Michael C. Williams wrote:

>I am not sure if this venue is appropriate for my question on DSL versus
>cable, but I am looking for advice and/or recommendations.  Currently I use
>Comcast cable at a total cost of about $46 per month for the connection and
>modem rental.  I like the cable speed (is there a way to check download
>speed?) and the connection has been very reliable.  Because I have two
>computers connected thru a router and use two IP addresses, Comcast is going
>to start charging me about $7 per month more.  I don't need 2 IP's, but
>don't know how to connect both computers using only one IP address.  DSL is
>now being offered in my area by SBC and I can get service for about $27 per
>month.  There will be some startup cost, but only about $100 I think because
>of promotional offers; also I will get 2 months free service.
>
>Now for my question:  Is cable more reliable and enough faster to justify
>this cost disparity which will be on the order of $26 per month?  For
>information I have one Northgate desktop computer (Windows XP pro) and one
>HP laptop (Win XP home) computer connected.  The SBC rep told me that a
>firewall and spam protection are provided, but these may be what many ISP's
>provide.
>
>Thanks for any assistance provided.
>
>Mike Williams
>
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>
>
>
I have a similar system, cable modem provided by the cable company
(Everest here in the Kansas area), and a router but I have the router
set up with an internal LAN address that the cable company does not know
anything about. The router allows me to have several computers or other
devices (because it also has a built in wireless access point) hooked up
to it and they can all access the internet through the router to the
cable modem. My cable modem has an IP address that is assigned to it by
the ISP. The router knows that address because it is set up in the
software to look for it (DHCP is on). But the router allows me to also
set up a LAN network behind it so that no one on the internet can see my
computers. That is the purpose of the router. Therefore, I can have
several computers, each with an IP that is within the LAN IP range use
the router to gain access to the internet. For more information on
setting up a home LAN, see freepctech (the people at the nospin group)
at: http://freepctech.com/guides.shtml
or Linksys education at: http://www.linksys.com/edu/
or D-Link at:
http://www.dlink.com/configurator_v2.0/index.asp?vendorID=dlink

They all have very good information to help you understand better and
perhaps allow you to keep what you have without going through a cost
increase.

Jean Bourvic

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