My in-laws refuse to get DSL since they want to keep AOL dial up.
However they want to network their 2 computers, share internet, share
files and share the printer. I've done this a lot with broadband
connections...but the dial-up seems to be a curve ball I don't
understand.

Here's what we have
1 Desktop computer, XP Home, Wired Ethernet, 56K modem
1 Laptop computer, XP Home, 802.11g wifi card
1 D-link router/switch/11g access point
1 printer


The setup wizard on the D-link router gives us fits since it insinsts
that something is broken since it can't "find the internet." The
router seems to need a connection on the WAN port.

Here's how I think I should set it up...

Desktop wired (Cat5) to D-link.
Desktop wired (USB) to the printer
Desktop wired (RJ11) to the telephone line
Laptop wifi to D-link

How do I tell the Desktop to act as a NAT router and provide DHCP
service to the laptop?
Will I somehow have 2 IP addresses on the deskop (1 facing the
internet and 1 private IP facing the inside network)?


There must be a tutorial on this somewhere...I just couldn't it.


Thank you.

"bighead" <tod.larson@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192937541.106769.177280@i13g2000prf.googlegr oups.com...
Doesn't AOL have a BB connection too? EarthLink and I know with Netzero one
can connect via dial-up or BB for the same price, using the same services
and features between the two types of connections. Once a user-id and
password is given by the ISP, it doesn't matter how one connects.

I suspect it's that way with AOL too, with EL and Netzero being national and
global in a sense. AOL should be too. I can get to EL anyway I choose to
connect, as long as I pay the bill, which I do it both ways dial-up and
wireless via BB when I am in a hotel with wireless or in a cafe. When I can
only use a dial-up then, I am using that.

Testing a family member's machine from my BB connected network at the time,
I was able to to connect to Netzero with her account using the machine,
while she is able to connect on a dial-up with the same account same price.

I am not paying any more money. The price for my account is the same with EL
no matter how I connect.

So, dump the dial-up, use the NAT router properly with all machines going
through the router wired or wireless with the router acting as the gateway
and the DHCP server for the LAN and be done with it. There is no need for
complications if it's not warranted.

You can can also get an Ethernet print server, plug the printer into it,
and plug the print server into a LAN port on the router. All machines using
the router wired or wireless will be able to use the printer without the
need of a computer hosting the printer.

On 2007-10-21, bighead <tod.larson@gmail.com> wrote:
Is that because DSL is not available where they are, or because it costs
significantly more than they think they are paying for dialup, or because
they don't want to 'learn something new'? If the latter, then try
explaining that using a DSL connection with an off-the-shelf home-user
router/modem involves a lot less 'learning something new' than trying to
set up a LAN with a dialup internet connection.

Home-user DSL routers are mostly built to assume that there is an 'always
on' internet connection.

Yes (although Microsoft Windows has some peculiar ways of operating that
make this less than transparent sometimes). You will have a WAN (Wide
Area Network, ie Internet, public) IP number allocated by the ISP to your
internet connection each time you connect - that might well change each
time, on a dialup connection. Your own LAN (Local Area Network) will have
a purely local block of IP numbers so that the local computers can
identify each other.

Does <http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/> look helpful?
Or go straight to the horse's mouth
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/crawford_02july01.mspx>

I'm sure that Windows XP has a way of sharing the internet connection of
'this' computer with others. If 'this' computer can always be running
whenever the 'other' wants to connect to the internet then things should
work without needing a seperate router at all, as long as 'this' computer
has a WiFi card (or wired ethernet card) to make the connection with the
'other' computer.

I think a more convenient arrangement would be to get a 'dialup router',
ie one that can connect to the internet using either a seperate dialup
modem or its own built-in one. The Multi-Tech RF102S doesn't have its own
WiFi but the WiFlyer does. I don't know if either of those will work with
AOL in the USA. There are other models - but they are scarce, thanks to
the growth of DSL and Cable broadband. A web search for

dialup router

should get you useful suggestions for your part of the world.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

They are just wacky. They feel tethered to their AOL and don't
understand that AOL is available for free if you have broadband. To
them AOL "IS" the internet. They also travel about 30% of the year
and they can grasp that any phone line equals they can get to AOL.

They do have DSL, Cable and Fiber available at the house. I think
they could have home DSL and a Verizon EVDO laptop card for just a
little more than they currently pay for AOL. Yeah, it's nuts...but we
love 'em.


These are good thanks...

The more I think about it I don't the the internet sharing feature
through XP is realistic for them. The technology exists, but the in-
laws still power off their computer every time they are done with it.
That doesn't really support an "always on" dial up.


WiFlyer looks like what they need. It just don't think they'll spend
the money.

On Oct 21, 8:51 am, bighead <tod.lar...@gmail.com> wrote:
Internet sharing can work if the one computer has the ethernet card
enabled to wake up. Setup the router; enable a local network. Setup
the internet sharing feature on one computer. Now they have
everything necessary to upgrade to DSL. A local network is required
anyway even if using DSL. Eventually the difficulty with using
Internet Sharing (waiting for that computer to wake up and waiting for
it to automatically dial AOL) will become tedious.

Some ISPs (ie United Online) will block Internet Sharing. Don't
know if that is true with AOL.

On Oct 21, 1:51 am, "Mr. Arnold" <MR. Arn...@Arnold.com> wrote:
I hear you...the in-laws are just not rational about technology. They
fretted for 6 months about buying a $200 emachines PC...like I
said...we love 'em.

"bighead" <tod.larson@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192937541.106769.177280@i13g2000prf.googlegr oups.com...

Years ago, before DSL was availiable to me, I did this with a proxy server
running on the main machine/gateway. The IP of the gateway must always be
the same/fixed.

Sorry, but I can't recall the one I used.

Bill

bighead wrote:

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:28:19 -0700, Paige D'Winter
<paige@paigedwinter.com> wrote:

Use the internet sharing wizard thingy and probably wire the desktop
computer to the WAN connector on the router.... Though the far easiest
way is just find a router that supports it. My Dlink DI-707
(ancient, old modal) supported it and my Apple Air Port (first modal)
supported it even using AOL dial-up! But the apple Airport must be
configured with an Apple Computer of some sort first.... Once its
configured, it'll provide WIFI and 1 eithernet port to any
computer....