Sharing an Internet connection

[Allen Schoessler]

OK. In this house we have two phone lines. Line one has some problem and is not able to call our ISP, but line 2 can. Therefore line 2 is our Internet line.

Now of course we have the problem with two people wanting to be on at the same time. Therefore Internet connection sharing is a good choice. However, the other computer is not always powered on, and my computer, which could always be on, happens to be a laptop and is not always there. (like when I'm out)

So what I want is software that, when you get on the Internet, checks to see if the other computer has an active connection. If it does, it uses it via the network to connect. If it doesn't, then it starts a connection of its own to be shared should the other want to get on.

The concept is hard to find because everyone is sharing broadband connections, which I can't get here. (except satellite, which is 80 bucks a month - no way.)

Has anyone heard of such a program, and well, since I am a programmer and all, is it technically even possbile to make such a thing?

[MidgetsBro]

It's called Internet Connection Sharing. It's built into Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP, I believe. If not, then you can get a program called Proxy from www.analogx.com that you can install on the computer connected to the internet, and the other computer can be configured to connect to the computer connected to the internet. You will, of course, have to network the computers before you can make this happen, but it is possible.

[siyan]

you could probably make a program that does it, but of course you'd ened to be able to tell IE when to use LAN and when to use DUN or something

-C

[plenderj]

Do it properly and buy a router

[siyan]

he uses dial up, so using a regular router would be difficult unless you found one with DUN features...kinda hard

-C

[plenderj]

And if I just look to my left I see our company's dialup router sitting between our server and a 100mbps switch

[JoshT]

Yes, you can get consumer level routers that have PPP capability:

http://www.netgear.com/product_view....&yrp=10&zrp=33

Netgear's not the best company, but they're inexpensive.

[siyan]

Originally posted by plenderj
And if I just look to my left I see our company's dialup router sitting between our server and a 100mbps switch

heh. my bad

-C