on the router.
The router has an ethernet LAN port - this you need to hook up to a hub or a switch (with a straight or crossed CAT5 cable, depending on ...).
Then all your PCs hook up to the hub as usual.

Or if your router has a built-in hub or switch, that just makes it simpler.

aol have used propriatary dialers for their dialup so i wouldnt be suprised if they did the same with their broadband...

i'd try and change :)

I have a mental flag waving at me. It seems to be reminding me that AOL specifically prohibit use of any kind of sharing, so it is a bit harder. I don't have any details, but you'll need to search for something compatible with AOL.

I assume with Google you've found the usual popular proxies? If not then you need help :D

M.

lots of isps prohibit, only a few block :)

Guess where the tech support threads go!

Sorry, no useful input other than to say that if AOL Broadband is as warped and restricted as thier dialup, then good luck.

:)

Re: Sharing an internet connection
 

You might find it easier route through one of your PCs rather than direct to the DSL modem.

Quote:

Question is, how do I get my computers on the internet?

The easiest way I know of is to install the AOL client on the routing PC and add a proxy to allow the other PCs to use IE etc.

Quote:

Oh, I have AOL Broadband, which from the little I've learnt so far seems to complicate things quite a bit.

More than quite a bit ;)

I've had some experience with a friend who's got Telenor ADSL. They also use a wrapper for the dialup client, and that doesn't normally allow sharing (as I gathered, I may be misremembering some details). If I recall correctly some googles on rasppp should be of help. That is if the problem is in fact the same, and not just the symptoms.

Jester

Well, from the sounds of it the best I can hope for is to have one computer on all the time, with the others sharing its connection, which is what I was afraid of.

So, I've decided to cancel my AOL connection, I'm still within the trial period so there's no cancelation fee. Can anyone recommend a good alternative?

A friend of mine recommended freedom2surf (www.f2s.com) which do seem cheap and have the bonus of not requiring a minimum 12 month contract. Though I get the feeling he only recommended them because he gets 10 pounds off his next bill if I sign up with them :)

I can also recommend F2S, I am with them, have been since August and i'm VERY happy with the service, there were a few little blips when the routers played ping pong (back in September ish), but those have been long sorted now. Other Advantages to F2S - static IPs and they ALLOW you to Host servers. Web / FTP / Email / Games etc.

I'm happy with it and would definately recommend it.

Praise the lord for my SMC Barricade and NTL Broadband lol. Installed the broadband crap on 1 comp, told router to clone MAC address (you might have to do that you guys having probs) and the other comp was plug N play :). I haven't gotten round to setting up the printserver lol. Btw why do you want a hub just for sharing the net connection (unless you want to limit bandwidth on the other comps) as I dont use one. Oh well.

I (we) have three machines set up on a home LAN, it was extremly easy.

I have a Fujitsu Broad band modem which is plugged into one m/c (mine as it happens) each m/c has an ethernet card and is plugged into a Genius Lan Hub.

Win XP Pro on all m/c's, when everything was plugged in, winXP did the rest, it set up the lot all by itself, with few a minor tweaks like file sharing etc.

It works really well, but we do get a bit of a slow down when all three machines are playing UT, but that is to be expected.

As to fs2 yes I was with them for 8 months, very good service, tho I got a better deal from BT when we moved home.

I'm thinking of going with BT. Although their monthly rate is higher I think they're currently having an offer where I don't pay the connection charge. I assume I can still connect all my PCs with a router if I go BT???

Anybody with a 24/7 connection to the net running WinXP/2K/Etc better have it tied down very, very secure...

I'd advise getting an old Pentium box (pick up a P200mmx w/ 64mb 4gb for about £100) and run a *BSD on there, use it as your router and firewall.

M.

I'm trying, but having 'fun' working out IPTables / Shorewall.

Thats after the battle i had getting it to accept my USB ADSL Modem :rolleyes: bloody Fujitsu not doing any linux drivers. heh

I can get it to work (ish) just not feed data back from the firewall to the LAN, then the firewall has a habbit of just crashing... yes, linux just locks up too. :p

Indeed, it should not be a problem, I have exactly the same set up for BT as I had with f2s.

*nix !

Re: Sharing an internet connection
 

Hi, everyone, thought, I'd revive this topic.

Since there's a discussion on proxies going on, I was wondering, whether anyone has been using them for gaming? I mean what provider, type would you recommend?

Found proxyway.com - they seem to have many cool reviews, but not one on gaming :)

Re: Sharing an internet connection
 

Dont know much about internet sharing but that sounds very clunky regardless.

Why not just buy one of these beauties, not particularly expensive and their range is incredible. Presuming you are UK based but if not Amazon US should have the same product