[PLUG] routers

[Rich Burroughs]

On Fri, March 24, 2006 1:50 pm, Rich Shepard wrote:

>    Why not use a 4-port switch? If you're moving bits around internally
> then
> that's all you need. I assume that you already have access to the 'Net. If
> you can do e-mail, ftp, http, and more from the one box, you'll be able to
> do
> the same from the other box.
>
>    In 1998-early 1999 we used a 56K modem to access the 'Net
> simultaneously
> from two linux workstations. We'd each be fetching mail and loading web
> pages
> with no problems.

Rich,

Actually. This depends a bit on how he is set up with his ISP. If he is
only allocated one IP address, then just plugging them both into a switch
will not do what you describe. He would need to set up one of the boxes to
do NAT, and have the other use it for a gateway. That would usually
involve having two NICs on the gateway box. That's all very doable of
course, but broadband routers are pretty inexpensive nowadays. It may not
be worth it to put in a switch and do all that extra work.

I use a DLink router on my home LAN, which comes with quite a few
features, including the ability to do static DHCP (where the DHCP server
always hands out the same IP to a given MAC address). I don't remember the
model number and I'm not there right now, but there are probably newer
ones now anyway. I think it cost about $50 at the time, and it's been very
reliable.


Rich