Hi ,

Well I've just had NTL Broadband installed and connected to one computer via
the ethernet port. I have bought a Mentor ADSL/Cable router to enable me to
connect two PCs to the cable modem and share the broadband connection. What
are the steps involved in this. Do I have to install the NTL installation
softare on the other PC as well (which means connecting up the cable modem
directly to the PC to . The router documentation says something about
getting the ISPs IP address. I am new to networking and am a little worried
about not having enough information to get everything working. The router
instructions mention MAC addresses, cloning the computers MAC address?. Has
anyone used this router (or similar) who can give me a step by step guide?
Or point me to a web site that may be helpful. Both PCs use XP.

Many thanks.

Steve Church

On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 13:57:17 +0100, "steve church"
<steve@rivend.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

<snip>

Hello mate,

All you've got to do is connect the cable modem to your router's WAN
port, then each PC to the router's ethernet ports. The router should
automatically pick up an IP address from ntl's servers and use NAT
(Network Address Translation) to let the PCs browse the internet.

If you then want to configure more advances features, if available on
your router, you can do that next. I would recommend setting an
administration password at least. Turn off wireless if you will not be
using it too.

Hope this helps,

Richard

Thanks Richard. I only hope its as easy as this. Do I have to install the
NTL software on the second PC as well as the first PC (which was used to set
up the NTL account).

Steve Church
"Richard Sobey" <spam@rasobey.co.uk> wrote in message
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"steve church" <steve@rivend.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ci9h2l$7bi$1@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...

no it should run fine without it

andrew

Well I had another go tonight. I know the PC to cable modem works ok. I
connected the PC ethernet cable to one of the ports of the router and the
router output (WAN) connected to the cable modem with the cable supplied by
NTL (this is a straight through cable). called up the router on Internet
explorer and followed the intructions re setting up. ANything I didn't
understand I left blank. Didn't work. So some questions:

Do I need a crossed cable between router and cable modem?
How does the second PC (which is set up for AOL dial up at the moment) know
that is has to use NTL if I dont install the NTL CD?
The PC I was using has Zone Alarm fitted. Do I need to disable this in case
it blocks any loacl IP addresses from the router and/or modem ? I was able
to access the router on Explorer with its 192.168.1.1 address.

Sorry to seem a bit dumb but when it comes to networking, I am.

Regards,

Steve Church


"Richard Sobey" <spam@rasobey.co.uk> wrote in message
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steve church wrote:
Try turning of all the equipment, turn on the CM let that synch up, turn on
the router let that settle down & then turn on the PC, it's all i ever had
to do all those years ago. Make sure that the CM is plugged into the WAN
port & the PC into one of the ethernet ports (it is easy to get them mixed
up on some routers unless you're careful).


You shouldn't need to

You go into properties & tell it not to dial the AOL dialler but to access
over the LAN.

Word of advice unless things have changed recently you don't need the NTL
software, infact it used to be seriously broken, many users, even current
ones will advice to uninstall it altogether.

On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:11:33 +0100, "steve church"
<steve@rivend.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

Seems fine so far

You shouldn't, in most cases ntl will have assumed that you will be
connecting to a PC and suppled a standard cat5 cable. You only need a
crossover if you're connecting like equipment, for example PC-PC,
switch-switch.

It doesn't In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options >
Connections and choose "Never dial a connection". You should also
ensure that the TCP/IP configuration attached to your "Local Area
Connection" is set to automatically retrieve network settings (called
DHCP*). You can find your connection settings by clicking Start >
Settings > Network Connections > Local Area Connection then choose
Properties. Click TCP/IP and choose Properties again. It shoud be
obvious what to do next.

It would probably help to disable ZA for now until you're happy that
your network is working properly. Once it is, you can re-enable ZA and
manually add the required settings that allow your PC to communicate
with the router/internet. Note that you don't really need ZA - your
computer will be (read, should be) adequately protected by the
router's built in firewall. Most people however like to have
additional security features.

Got to start somewhere!

Richard

*Your router may have an option to enable its own DHCP server - enable
this if you haven't already.

"Richard Sobey" <spam@rasobey.co.uk> wrote in message
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Well that's encouraging!

I've found that it's always obvious when you know what you're doing. It's
not if you don't. I assume that ,at this point, I enable the 'get IP
address' and 'DNS' automatically rather than have to enter any numbers
(which I don't know anyway!)

Required settings? Presumably I need to set up some IP addresses. I have
used ZA before with dial up but have never had to use anything other than
the default settings.

Thanks for the detail in this. It's given me a bit more confidence to get
this working. By the way I've been an electronics design engineer for over
25 years but this networking stuff is all 'black magic' to me.

Regards,

Steve Church

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 07:07:05 +0100, "steve church"
<steve@rivend.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

There should be two radio buttons marked "Get IP address
automatically" and ditto for DNS servers. Make sure those are both
checked.

ZA may sometimes block access to the nework ports required for,
amongst other things, DHCP - so if it's running you might find you
can't even get an IP address from your router. Personally I'd leave it
disabled completely

Richard

Hi all,

Got it all sorted. Its surprising what you can do with a well informed
student. I think power cycling the router and modem was very beneficial.

Thanks to all who replied.

Regards,

Steve Church

"steve church" <steve@rivend.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
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