Home Networking ????

Depends on who you use for an ISP and I would check Radio Shack as well.


If you use SBC give them a call

 

Hiya Bill,

My soultion to the DSL issue is this. I am homeless and stay with a friend until I get my SSDI. She already had DSL for her computer, we both are computer nuts it seems.

Okay there are two outputs in your DSL modem, one should be the Ethernet connection (standard) and the other is the USB port connection. What I did is use both ports, my room-mate uses the Ethernet port and I use the USA Port. It Does cut the download time in half, what I mean is you lose half or your original speed to the other computer.

These are what I do for now. It's good for me because I have my own online ministry called "Kristi Ann's Haven". For without having the DSL spilt into two, I would not be able to administrate my web site.

Blessings, \o/

Kristi

 

When we got DSL we were in a quandry because we had been using a spare computer for Internet Connection Sharing and a File Server...

But, the church needed that box more than we did...

Anyway...

We already had an 8 port "Switch" and my son tried connecting it to the main Ethernet Port on the "ActionTec" DSL Modem...

No server required... Everyone in the family has simultaneous Internet Connections...

May not work with a "Hub", as they are not always intelligent enough.

The big issue is how many simultaneous connections your ISP allows, if they even measure it. (Mine doesn't at this time. I am buying the DSL connection based on throughput not connections, anyway.)

One word of caution...

Make sure every computer on your home network has it's own Anti-Virus and Firewall protection...

Do not rely solely on any ISP provided hardware or software solutions.

 

I have a cable modem, but the techonology coming out of the box is the same. I bought a wireless router (I already had a peer-to-peer network) for about 40$ and it worked fine. If you don't want to do wi-fi you can buy packages that come with a router and 1 ethernet card(you should already have one if you are using it to connect to your dsl).

You might need to register the mac address with your ISP, but I'd be surprised if you needed to buy it from your ISP.

 

If you do decide at some point to go wireless make sure you turn encryption/security on...

This is to prevent people outside the physical security of your house from gaining access and doing things on your IP address...

 

DSL is not proprietary. You can buy the equipment from any major electronics store, and even a few of the discount office supply stores. It's relatively inexpensive. Small 5-port mini hubs are the price of a fast food meal. Mini routers ain't much more.

 

The ethernet output will work with almost any off the shelf router or switch. A switch may not work if they have only allowed you one mac address.

A router allows you to share the connecton, if you buy one with firewall protection (very very recommended, either SPI or NAT) it also blocks your internal computers from outside access.

I know DSL is a little different, most of the time the router should work with defaults, and set up your computers to use DHCP (probably what the DSL uses already.) Most ISPs are adopting the more generic standards, DSL used to be a hodgpodge of various protocols and proprietary hardware.

I got a wireless router and 2 wireless cards, one pcmcia for my laptop, and one pci for a desktop for about 80 bucks after a rebate. It works great with my Cable modem.

Wireless is more expensive, but is really easy depending on how hard it would be to run ethernet cables to all the computers in the house. Just make sure you learn how to lock it down to only allow your computers mac addresses to access it, and setup wep encryption for security, and change the admin password to something other than the default. High Speed connections make you very vulnerable to external attacks, and many isps make security your problem.