OK, so I’ve figured out that my USB modem isn’t going to cut the mustard if I wanna share the internet. Apparently I gotta get an “Ethernet Modem.”
I have no problem with this. But I’ve already got a router with a hole for the internet wire (and 4 computers). Most of these “ethernet modems” (oh, BTW it’s Bellsouth FastAccess DSL) have ports to share the internet for my computers.
Since my fancy schmancy router has firewall capabilities, I’d very much like to use it to share my internet connection.
I’m going to set up my big computer as my host, or proxy. Hope that helps.
So I guess my question would be, “what kind of DSL modem do I need to share my connection? It needs to use my router and still connect to the internet.”
My computer tosses sad look to the right is just sitting there, collecting dust. No internet = no use. So, please help me.
You’re not supplying nearly enough detail. Did Bellsouth give you a modem? What’s the model of your existing router? For that matter, are your computers PCs or MACs?
That said, (almost) any DSL modem should be usable with (almost) any router. You don’t even need to specify a particular computer as a host/proxy, since the router should have the necessary circuitry. If you want to use a computer to hold a webpage or other internet service (to be shared with outside users) or hold files/printer for local users, we’ll need a lot more detail about your hardware.
Well, I can hook up the computers with software pretty easily, so I won’t give you the info on that. My question is on the hardware I’m going to need. More specifically, the type of modem.
Ignore those stupid critters, but that’s a pic of my modem.
The setup is it has a wire that goes from the modem to a thingy. It splits into two wires, the USB and the cord to connect to the phone jack. The USB powers the modem, and the phone cord goes into the wall (duh ;j )
VV Information on the Router VV
So, why not contact your ISP and tell them you need a modem with an Ethernet port, instead of USB? Or, if, as you say, you’re going to set up the main computer as a host/proxy (by which I suspect you mean gateway), put a 10/100 base T network card in there, plug it into your router, and plug the other computers into the router as well.
I’m confused by this:
According to the Netgear spec sheet, that router is ethernet only. I’m not understanding something. Are you sure the “internet cord” plugs into a phone jack on the other end? I’ve never had DSL, so I don’t know if they use regular RJ-11 ports or not. RJ-45 (ethernet) ports are just slightly larger than phone jacks.
Perhaps I’m just dumb, but it might be helpful if you were more specific. Try to avoid saying things like “hole”, “internet wire”, and “thingy”.
So what I need is a modem that uses an RJ-45 (Cat5) cord instead of this other cord (that can plug into the wall, not sure of category.)
And, well, there isn’t any other word for this “thingy.” But if my modem plugged into the firewalled router, it would have no way to connect to the wall (to access the internet.)
The back of the router goes like this:
I COMP
N UTERS
T
E
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Sof if the modem plugs into the router, how does it connect to the internet? I need a modem that can do both (plug into the router and still connect to the internet.) (ADSL connection.)
I have SW Bell DSL and their SpeedStream modem. The DSL modem has two connections. OK, three if you count the power cord. One of the modem connections is a RJ-11 four connection receptacle that connects to the phone/DSL line. The other is an RJ-45 eight connection that would plug into the ethernet connection on my PC. I would then use SWB supplied software to configure and connect to the net.
But, the cable that would connect to the PC now connects to the port on my Linksys router marked WAN. That stands for Wide Area Network. The PCs connect to the LAN, Local Area Network, ports on the router. The router is configured buy using a browser and the routers internal IP address.
As previously mentioned, I think you need a DSL modem with an ethernet connection rather than a USB connection. There may be a way to adapt from USB to ethernet, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Just for the record, you can share pretty much any kind of internet connection if the two computers are linked together in a network, Windows provides connection sharing, but my preference is to use third party proxy software (Jana Server is freeware and remarkably good).
One of the offices that I support has it set up like this:
A ‘mail* and proxy server’ machine has an ISDN dialup connection and runs the proxy program; other machines on the network have IE set up to connect to the internet via the IP address of the proxy machine. It works really well.
*The same machine runs MDaemon - a mail handling program.