Sharing a broadband connection.

BloodBath

I got my broadband in at home and now I want to share the connection between two computers. The modem/router is a Prestige 600 the one you get with esatbt.

Now I only have one 10/100 line on my computer and one on the other. I have a 10/100 network card but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment. The router can be connected using usb2 freeing up the 10/100 line.

Is there any way I can share the connection between these two. One is running XP pro and the other 2000 pro.

Cheers.

BloodBath

Adeptus Titanicus

I had a similar problem. I had an ADSL modem plugged into the USB port of my home machine and wantted to share the connection with my work laptop. I had a little 8 port hub and tried setting up a shared connection via XP on the desktop, but had problems getting Win2000 on the laptop seeing it. Got tired changing my domain to a workgroup and all that.

I ended up plugging the modem directly into the hub and connecting the desktop and laptop into the hub, independantly setting the DNS on each of the machines to the eircom BB DNS. WOrks like a charm, and I'll probably be adding another machine to this later on.

The only drawback is the cables... So I may go with a wireless option at some stage.

There are probably more technically elegant solutions out there, so I'm sure someone else here will be able to help.

AT

Lump

I have DSL in the UK, I just connected the modem to my XP box, and shared the connection over the network.

Probably not the nest way to do it, but it works fine.


John

jozi

i found the the modem esat suply and internet conection sharing to be a pain to get working!

it would work one day for hours and then just stop working, not sure if it had to do with the network hub/cables or one of the 2 pc's

got a d-link router, expensive but it works a charm now, had some trouble setting it up and i don't think the router has been switched of since jan/feb and no probs at all when there are to pc's using broadband at onec

jozi

ps have a look in the net/comms--> broadband forum there's most likely a post with a similar prob there some where

Adeptus Titanicus

Lump, Just curious, are the other machines connected through the shared connection also running XP?

BloodBath

I should have mentioned I have a 5 port switch as well. Onlt problem is I only have 2 cables :mad: Trip into town tomorrow I think.

BloodBath

BloodBath

No my problem at the moment is that I have only 1 10/100 connection. I have the dsl going to my machine with XP. It's using up the 10/100 port, for some reason it won't work with just the usb connection although I had it running last week with just the usb freeing up the 10/100 so I could connect it to the other pc.

Just gonna have to change the settings again.

Adeptus Titanicus

Not sure if I understand fully, do you have 1 10/100 card in each machine? Perhaps the attached gif will help. If you connect your ADSL modem directly to your 5-Port switch, then connect from the Switch to your 10/100 cards on your machines, they should both be able to see the modem, independantly.

BloodBath

Cheers adeptus I know that now. I only have two 10/100 cables though. Like I said a trip to the shop tomorrow. The two pc's only have one 10/100 port built into the mobo. I have a pci 10/100 card but it's not working by the looks of it.

So the best way of doing it would be through the switch yeah. Cheers for the help.

Adeptus Titanicus

np. It helped satisfy my fetish for network diagrams..

As I said, there are probably nicer solutions, but this is cheap and cheerful.

Good luck.

Inspector Gadget

If, like me, old PC hardware is easier to come across than money, you could always do what I did - throw together a POS machine (in my case a P200 with 32MB of RAM and an old 2GB Quantum HDD, and two NICs) and put a copy of Smoothwall Express 2.0 (see smoothwall.org). It takes care of keeping the connection open, gives you a workable firewall and (usefully) gives you an IP address to specify as your "gateway", which helps. For what it's worth, I'm using a Zyxel Prestige 645M ethernet ADSL modem here, but Smoothwall also supports a chunk of USB modems too, which is handy.

Otherwise, a wired broadband router with a built-in ethernet hub is a less power-hungry solution; Komplett have this 3Com thingy for E63, or for another thirty quid you can get something similar with an 802.11g AP built in. I'm assuming that the ADSL modem you have uses an Ethernet connection rather than USB for this though?

Hope this helps,
Gadget
P.S.> Adeptus, what package did you use to draw that diagrams? It sure is perty

Adeptus Titanicus

Originally posted by Inspector Gadget
... old PC hardware is easier to come across than money... gives you a workable firewall and (usefully) gives you an IP address to specify as your "gateway"

That's a nice idea. Damn, and I just gave away an old 266...

