Denis has a good idea of using the cheap machine as a router.  My friends
have used coyote Linux at:

http://www.coyotelinux.com/

You only need a floppy drive, a 486 or better processor, a keyboard, a
modem and a NIC, and monitor to get you going.  No hard drive needed. It
has worked fine as a NAT router and DHCP server.  I've seen a lot of cheap
machines ($30 - $50 w/o monitor) that will work.   The program is a free
download and even though some of the pages at the site may refer to paying
for the download, on one page you will see that they've quit asking for
payment.

Doug

At 6/23/01 11:18 AM, Denis A. Baldwin wrote:

>The best suggestion I could make for something like this is to take an older
>box (a 486 or Pentium will do) and make a Linux Router out of it. Set up
>IPChains and your modem on it and let the rest of the network NAT through
>it.  Takes about an hour to set up and works wonderfully.
>==============

Original question:

>Does anyone have experience with Internet Servers?
>
>We have a small network with about 3 or 4 of us accessing the
>internet for email, etc during the day. We each connect via dialup
>through a phone system that limits our connections to about 32 to
>34k.
>
>Someone recommended an Internet Server (I think the brand was
>Cnet) which would connect to our switch and provide connectivity to
>all via the network. We would then have it connected all day long to
>a direct phone line to tie up only one line instead of up to 3 or 4 for
>periods during the day.
>
>What advantages would this have over connecting one machine and
>sharing the internet connection over the network?
>
>Thanks in advance for any tips, ideas, etc.
>Eric

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