Jason,

It's not as complicated as it sounds.  There are two [basic] ways to set up
multiple computers on a single DSL (or cable modem) connection.  The first
is to obtain an IP address from your ISP for each system on your home (or
office) network.  This option, however, is usually more expensive as the ISP
normally charges for each additional IP address.  With this setup you plug
your DSL connection directly into the hub and set up your systems with the
assigned IP's.

The second option, which it looks like you are being forced into, is to plug
the DSL connection into a router or gateway, and assign private IP addresses
to your systems which are translated via the rouer/gateway.  The simplest
way to do this is to use one machine on your internal network as the host
and install a proxy on this machine.  My personal favorite is Wingate.
Windows 2000 and 98SE have ICS, or Internet Connection Sharing, built into
them so you could use this without having to purchase 3rd party proxy
program.  I would not, however recommend this if your host is a Windows 98SE
machine.  While the setup is technically simple, I have had nothing but
headaches in all the instances where I have tried to set it up.  I cannot
speak for Windows 2000 as I have not attempted to set a network up with ICS
for this OS.

What you would do is put another network card in the host machine, and
install the proxy software on it.  You assign private internal IP addresses
for the second network card in the host machine and all the client machines.
The proxy software translates the internal IP addresses to the single
external IP address for transport to the internet.  Physicall, the second
network card in the host machine is connected to your network hub and the
first network card is connected to the DSL modem (unless the DSL modem is
internal, in which case you would plug the cable straight into the wall
jack).

There are more particulars about the setup which you need to know.  Wingate
comes with excellent documentation, so even if you decide to use another 3rd
party proxy solution I would suggest downloading the trial version of
Wingate just for the documentation.  This will help you with setup for any
proxy software.

As far as setting up a separate router, that is certain do-able, and would
work pretty much like I've outlined above.  The only real difference would
be that the router is a dedicated system.  In the above example you have to
leave the host machine on all the time in order to provide a gateway for the
other machines in the network.  You can use a pretty old system as a router
and load it with Windows 95 without worrying about performance.  It would
just have a slow boot time.  The best option would be Linux.  There is a way
to install Linux that makes it a very streamlined router.  You could use an
old 486 with a tiny hard drive and little RAM, and it would work pretty
good.

Hope this helps!

Kyle Elmblade
[log in to unmask]

From: "Jason Shah" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 9:35 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Connecting Home Network to Telocity Gateway


> Hi everyone. I just signed up for residential DSL access in my home office
from Telocity. Their access point is some proprietary gateway with an
ethernet, USB and parallel connection. Since this is not a conventional DSL
router, it does not have any built in NAT. Does anyone have an idea how I
can create a home network and have them all access the Internet via the DSL
gateway? Telocity does not support connecting more than one computer to the
gateway, but they have conceded that it is possible. From my own networking
experience, I imagine I will have to network my systems on a router and then
use a crossover to connect the router to the gateway. Somewhere along the
line, I would need some kind of network address translation to convert the
one static IP address Telocity has given me into a different one for each
computer on my network. Does anyone have any ideas?
>
> Thanks a lot in advance,
> Jason Shah

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