Router HookUp Question

[Surgeon General]

O.K. So I am sick and tired of paying Cox Cable $10.00 a month for cable modem rent. I went out today and purchased a Linksys Cable modem which my brother is going to install tomorrow.
Now I am currently paying $7 extra a month to have another IP for my computer. I am also tired of paying for that and since I am starting up a little seti fleet I don't want to have to keep on switching which computer gets internet. I am currently using a hub from the cable modem to my brother's and my computers.
My girlfriend gave me a Linksys cable router that she did not need anymore. She was using it to share her cox connection with her roommate (roommate just moved out).
Anyway if my girlfriend could share her connection and she and I have the same ISP I figure I can do the same right?
I hate paying cox for the extra ip since the f#$@&%* don't give me any extra bandwith. If this works out it will knock $17.00 off my monthly cable bill.
I need help with the computer setting (if any) I need to make.
Oh please make sure I have the set up correct first. I think I need to connect the cat5 cable that leaves the modem to the WAN connection on the bacl of the router? then plug pc #1 in to slot 1 and pc #2 into slot 2, pc #3 into slot 3. I don't plug anything into the uplink slot do I?
Guess I should have writen this sooner, the back of the router has 6 cat5 type plug-ins marked, from left to right: WAN, 4,3,2,1,UPLINK.
My ISP assigns me the names to my computers, my brothers is named something like cz634291-a, mine is cz634291-b and when I had a game server hooked up for a while and was paying for yet ANOTHER connection it was named cz634291-c. Will the computer names have anything to do with it? Do I have to name all the computers the same or what?
All computers are currently running XP.

Thank you for any help you can provide.:D

[Farabomb]

Mind you I had a linksys that I never could get to work but that was with DSL.

Plug the cat5 from the modem to the WAN. The 4 ports go to the computers and the uplink goes to a hub if you need more ports. If you network is working now (you can see all the computers) it shouldn't me anything more than hooking it up. There is also some minor setting up of the router (logon for the cable modem, gateways if needed) but that should be in the manual.

I know I'm missing something but it's a start.

[Player0]

SG, the router will definately allow you to use multiple IPs without needing to pay for them. However, it will NOT alleviate the need for the cable modem.

You might beable to go out and buy a cable modem for $100-$200, which if you plan on keeping the cable line for more than a year, is probably worth it. However, as technology upgrades itself, your modem may become obsolete, and you also loose hardware support for it.

No, I recommend to keep renting the modem.

The linksys router will work fine. A little configuration is needed, but if you follow the instructions you are fine. Your cable modem is probably running in 'bridged' mode, which is fine. You will just have to configure the Router to capture the MAC address from the modem, and then they will work in tangent. I know, this gets complicated, just follow your instructions ;)

If you only use one IP, and install the router, you no longer need to name your PCs anything specific. You can have your router assign specific IPs to your machines at the MAC level, but thats advanced and you probably wont need to do that unless your hosting game servers. You will simply set up each PC to receive information from the routers DHCP server, so you wont need to fiddle with much.

For a simple set up, its mostly a plug and play deal.

You will plug a Cat5 patch cable from the Modem to the Routers uplink port. You MAY need to use a crossover cable, although many routers these days are auto sensing, and this will probably work with a standard cable. Only one way to find out and try ;)

Each PC will then plug in to port #1, #2, #3, etc. Once the cablings done, use a web browser to connect to the Router's web interface, and set whatever settings youll need (Modem MAC address, domain suffix, etc).

I make it sound harder than it really is hehe. Instructions are good ;) Ping me if you need more help.

[mdzcpa]

Fara covered things pretty good here:)

Hook it up the way he said, and enter the cable modem router and add the WAN info and you're set.

Just look at your tcp/ip properties of the computer which connects to the net. Duplicate those settings on the WAN set up page in the router. Also set the router to act as a DHCP server.

Then go back and change each system on the LAN to "obtain IP address automatically".

Your all done:)

[tripodal]

im hijacking this thread to ask a ?, P0 you have both dsl and cable... are you able to use both connection simultaniously to have an increased total speed.. or is any internect activity limited to one ip, ie cable or dsl...

[Player0]

Yes, I have a 2mbit cable line I use for personal things, and the new 512k DSL line that is dedicated to LN.com. I dont 'load-balance' the connections, no.

However, you can do this with Win2k Advanced Server. You have to install the load-balancing feature for clusters. You'd need two NICs. It's doable, but I haven't tried it yet. You're maximum speed to any one machine on the net would be limited to your fastest single connection. However, if your downloading from multiple different sources at the same time (like in a multiuser environment) then it is worth while.

There is no easy way to do this without a load-balancer. You could create a static route map (each internet gateway would be assigned its own unique metric), and then you program a route table to send packets to specific sites through one connection, and the rest of the packets go through the other connection. This works okay, I do it at work when I need to force FTP clients to go through the faster upload connection here. But, its all manual, and probably more pain than its worth.

[tripodal]

sweet, i do have win2k S, perhaps i will tryit when my friend move in 2 houses down
hehe