Best way to share DSL....or is cable the answer?

badboy999 · 08-10-2002, 01:13 PM

Hey all!

I've got a bit of a dilemma. In september i'm moving into a new apartment. My roommates and I are going to share a highspeed connection. We have both cable and dsl available to us. I've got a hub and we're all equipped with network cards and i'm experienced enough to set it all up. I've got an Athlon XP 1700, my one roommate has a 700Mhz Athlon and the other has an ~700Mhz laptop. I'm just not sure what to go with. We can get cable service for $40/month and full speed DSL for $35.

With DSL I would imagine that we would have to connect one PC to the Internet and have everyone else connect to that via a proxy server. The trouble with this is we all use the internet at different times and it'd be a hassle to get the other guy to connect so we could access the net through a proxy server. We'd prefer not to leave one of our main computers connected all the time or have it connect automatically when it's got a request for the internet.

I've also got an old 486/100Mhz machine with 32MB of ram. Does anyone have any idea if this machine would be of sufficient power to act as a dedicated proxy server if I cleared it out and stripped it down to just the OS and a proxy application. I figure this way our primary computers could be disconnected when we don't need the internet but we could leave this machine linked up 24/7. Good idea? Or a bad idea in terms of security? Not enough processing power?

Also, does anyone have any other ideas? Would this be easier to accomplish with a cable modem? Or some other way with DSL?

Thanks

**TheTechIsIn** · 08-10-2002, 05:16 PM

well if you have any experience with Linux you could set up the 486 as a router as opposed to using a dedicated proxy server...

Or just get a router and connect the hub you already have to it..

I would personally recommend Linksys's router it runs about $89 dollars has the firewall software, its a DHCP server so you don't have to worry about setups... Plug in your Broadband connection plug your hub directly into the router and set you network connections to Automatically assignment using DHCP and your good to go. You can have it up and running in under 30 minutes.

08-10-2002, 01:13 PM	#1 (permalink)
badboy999 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 1 OS: XP Professional	Best way to share DSL....or is cable the answer? Hey all! I've got a bit of a dilemma. In september i'm moving into a new apartment. My roommates and I are going to share a highspeed connection. We have both cable and dsl available to us. I've got a hub and we're all equipped with network cards and i'm experienced enough to set it all up. I've got an Athlon XP 1700, my one roommate has a 700Mhz Athlon and the other has an ~700Mhz laptop. I'm just not sure what to go with. We can get cable service for $40/month and full speed DSL for $35. With DSL I would imagine that we would have to connect one PC to the Internet and have everyone else connect to that via a proxy server. The trouble with this is we all use the internet at different times and it'd be a hassle to get the other guy to connect so we could access the net through a proxy server. We'd prefer not to leave one of our main computers connected all the time or have it connect automatically when it's got a request for the internet. I've also got an old 486/100Mhz machine with 32MB of ram. Does anyone have any idea if this machine would be of sufficient power to act as a dedicated proxy server if I cleared it out and stripped it down to just the OS and a proxy application. I figure this way our primary computers could be disconnected when we don't need the internet but we could leave this machine linked up 24/7. Good idea? Or a bad idea in terms of security? Not enough processing power? Also, does anyone have any other ideas? Would this be easier to accomplish with a cable modem? Or some other way with DSL? Thanks

08-10-2002, 05:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
TheTechIsIn Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Roaming the US Posts: 1,693 OS: WinXP & Linux	well if you have any experience with Linux you could set up the 486 as a router as opposed to using a dedicated proxy server... Or just get a router and connect the hub you already have to it.. I would personally recommend Linksys's router it runs about $89 dollars has the firewall software, its a DHCP server so you don't have to worry about setups... Plug in your Broadband connection plug your hub directly into the router and set you network connections to Automatically assignment using DHCP and your good to go. You can have it up and running in under 30 minutes. __________________ <-- This Space for Sale -->