DSL, min specs, and home networking

[lord of the mark]

Ok. the LOTM family is now taking the big step to DSL (dont laugh, please).

We possess an ancient desktop and an almost new laptop. The laptop came with a Dlink router.

The local phone company says min specs for the service are 64 Meg of Ram. The ancient desktop has only 48 Meg (i could upgrade to 64, but since we have the laptop, and hope to get a new desktop in a few months, at most, Im not sure its worth doing that - in any case, didnt want to do it right away for various reasons)

Now the laptop meets the min specs easily, but IIUC, the DSL software has to run on the PC thats physically connected to the DSL line - since the laptop moves around the house, and would be connected to our home LAN only via wireless, I presume we cant use the laptop as the base system for the DSL. We have to have a stationary PC connected to the router with adequate specs.

The phone company had software that made possible a check of our desktop specs over the net. I ran it, and despite our desktop having only 48 meg, it said our desktop met the minimum requirements. That didnt make sense to me.

I will be calling the phone company to ask, but thought you techies here might have some ideas.

[snoopy369]

Your best bet is to use the router to connect to the DSL modem. You don't actually need to run anything other than Windows' built-in networking (TCP/IP) on a computer; the router is capable of logging in to the DSL server and setting up the connection.

[snoopy369]

Hmm, more specifically, the setup goes:

Computer connected to router, and set up to use the router as its networking agent [although no internet is available at the moment]; should have an IP address of something like 192.168.0.100 (the last 100 can be anything, the router'll assign it)

Router connected to DSL modem

Log in on the computer to the Router (usually they have a web based login, at 192.168.0.1 if it's dlink, admin is the username, perhaps also admin as the password, check your manual)

Set the router to log in to the DSL modem here, giving it your login ID and password; set it to stay logged in.

This will give your router the internet connection. Then your computer will be able to utilize the internet simply by connecting to the router (which it already should be connected).

[Harovan]

Yep, use a router, enable DHCP, set it up on "connect on demand" and just connect all else over LAN.

[snoopy369]

Actually, i'd set it up for always-on connection. Connect on demand is annoying, and most DSL packages nowadays don't charge if you keep it always on.

[lord of the mark]

im confused - you say connect Desktop to the router, (hardwired) and then I can connect the router directly to the DSL modem. Then I can set up the wireless for the laptop, and i can run DSL via the router to the laptop, when the desktop is off? When I first tried to setup the router, they told me that would be very hard to do until I had DSL setup - thats been a pain, cause I wanted to use the router to move stuff from the desktop to the laptop even before we get DSL. And havent been able to.

[snoopy369]

You should be able to connect the router to the dsl directly. You don't need any of the crappy software that SBC or Verizon or whatever gives you ... DSL is really a very simple protocol that they like to make more complicated than it is.

Setting up the router itself is simple - just plug in the computer to the router, go to http://192.168.0.1/ in your web browser, put in the admin password, and make sure it's set up correctly - mostly I recommend giving it a name that you recognize, and using a secure protocol. That should allow you to connect the two computers.

Mind you, you won't be able to use the internet from one to the other this way (until DSL is set up); it's possible to share the internet connection from a normal modem, and if that's what you want to do I can direct you to instructions, but it's a pain.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by snoopy369
You should be able to connect the router to the dsl directly. You don't need any of the crappy software that SBC or Verizon or whatever gives you ... DSL is really a very simple protocol that they like to make more complicated than it is.

Setting up the router itself is simple - just plug in the computer to the router, go to http://192.168.0.1/ in your web browser, put in the admin password, and make sure it's set up correctly - mostly I recommend giving it a name that you recognize, and using a secure protocol. That should allow you to connect the two computers.

Mind you, you won't be able to use the internet from one to the other this way (until DSL is set up); it's possible to share the internet connection from a normal modem, and if that's what you want to do I can direct you to instructions, but it's a pain.

Thanks - just spoke to the local telco, and they confirm you connect the DSL straight to the router, and that could work with the laptop even if the desktop doesnt work.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Actually, i'd set it up for always-on connection. Connect on demand is annoying, and most DSL packages nowadays don't charge if you keep it always on.

I used to do the same, but some providers cut connection from time to time (like every 24 hours) to prevent you from running servers at home. It's silly due to dynamic IP resolution services, but nonetheless some (including mine) do.

Connect on demand may be annoying, but yet more annoying is it to have your connection cut for no apparent reason in the mid of an online game. So I set my connection on demand, with an automatic hangup after a pretty long time idle (1 hour). This way it dials in only once per day, and hangs up somewhere when I sleep.

[snoopy369]

Well, I suppose if you have that situation, then you would use connect on demand However, I don't have that situation, so it's better to keep alive the connection.

That said, I'm pretty sure my router would automatically redial the connection if it were broken at the source.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Thanks - just spoke to the local telco, and they confirm you connect the DSL straight to the router, and that could work with the laptop even if the desktop doesnt work.

More specifically, the desktop should work fine with it as well, as long as you connect it through the router Windows since Windows 3.11 (WfW) have been able to run TCP/IP connections with virtually no memory usage. Just don't install any software from the phone company

[Harovan]

Originally posted by snoopy369
That said, I'm pretty sure my router would automatically redial the connection if it were broken at the source.

So does mine, but since there is no guarantee that I get the same dynamic IP address, the connection to the server is broken nonetheless.

[snoopy369]

Hmm? The router grabs a new dynamic IP address, and I don't notice anything ...

[Harovan]

I suppose it comes down to what games you play. I'm not talking about Civ4.

[snoopy369]

Oh, you mean to the games server That could be annoying indeed, but I suspect LotM has a similar lack of concern with this problem to me

However, I never had problems playing GW with this happening, so I'm assuming it's not a problem with ATT/SBC/whatever.