Broadband Connection Sharing - Routers

[t020]

I was wondering if any computer and internet experts could give me some advice about how to share a broadband connection?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[rickmiles85]

Right. Well firstly. Telewest only allows one mac address connection to thier servers per account at any one time. Therefor buying a hub isnt an option as many people may believe because the isp will only talk to the registered mac address (in line). The only option around this is to buy a cable/dsl router. Now what you do with this is get the mac address of the router and subsitute in onto the selfcare website for blueyonder and what I have done is remove the others. Once you have done that your router acts as a 4 way (or more, up to 253 users) internet connection sharing base, works like a hub but gives you the added bonus of being able to share your connection. Then you plug the 3 wires into the cable router from your computers. Please NOTE: Use a throughput wire!(Non Twisted) *** NOT CROSSOVER! *** for the wires from all 3 computers into the router. The router will come with a cable for a connection from its uplink port (on router) to the cable modem. Thats really it. All you then need to do is assign an IP address (Internet Protocol) address to all 3 computers. If I was given the choice of choosing between a wired network or wireless, I would choose wired. For the main reason that its much cheaper, less problems to arise, and you get much, much faster speeds through your network. Also wireless routers and access points are affected by distance between each other, the furter away you go from the main router the slower the network speed will be. The one I use for my home computer is a Nexland Soho Router. One of the best you can buy but please be aware, its not cheap. Around £100. This is an information page. Nexland Routers if you want to buy it eventually there is a store in Sheffield on London Road, (where I bought mine) its the only place in the country which is a distributor so we are very well placed, called Crown Computers Click Here Ive also made you a diagram which explains what I have talked about above. Just incase you found it hard to understand. That is placed Here & Enlarged Image

 

Hope This Information Helps You. Rick

[robh]

Originally posted by t020 How do wireless routers work?

Well - by using radio frequencies to connect between computers. On the plus side it means you don't need to run wires all over your house and you can use your laptop in the back garden. On the down-side:

 

they cost more

 

you need an expensive adapter for each PC

 

there are several "standards" which don't interact properly, (risk reduced if you buy all the kit from the same manufacturer and at the same time making it clear it is needed to work together)

 

risk of interference with other RF devices

 

risk of people hacking into your connection from next door or a car parked in the street (can be solved with correct security settings but you need to know what you're doing).

[t020]

Thanks for your help.

[alchresearch]

I use a Netgear RP114 router. I have my Telewest modem plugged into it with a short network cable.

 

This gives me four ports free to connect to my other computers - namely mine, the missus, my laptop and my Linux experimental PC, all again connected by network cables.

 

A combined modem and router should work, but I would much rather go with two seperate units.

[rickmiles85]

Yes I would too. You are really paying for something you already have.

[t020]

Originally posted by alchresearch

I use a Netgear RP114 router. I have my Telewest modem plugged into it with a short network cable.

 

This gives me four ports free to connect to my other computers - namely mine, the missus, my laptop and my Linux experimental PC, all again connected by network cables.

 

A combined modem and router should work, but I would much rather go with two seperate units.

 

I don't YET have the ADSL modem though.