______________________________________________

To All: Along this vein, does anyone have a method of
                setting up a telephone switchboard so that multiple
                computers can call one another without using actual
                telephone lines? I have a computer class and I would
                like them to practice setting up Dial Up Connection
                in Windows. I guess it would have to be a box that
                generates a dial tone at one end and ringing on the
                other end.... TIA.

To Winston:     Can you tell me exactly how you did the 9v battery
                connection to link two telephone? I can use that
                method in class. I'd appreciate it.

To Charles:     If you are going to do what you say, you need to use
                Dial Up Server on one PC and Dial up Connection on
                the other. This is built into Windows 9x. If you don't
                have it installed, go into Control Panel - Add/Remove
                Programs - Windows Setup - Communications  and add
                the feature.
                However, as Winston said, a direct cable connection
                is better. If you don't have a null modem cable ($15)
                or a laplink cable (parallel is better than serial),
                try using network cards (as low as $10 for each 10Mb
                card) and a reversed twisted-pair network cable
                (about $12 for 20 feet). Hubs are cheap too, I
                bought a 5-port one for $5 at a show. A network is
                faster, allows resource sharing and security, and
                allows additional users, HTH.

Regards,

John Chin


>At 08:27 PM 02/16/2001 Winston Pike wrote:
>This idea is still going to tie up the phone usage. At one time I had set up
>a phone line between two computers using a 9v battery connected in parallel
>to the modem jacks. All that was needed was to set the modems for "blind
>dial" (dialing without a dial tone).
>But a better solution would be to connect the two computers with the serial
>port or parallel ports and use the built-in Direct Cable Connection. . . .
>
>
>> Charles Barnard wrote:
>>
>> There are 2 PCs in my house. Both have modems and access to the phone
>> lines. Is there some software solution to create a home network using only
>> the modems and the existing phone lines?

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