Networking PC's 1

[shardian]

Hi all.
I have very little experiance with networking. I'm trying to setup a home network to connect my two computers (both xp pro) to a hub which also has an adsl modem connected to it. At the moment, at any one time only one of the PC's can access the internet. A friend told me it should just be a matter of assigning the default gateway, but the IP address isn't static so I'm thinking that the gateway could change quite often. I also want to hook up my xbox to the hub to use xbox live, but I guess i'll run into the same problem..

Can anyone step me through what I need to do to make this setup work??

 

[bcastner]

The issue is that your ADSL will permit only one connection through a hub.

Replace the hub with a broadband router. This will give you the internet access for both (or more), because it represents itself as only once connection.

Your local computer store should have consumer grade routers from several manufacturers. For non-wireless ADSL, you can pretty much pick based on price.

 

[shardian]

I've just looked at the specs for the adsl modem i'm using. Here is the blurb:

"The NB1300 top-selling ADSL Modem with Router connects one computer or a small network to a high-speed Internet service through the USB interface or 10/100 Ethernet. It features a built-in Router with NAT which allows multiple computers to share an Internet connection with one public IP address, eliminating the need to purchase multiple Internet accounts. The NB1300 also supports Port Forwarding, DHCP and Static IP Bridging for more advanced network configuration options. The NB1300 is fully ACA (A-Tick) & Telstra (IP1149) approved, which guarantees its compatibility with all major ISPs and Operating Systems*. It also comes with NetComm Easy-Config and exclusive video tutorials for quick and easy installation."

From that I take it that it is possible to use multiple devices with this unit??? Any ideas??

 

[edfair]

Yes, you can use multiple devices. Have you run the setup for it? Changed TCPIP properties? And let setup find the new connections?

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[franklin97355]

I think Bill's answer is the root of your problem. Switch, not hub.

 

[bkrike]

Shardian,
I took a quick look at a PDF for the NB1300. It is a DSL ‘modem’ with a built in router. The RJ45 of the NB1300 should be patched to your hub or switch (it may require a cross-over cable.) Then your computers should be patched to the hub. If only one computer at a time can access the internet, then something is wrong. Both computers having the same IP address may be the cause (but that is just a guess.)

The easiest way for you to get it working would probably be to go in and configure the NB1300 as a DHCP server, then set up your computers network cards -TCP/IP settings to “to obtain an IP address automatically.”

Do you know what settings you are currently using?
Did you configure the NB1300?
You don’t need to worry about the default gateway if you set it up as DHCP. And it would not change anyhow- the NB1300 takes care of all that for you.

 

[shardian]

I've setup both PC's to obtain address automatically. Still the same problem occurred.
Didn't look at anything DHCP related on the modem though. Saw something that mentioned it being set for multiple users, but I didn't set that. Originally it was configured by loading a CD that my ISP sent out. It loaded a profile for it from what i could gather.

 

[TechJeremy]

Sherdian,
Just simple...

1. Mess with your adsl modem settings and try to get it to work, giving you two or more connnections.

I didn't dig into your modem specifacations, but it sounds like you need a router, which would make everything work right away, and if you go wireless, you can have your XBOX wherever you want, via an Air Adapter.

2. Get a router and your connected easily.

 

[shardian]

OK i got a router. A dlink DI-624 wireless. Looks great, but still doesn't work.

After a bit of digging, I found that the connection to the ISP is PPPoA, and when I'm setting up the router, there is not an option for PPPoA, only PPPoE.

I looked around for information about all this stuff, and can't find anything that says the router can do what i need it to. Nothing says it can't, but lots say that PPPoA and PPPoE are incompatible and that I'm up the creek without a paddle

Any ideas??

 

[bkrike]

Previously you stated that you could get one computer at a time to connect. Is that still the case? One will connect, correct?

If you can get one to connect, and it is through the computers network card, then you will be able to make two connect with the right config.

Do you know if your computers are getting their IP address's from the modem/router? What are the IP addresses of the computers when they are connected?

 

[shardian]

Regardless of where I plug the modem into on the router, I can't get connection on any of my computers

If I plug into the WAN port, I cannot ping the modem. If I plug into one of the standard ethernet ports, I can ping it and make changes through the web interface, but still can't get onto the internet.

The modem is set to be the DHCP server so I turned DHCP server off on the router as I thought this would cause problems...

Both computers can share files between them when connected, and the LAN IP addresses they get are in the same range as the router and modem.

 

[shardian]

OK, email tech support and got an answer, and amazingly enough, it worked.

Weirdest thing though....they told me to make sure that 1) the router had its wan settings to dynamic, and 2) that the modem and the router were in seperate subnets...so modem = 192.168.1.1 and router = 192.168.0.2. Didn't expect much, so I was happily suprised when it worked...

Don't get why it worked being that the router and modem shouldn't be able to talk as far I as understood, but hey..if it ain't broke.....

However if some one can explain how this works it'd be really good.

Thanks for all your help

 

[bisawest]

It depends on the IP addresses, and gateways of the components. A subnet mask tells you which part of the address to read. For example, a network may have 15 nodes, and the IP could be 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.254. The router and devices on the other side use the subnet to determine which numbers to read. In this case, the first 3 octets are the same, only the last one is different, and it is the last one that identifies the actual device on the network. If you had a larger network, than your subnet would be different, so that you can address all of the machines. This is my understanding, anyone else have anything to offer?

Have a nice day today, and a better day tomorrow!!!