dsl routers?

[SoNiK]

i am thinking about getting dsl... but i am too far so i can only get idsl... but i want to share the connection between 2 or 3 computers. what are these linksys routers i hear about? how do they work? is it same thing if i have regular network hub or switch? is that the same thing? i am so clueless.

 

[Diesel]

No, it's not the same.
What they basically do is act as a router (if you're not sure, look it up at www.whatis.com ), but have a network hub built in to share the connection with other computers on the network.

You can basically turn your PC into a router by installing a 2nd NIC, and enabling some sort of NAT (Network Address Translation) software. Some examples of this are Win98SE's Internet Connection Sharing, WinGate, WinProxy, or SyGate. What they do is allow your PC to act as a proxy server and share the connection with other computers on the network.
This way is significantly cheaper than a hardware router, but requires that the "server" PC be powered on for the other computers to access the Internet.
If you already leave your computer on 24/7, or have a dedicated server, this isn't a problem. Myself, I have a Linux box that acts as my proxy server. I also have a small test subnet that runs using SyGate, which works like a charm.


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From another BBS:
"hmm... Cyrix III, huh? You can put syrup on sh*t, but that don't make it pancakes."