The answer is "you bet."  I have one PC which has a cable modem connection
to the internet, and I run software called SyGate ($39.95) from
www.sybergen.com.  This allows any computer on our home ethernet lan to
share the one high-speed internet connection, which in Barry's case would
be DSL.  The LAN has also had lots of side benefits, like ability to share
printers, copy files quickly and (soon) let me view newly captured quake
files on the basement PC from my office.

I tried WinGate for several weeks, and never had any luck.  SyGate
installed cleanly and intuitively and worked the first time.  Their
web-based help site is great with actual screen shots of how you should set
up the network panels in each machine.  I highly recommend it.  30 day free
trial as well.  Machine with DSL connection is installed as "server", all
the rest are installed as "client".

The main secret to getting this stuff working is knowing about one web site
- www.timhiggins.com.  One trip through this site and you will be a
networking guru, no kidding.  :-)  One critical piece of information I got
here to make the intial LAN install a success is to install the NetBEUI
protocol on all the lan-attached PCs, even if you are only going to use
TCP/IP.  (Take that Bill Gates, thought nobody would figure that out didn't
ya?)

The PC with the DSL connection needs *two* ethernet cards.  Make sure they
are different manufacturers.  Why?  Tim Higgins says so...but it also makes
it easier to tell them apart since they have to be configured differently.
The one attached to the DSL modem is typically set to "get an IP address
automatically".  (This is the one whose NIC address you have to give to the
ISP.)

The second ethernet card is attached to the home LAN hub, and is set to
static IP address 192.168.0.1.  All the other machines in your house are
set to 192.168.0.2,  3,  4,  etc.  You tell the other machines to use the
..1 machine as the gateway in the SyGate client software settings on each
machine.  That's it, everybody now has a high-speed internet connection.

Windows 98 second edition has a similar feature called ICS or Internet
Connection Sharing.  However I decided that I did not want to use anything
designed by the same people who designed the Win 95 networking control
panels.  So my 40 bucks bought me a bit of tranquility, something that
doesn't often go along with network debugging.

Fundamental advice which I found very helpful as well:  (1) get your home
LAN working as a local LAN, including the DSL-attached machine (but without
setting up any internet sharing support).  (2) add the internet sharing
support to the working LAN.  You'll never get it to work if you try to do
it all at once.

Other solutions for networking your home computers are now common.  Some
use home wiring, some use mysterious "radio" waves (but who believes in
that stuff though).  I went with ethernet cards and 10baseT (8-wire RJ45)
cables, mostly because industry uses this and it works.  If you buy a hub,
make sure it can support both 10 and 100 Mb/sec rates, and that plugging
one 10 Mb card in doesn't slow the whole thing down (i.e. each port speed
is independent of the others).  Sometimes you have to open the box and read
the manual to find this out.  I have the NetGear DS104 Dual Speed Hub with
4 ports.  Very happy with it, except I wish I'd bought one with 6 ports.  I
run the CAT5 cable outside the house and bring it in through holds drilled
in the baseboard.  I know it's not built for that but it works fine.  Just
buy a color that goes with your house.  :-)  All my phone service is done
this way too, and you can get 4 phone lines in one CAT5 cable with top
quality signals.

Router/firewall box is a good idea too, but they are about $500.

OK, time to kick the dog out of the bed.

Regards, Ted

IBM Global Services  -  Performance Management and Capacity Planning at the
Washington Systems Center
238 Highland St., Portsmouth, NH 03801
Phone: 8-253-9969  Outside: (603) 433-9201   Fax: (603) 433-9190    Pager:
1-800-759-8888  PIN  1151100
Text page: http://www.skytel.com/Paging/index.html  pin# 1151100
Notes:   Ted Blank/Santa Teresa/IBM@IBMUS    Internet:  ted@..........


Larry Cochrane @.............. on 05/24/2000
10:21:26 PM

Please respond to psn-l@..............

Sent by:  psn-l-request@..............


To:   barry lotz 
cc:   psn-l@..............
Subject:  Re: DSL



Hi Barry,

There are several ways to network other systems to your DSL line. The
simplest way is to get multiple static IP address from your ISP. This costs
more but setup is the easiest. I have PacBell enhanced service that gives
you 5 static IP address. The cost is $80.00 per month. In this
configuration all you need is a ethernet hub. The DSL modem connects to the
hub as well as your computer systems. Each system is then giver their own
IP address. You do need to worry about security since all of the systems
are connected to the Internet whenever the system is on.

You can also buy a router / gateway / firewall / hub box that can use one
IP address and allow other systems on your private network to access the
Internet. As with the configuration above, the DSL modem connects to the
router as well as all of your systems. One advantage with this option is
better security since the router box acts as a firewall.

And one other way of doing it is to use one of your computer systems to act
as a router / gateway. In this configuration one computer acts as the
router. There are several programs that you can buy that will do the IP
routing, one is called WinGate.

The problem with #2 and #3 is setup. Configuring everything so that it
works properly is very difficult if you haven't done it before.

I'm CC'ing the PSN, maybe others can use this info or offer other
suggestions.

-Larry

At 07:51 PM 5/23/00 -0700, Barry wrote:
>Hi Larry
>   I have a (mostly) non seismic question. I was considering getting a
>DSL service but the phone company says it's designed for a single line
>to one computer. They were not helpful wrt networking. I know a
>reasonable amount about electronics and computer languages and older
>hardware, but what I know about connecting computers together you can
>fit on a pin head. Any help with literature references I can read would
>be appreciated. Also do you think or know if I could hook my and my
>son's computer to the same DSL line?
>Regards
>Barry
>
>
>
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