david.c Posted May 23, 2003 Author Posted May 23, 2003 Thanks for all your help guys. I hope to give the AOL Modem a try over the weekend. I f that fails I will go the route suggested by many of you. One last question, I assume these network cards fit inside the case rather than plugging in to a port outside. If so, is it a computer shop thing or can somebody with enough knowledge to be dangerous fit one. Cheers David Quote
adhawkins Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 You have to open the case, but it's just a question of removing a blanking plate from a free PCI slot (needs a Phillips screwdriver), putting the card in, and putting the screw back on. Then you just install the drivers. Pretty simple really...make sure you turn the PC off before you do it, and touch bare metal on the case of the PC before handling any cards (to get rid of the static). Andy Quote
neilwillis Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 You have to open the case, but it's just a question of removing a blanking plate from a free PCI slot (needs a Phillips screwdriver), putting the car in, and putting the screw back on. I thought they stopped making garage sized computers years ago Quote
adhawkins Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 I have no idea what you're talking about. Andy Quote
david.c Posted May 23, 2003 Author Posted May 23, 2003 Shame you can't edit Neil's Quote aswell David Quote
adhawkins Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 Nah, he forged that. My lawyers have been informed Andy Quote
JonnyBoy Posted May 24, 2003 Posted May 24, 2003 scratch off AOL...as they have restricted the amount of free traffic. Its absolutely no good if your into downloading porn..erm music I have a DLINK adsl router with 4 port switch and a second 8 port switch which networks 10 machines, and does it very well i might add. As said, usb modems require the host PC to be on for the other machines to share off. send it back and get an adsl router instead. which CAD system are you using? XP is the way forwards IMO providing you machine can cope. Network cards are available from www.ebuyer.co.uk and the likes for about £3 Quote
kennedyj Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 I may have got the wrong end of the stick here but I thought the issue was that you want to have two (or more) concurrent users connected at the same time using AOL via broadband. I dumped AOL because they told me this is not possible. This is nothing to do with sharing the broadband connection (which is trivial - Microsoft ICS does this quite adequately) but the fact that only one connection is allowed to log into an AOL account at a time - this restriction applies to dial-up as well as broadband. This is what I was told by AOL about a year ago - it might have changed since then. I went to another supplier and regularly have 5 concurrent users connected via 512K ADSL using a single login. -JohnK Quote
david.c Posted May 27, 2003 Author Posted May 27, 2003 The situation is that I want to upgrade to broadband for 2 reasons. 1/ So that the telephone line is still live when we are on line. 2/ So that surfing and downloads are quicker. You are correct on the number of screen names that can be connected at once, but that is not an issue for me, so long as I can connect from either computer. From the advice I have been given here, so long as I ditch the AOL modem and use a router with network cards in the 2 machines this will be possible. Cheers David Quote
kennedyj Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 OK, now I understand. I used to do exactly as you describe (log into AOL from more than one computer - non-concurrent) by using bog standard Billy-ware ICS. No router, just a £20 hub and a network card in each client. The only downside is that the PC with the modem connection must be powered on when any client wishes to access the broadband connection. I use an old steam-powered laptop to do the sharing via ICS (and to run a firewall) that just sits on the bookshelf next to me connected to the hub. Be aware that if you use anything like the above, or a router..., AOL will probably not give you any support if you have problems. That's if you tell them -JohnK Quote
Mike Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 im sure you can still buy windows 2000 and windows ME. Try upgrading to one of them. Mike Quote
ChrisG Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 A better bet than ICS if you are going to do it with an old steam powered PC, is to use something like IPCop or Smoothwall, which are Linux based Firewall / routers. You simply download the image, burn it to CD, whack it in the CD drive of an old totally blank PC that has 2 Network Cards in it, and boot off the CD. No need to know Linux at all, just follow the instructions and in 10 minutes you have yourself a pretty handy firewall which will support USB modems if your PC has USB, and is a lot more robust than Microsoft stuff, and all totally FREE! Chris Quote
adhawkins Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 Another like this is FloppyFW. No surprise that this one runs from a single floppy. You have to edit some text format config files, but it's nothing too difficult. Andy Quote
david.c Posted May 29, 2003 Author Posted May 29, 2003 Got the AOL modem working today on Win98 after a few teething problems (nothing to do with Win98) and it's wicked. The teething trouble was down to the BT socket I was using was an extension line from another socket, and I effectively had 2 filters inline, which it didn't like. Once I sussed that, it was a piece of cake. Already downloaded the Mental Go-Kart video clip. In the long run I will go with the router setup, but is there a simple way of running 2 usb cables into some sort of y-piece adaptor (2 into 1) Cheers David Quote
adhawkins Posted May 30, 2003 Posted May 30, 2003 In the long run I will go with the router setup, but is there a simple way of running 2 usb cables into some sort of y-piece adaptor (2 into 1) Cheers David I think you can buy USB switchboxes, I doubt they're cheap though. You'd probably find you'd spend as much getting the USB switchable as you would putting a router in. Just jump in and go for the router, I doubt you'll regret it. Andy Quote
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