Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
Why would you think that he installed the Comcast software? Even if he
did, it wouldn't be relevant to the situation at hand. His situation
deals with networking, not the branding of the Internet Explorer, or the
automatic population of server addresses in Outlook Express. Nor would
the support software included affect the situation, either.
While I certainly don't advise people to install any ISP's software, and
to give a second thought to any ISP that requires proprietary software,
that's a discussion that has nothing to do with the issue here.
--
Warren H.
==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug:
Support me at: http://www.holzemville.com/mall/
Warren, this is a great explanation you've offered. Thank you.
Warren wrote:
| | Chris Petersen wrote:
| | | I have 3 XP computers on a home network with a Linksys switch, I
| | | set them up using the build a home network wizard. They worked
| | | with DSL and worked with no internet, but as soon as I installed
| | | Comcast cable internet it kills my network, the internet works
| | | fine on all computers but I can't access files anymore on other
| | | computers anymore, also all of my shares show up but the non
| | | local ones have "Unknown" listed in the Computer column. Has
| | | anyone else or been able to resolve this problem?
| |
| | Yes. Get a router.
| |
| | When you connect multiple computers to the Comcast network with a
| | switch or a hub, you are on their network, not your own. The
| | Comcast network, for security and bandwidth issues, does not allow
| | normal LAN-type file sharing between computers on their network.
| | Unlike DSL where you have your own private pair of wires all the
| | way to the DSLAM, on an HFC network, you share the cable from your
| | neighborhood to the CMTS. That means if file sharing ports were
| | opened on your modem, you'd be able to see all your neighbor's
| | shares, and your neighbors would be able to see your shares.
| |
| | Yes, everything going from one computer in your house has to go out
| | through the network, and then be routed back again because your
| | switch is unable to route. As far as the switch knows, anything and
| | everything using TCP/IP is routed to the default gateway, which is
| | at the CMTS. Your "local" traffic is far from local in your
| | configuration.
| |
| | If you were to place a broadband router between your switch and the
| | modem, not only wouldn't you need to pay for the extra IP addresses
| | you need with a switch, you would be setting up an actual LAN. A
| | router routes between networks. The Comcast network (starting with
| | the modem, which is just a bridge between the Ethernet and the coax
| | mediums) is on one side of the router, and your LAN is on the other
| | side of the network. Each of your computers have an IP address on
| | your LAN, and traffic between them never sees the Comcast side of
| | the router. The Comcast side of your router appears to the Comcast
| | network to be a single machine (which it is). NAT (Network Address
| | Translation) is used to direct traffic going between the various
| | machines on your LAN and the Internet (which is basically the only
| | place you can go on the Comcast network.)
| |
| | This never was an issue when you had DSL as the DSLAM simply turned
| | around the inter-computer traffic from your home, and sent it right
| | back down the same private path it came up. Now you don't have a
| | private path, so it becomes desirable to isolate your machines on
| | their own network, rather than simply putting them all directly on
| | the Comcast network.
| |
| | So the simple answer is to buy a router. If you're looking at
| | Linksys, you could go with the BEFSR11 instead of the more common
| | BEFSR41, which is a broadband router with a 4 port switch built-in.
| | You already have the switch. Although you may find by shopping
| | around because the BEFSR41 is so much more common, it may be
| | available for less than you can find the BEFSR11.
| |
| | --
| | Warren H.
| |
| | ==========
| | Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
| | employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
| | Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
| | coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
| | response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
| | to go outside now.
| | Blatant Plug:
| | Support me at: http://www.holzemville.com/mall/
