Broadband Internet

[FieldDoc]

I am close to buying a 12.1" Powebook (after loads of advice from you guys here) but I have another quesiton to ask.

I currently use Pipex ADSL here in the UK. I have an external USB modem (Alcatel Speedtouch). I would like to share my broadband connection with my XP machine. What is the easiest way to do this?

I will eventually like to purchase the Airport Base station to create a wireless connection to the internet but that won't be immediate.

I would like to be able to surf the web without having to turn the XP machine on. If all else fails, is it possible to just plug the USB modem into the mac like I can with the PC?

 

[Graphite]

It SHOULD be possible to plug it right in... but, its all upto the modem and the ISP.

 

[Amen-Moses]

OK this is all "in theory" but supposedly XP understands Rendezvous so all you should need to do is connect the Powerbook to the XP with a crossover cable (i.e R45->R45 ethernet connection) and switch on the Powerbook.

You may have to tell XP that you want to share the internet but supposedly it is all plug and play zero config.

Of course that is IF XP really is compatible, if not then you will need to mess around with manually configuring IP addresses and stuff but I gave up on all that and bought a Belkin wireless router.

As you are connected through USB you would need to configure the R45 port (ethernet 0 iow) to 192.168.1.0 and the Powerbook to 192.168.1.1. Set both subnet masks to 255.255.255.0 (probably the default anyway) and copy your ISP DNS server addresses to the DNS list on the Powerbook (look them up on the XP box while it is connected to the internet). On the Powerbook you may also need to set the gateway address to 192.168.1.0 (i.e the XP box address).

Of course I am assuming the XP box has an ethernet port!

Amen-Moses

 

[FieldDoc]

OK, new approach. Since I have no knowledge of networking, could someone explain to me what a router is? Would I simply buy a wireless router, plug that into my phone line then buy an airport card for the PB and a wifi card for the XP box? I presume airport works with regular wintel wifi stuff?

 

[Graphite]

Since when did Xp hop on the Rendezvous bandwagon?!

 

[Amen-Moses]

Since when did Xp hop on the Rendezvous bandwagon?!

It was part of the presentation from Apple a few months ago at a trade show, apparently MS has agreed to implement the standard. Whether they actually did or not I can't say as I don't run the rubbish on any of my systems but they along with IBM, Sun and HP were amongst the first to jump on the bandwagon. In fact the presentation included an HP printer, a webcam and a PC laptop (or was it a Powerbook in disguise? ).

Personally I'll believe it when I see it for myself.

Amen-Moses

 

[Amen-Moses]

OK, new approach. Since I have no knowledge of networking, could someone explain to me what a router is? Would I simply buy a wireless router, plug that into my phone line then buy an airport card for the PB and a wifi card for the XP box? I presume airport works with regular wintel wifi stuff?

A router sits between all your machines and the internet and .. well .. routes network traffic basically. i.e when one of your machines requests something from a web server the router "routes" the request to the internet and then "routes" the reply back to the appropriate machine. Typically a router cares not one wit what the OS of the machine is nor how many machines are on the network (of course they are limited by how many ports they have if it is a wired network but theoretically a router can handle 254 machines on wireless although practically they are probably limited for cost reasons).

The router presents a single IP address to the ISP and supplies IP addresses to the client machines on the network using DHCP protocol. Many routers also provide much higher security than software firewalls, mine is configured to use encoding of network traffic, firewall functionality and I've programmed in my MAC addresses (the actual hardware address of all the network cards) so others can't hook into it. They also can stop port access (i.e it stopped the latest worm attack) and even disallow ping requests so you are completely hidden from the outside world (obviously not a good thing if you want to host web pages from home but that is configurable so all machines bar your web server are hidden).

For less than $200 it is well worth it imo.

Of course your problem is that you use an ADSL modem, if it doesn't have an R45 ethernet port (i.e if it is only USB) then you are probably screwed because most routers only provide R45 connectivity. If you could get an ADSL modem with wireless router built in that would probably be the perfect answer.

Amen-Moses

 

[Graphite]

See now I saw the first show introducing it, and I knew that Hp and the others were hoppin along withit.. but they commented that although its opensource they doubt M$ will hop on... Course that was at the release of Jaguar.

 

[Amen-Moses]

btw what does ADSL cost? Could you switch to NTL or
Telewest and save some money?

I have 600Kbs from NTL for £15.99 a month and (since they replaced the bloody modem which was playing up) it's been superb, in fact I've already converted several workmates to cable from other systems, especially since NTL have divorced the cable modem from the TV set top box (I have both but now it is possible to just have the modem on ot's own).

(of course you could always just ask your provider for a R45 ported modem I suppose, if they don't want to play ball just threaten to switch to another provider!)

Amen-Moses

 

[Amen-Moses]

I just looked up the modem you have and it appears to have R45 socket so just plug into one of them!

You'll need a standard R45 cable (from PC world or similar).

btw where in the UK are you?

Amen-Moses

 

[Amen-Moses]

See now I saw the first show introducing it, and I knew that Hp and the others were hoppin along withit.. but they commented that although its opensource they doubt M$ will hop on... Course that was at the release of Jaguar.

Probably just wishful thinking on Apples part, if they could persuade the 3rd party manufacturers that MS were going to implement the protocol then it would probably be more persuasive. Mind you I can't see why MS wouldn't implement it seeing as they don't have anything similar in the pipeline, if they don't they could just cut their own throats. More likely is that they'll implement it but add something Wintel specific.

Amen-Moses

 

[FieldDoc]

Thanks for all your replies Amen-Moses, you've been a big help. Do you have any recommendations for a wireless router? If I understand correctly, I would need to plug the external modem into the router and then into my XP box.

Do you have any recommendations for a wireless router that has a built in ADSL modem (largely as the USB one is naff)?

P.S. I'm in North London

 

[Amen-Moses]

Thanks for all your replies Amen-Moses, you've been a big help. Do you have any recommendations for a wireless router? If I understand correctly, I would need to plug the external modem into the router and then into my XP box.

Do you have any recommendations for a wireless router that has a built in ADSL modem (largely as the USB one is naff)?

P.S. I'm in North London

broadbandbuyer (bad link removed)

Try there, I can't really recommend any particular ADSL router as I'm on cable myself but the netgear one looks promising.

Amen-Moses