Hey, question.

[conuly]

I'm pretty sure this isn't possible, but the less I have to buy, the better.

Is it at all possible to have one computer hooked up directly to the modem, and the other hooked up through the router?

Edit: All right, all right, all right. Unless you can guarantee me a new modem if it blows up the old one, I'm forgetting this insane idea.

Comments

[griphus.livejournal.com]

I'll answer that with a question: are you asking because you want to hook the main computer up through USB and the laptop through ethernet?

[conuly]

What are you, psychic? Except switch the computers around.

[griphus.livejournal.com]

how far away is the laptop going to be hanging around from the router?

[conuly]

*does some quick spot measurements*

I have no friggin' idea. Have I ever mentioned my complete lack of spatial awareness?

[griphus.livejournal.com]

just a general idea: an adjacent room, across the house, on another floor, etc.?

[conuly]

It's the next room over, and the cord would essentiall be going through the wall (or, through the sliding doors which are kept shut all the time because I will kill anybody who opens them, they're a pain to shut again)

[griphus.livejournal.com]

well, in that case the ethernet cable shouldn't run you too much. I know pretty much fuck-all about them (see my post to bridgetester above), but if you're not going to be using the router for the more advanced parts of it (port filtering, etc. etc.), you can just get an ethernet splitter and save yourself the cost of a router (you'd just have to get cables then). I could be wrong, though...

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

That actually depends on the ISP's policies, and most of the time, it won't work. I learned this the hard way not long after I had cable Internet installed in my own home. My cable modem offers a "feature" where, when any computer (or router -- the modem doesn't know the difference, of course) connects to the modem and receives an IP from the DHCP server, the modem captures the MAC of the NIC that has received the IP, and the modem won't let you disconnect that NIC and connect to another NIC unless you cycle the modem, which clears the MAC that the modem has captured. This "feature" offers absolutely no benefit to the end user (quite the contrary, in fact, it's a pain in the nuts), so I can only assume that it's a mechanism that the ISP uses to try to prevent people from using more than one computer on the Internet connection.

Of course, other ISPs may have completely different policies... but I have a hunch most of them do something similar to what mine (Comcast) does. And if they do, simply using an Ethernet hub won't work... you'll have to have a router. If you tried to use an Ethernet hub as you describe with my connection, the first computer connected to the modem would function normally, and any subsequent ones wouldn't be able to use the Internet at all because the modem would reject their MACs.

[griphus.livejournal.com]

wow, that's a pretty shitty feature (also explains why hubs aren't sold anymore in major outlets). Now you've got me all thinking as to how to bypass that (probably something involving spoofing the MAC address of the other computer on the network to all read as the same...maybe tricking the modem into thinking it's been cycled every time it gets an outgoing signal from a card with a different MAC?)

Sadly, I wasn't actually referring to a hub, just a small jack...until my roommate kindly informed me that that won't distribute IP addresses and just cause bizarre collisions. Apparently all that the splitters are good for is monitoring traffic.

...but yeah, you bring up a rather good point. checking company policy is best before going ahead and purchasing a router. Although the cable line that I have here (upstate NY) doesn't mind routers...although my use policy states that i can't have any servers running. Yeah, my ass.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

I thought of MAC spoofing, too, but I don't think that would do any good -- I've never tried it, so I don't know for sure, but I suspect that would involve unresolvable addressing problems, much like the ones you get when you assign the same IP to more than one computer on a network.

As to tricking the modem into thinking it's been cycled, I don't know. It would probably depend on how accessible the modem's firmware is and whether you'd be able to write a script/app that would be able to do that. Whether that's possible or not, that -- and spoofing, for that matter -- are probably more trouble than they're worth. If routers cost $10,000 or something, some kind of "trick" might be worth the work, but routers are cheap. I use a D-Link 614+, which is a B router with four Ethernet ports, and you can get one of those on eBay for less than ten dollars. So the kind of monkeying around that we're speculating about here just doesn't seem worth the effort.

Your roommate is right about the jacks (and hubs, for that matter). They work strictly on Layer 1 and don't provide the kind of functionality you'd need to share a connection.

[griphus.livejournal.com]

yeah, this is all stuff i have barely touched since compulsory CCNA classes three or four years back...hubs are only on Layer 1? I thought they distributed IP addresses (I didn't say I paid much attention at said classes ;) )

re: the monkeying, yeah, that'd only be worth it for shits and giggles. in a i-fought-big-broadband-and-won way.

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

Nope, hubs are layer 1 devices. They don't do shit. :-) That's one of the reasons that hubs aren't used much anymore... switches do all the same stuff that hubs do, except that they work at layer 2, which eliminates all the collisions you get with hubs and makes your network more efficient.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

I agree with zathrus26. Many ISPs don't allow dual connections with ethernet hubs/splitters. Their reaction is one connection - 1 IP address.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Check Freecycle or Craigslist... A lot of people are upgrading their equipment right now, so they're basically dumping their 802.11b cards wherever they can. (They're selling for $1 to $5 on eBay, but I remember you saying that you can't buy stuff through there.)

(You won't notice the difference between 802.11b and 802.11g for just surfing the Internet...the only time it really shows up is if you're transferring huge files directly from one computer to the other.)

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I also lack any instinct that tells me distances. I can do millimeters when it's something small, vaguely, and anything else is beyond me. Gets embarrassing sometimes.

By the way, this post would have made more sense if I read my friends-list chronologically instead of backwards, but eh. It is a lot cheaper to buy a couple ethernet cords than a wireless card, though. It's funny to me in a way, too, because we have so many ethernet cords lying around the place that it strikes me as unusual to have to go out and buy one. Benefit of living with a nutso computer nerd. =D

[conuly]

I can always take any spare ethernet cords you have no mor euse fore hint hint hinty hinty beg.

[conuly]

This is what happens when I can't see the text appear as I type. Sowwee.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

We do have envelopes if you want one, but our spares aren't the really long ones; Derek says they're short-ish.

[conuly]

Drat.

[griphus.livejournal.com]

does said nutso computer nerd make his own ethernet cables? a real geek always crimps his own ;)

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, too lazy to do that.