I used Visio 2003 for the diagram. It has some really useful templates for all sorts of flowcharts and diagramming, including detailed network diagrams and program flows. Lots of sexy little servers, routers and internet clouds..

Lump

Originally posted by Adeptus
Lump, Just curious, are the other machines connected through the shared connection also running XP?

No....


John

BloodBath

Ok I got a cable in town today and set up the network. I connected the dsl router and the two pc's to the 5 port switch. Set the tcp/ip to auto detect and bingo connection on both.

Couple of problems though. Neither comp can see the other and when I go to play games like cs online I keep getting spikes in the ping. What's causing this problem? One dsl connection should surely be able to handle 2 people playing cs online.

BloodBath

BloodBath

Alright trying to find out whats causing the problem. It's not an IOL problem. I shut down the other pc and my pings went back to normal. So started the other comp back up and kept monitoring pings from steam without opening cs. Then as soon as I opened steam on the other comp pings shot up. This is without even opening counterstrike.

Is this just a problem with steam or what? Is there any way I can fix it?


BloodBath

tuxy

Originally posted by BloodBath
Alright trying to find out whats causing the problem. It's not an IOL problem. I shut down the other pc and my pings went back to normal. So started the other comp back up and kept monitoring pings from steam without opening cs. Then as soon as I opened steam on the other comp pings shot up. This is without even opening counterstrike.

Is this just a problem with steam or what? Is there any way I can fix it?


BloodBath

i would say steam is probably updating and taking up all the bandwidth

BloodBath

It's not updating. It would say it was if it was updating surely.

Right I see my computer is doing all the work. The dsl is going into the switch. Rather than just sharing between the 2 p.c's it's going to mine only so if I shut down the other p.c. can't access the internet.

So all the trafic is going through my computer.

BloodBath

Adeptus Titanicus

Is the gameplay affected at all? Just wondering if the pings steam is sending out reflects the actual performance through your switch when playing CS. WHat kind of ping values are you getting with one then two machines running it?

You could try other non-steam pings running continuously to see if it is a steam only issue. I'd set up a ping from a cmd lime on one machine, lets say "ping boards.ie /t" (or choose another site/IP) and watch it. Connect the other machine and set it pinging too and watch the responses to see if there is a lag factor introduced. CTRL-C to stop the pings btw.. JIC

Out of curiousity. what kind of switch is it that you have?

Re your machines not seeing each other, this may be obvious, but just in case, do you have them set to the same workgroup name?

Edit: Just reread what you said about all traffic going through one machine, not thru the switch as it should. Did you set the ISPs DNS IP in your network TCP/IP properties on both machines or leave them to getting it automatically?

BloodBath

Yeah in game the pings on both are identical. That is they both hit massive spikes ping ranging from 50-60 jumping up as far as 400 non stop every few seconds.

I normally get 30-60 ping on europen servers with one machine.

I pinged boards on mine first, got an average of about 28-29.
Then with the other one as well it rose to about an average of 31-32.

So no problems there then.

The switch is a D-link DES-1005D 5 port 10/100.

I have the workgroup set the same but they still can't see each other.

I didn't set the ip's no. I set it to do it automatically.

Always something ****ing wrong :rolleyes:

BloodBath:rolleyes:

Adeptus Titanicus

It's a bit of a longshot, but I'd suggest that you set the Primary DNS on the connections on both machines to be your ISPs DNS. I don't understand how the second machine cannot access the internet unless the first machine is on if they are all connected to the same switch. If you turn machine 2 on first, can it still not connect to the net? Try that first. It may be getting confused when acquiring an IP.

Weird...

BloodBath

What I think is happening is that computer two's requests are going to the switch then to my machine, then back to the switch and on to the modem. And the incoming traffic is doing the same. Coming to the modem/router then to the switch on to my machine then back to the switch and on to the other machine again.


Weird is right.


BloodBath

griff

im going to start from the top.

if using DHCP make sure in the setting of the router you have not give a bogus dns address.

Assigne both machjine statci ip on your etwork with gateway address being router and dns being primary and secondary of your ISP. Make sure you turned internet sharing of on your xp PC and that the other one is not try to share with that.