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General discussion

Connecting 2 dial-up PC's

Dec 26, 2004 4:14PM PST

I am sure the answer is here in the forum somewhere, but can't seem to find it yet. My question concerns how to connect 2 PC's that have dial-up modems. My daughter and granddaughter,(newest to internet) want to use the same phone line to connect to the internet.
Can they both use the internet at the same time, and if so, what do I need to get for this to happen ? Both PC's have XP Pro, 20 and 40 gig HD if that helps.
Thanks for any tips you can offer !

Discussion is locked

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Check this out
Dec 26, 2004 7:17PM PST

This link may help using the old sysgate s/w:
http://smb.sygate.com/home_small_office.htm

Look under the "legacy title" to search that product. I used this before but you need to "network" your systems before accessing the dail-up. Beware, when both users are on, it will slow things down alot upon access.

good luck -----Willy

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It'll be slow, but...
Dec 26, 2004 7:39PM PST

What you'll be creating is the simplest form of network - two PCs, connected, sharing one or more resources. In this case, you want them to share internet connection via a modem, and it's not too difficult.

Windows XP, you'll be relieved to know, has a wizard for automatic configuration of connection sharing - that's the good news. However, you first need to establish if the PCs can be networked in their current form. With 40Gb hard disks, my guess (and it's a wild guess!) is that they have networking capacity already.

Look for a socket on each machine which will be marked with the "network" symbol - looks a little like three PCs on a wire; the socket itself looks similar to a USB socket. From your retailer, buy a networking cable long enough to join the two PCs together. (From memory, I think you need a crossover cable but ask the retailer, explaining exactly what you need it for! It's very important to have the right one.)

If the networking capability isn't already onboard, things get a little trickier - you'll need to buy a pair of network PCI cards and install them. They are very cheap these days, and easy to install - Windows will install the drivers automatically.

Once you've cabled the two machines together, use the Network Setup Wizard in Control Panel to configure everything. You'll need to decide which machine will actually access the internet with its modem. This will be the "lead" machine, and it will have to be on and connected whenever the "follow" machine wants internet access. Note that the follow machine's modem is redundant, but you don't need to disable or uninstall it unless you really want to.

Bear in mind that when both machines are online, via a modem, things will be pretty slow - the amount of data flowing in and out is still capped by your 56K modem. Nothing you can do about that, assuming a faster connection isn't an option at present. When/if a broadband connection becomes available, the two machines can still share the connection in this way with better results.

Sorry it's a lengthy (and not comprehensive) answer; as usual, the easy questions need the longest answers! What's more, there are more elegant and expensive (and I dare say better) solutions - this is simply the cheapest and easiest way.