Splitting cable modem coonection without buying ip's

[PapaRoach]

I have searched for this and cannot find an answer.

Cox @home will only allow you to purchase 3 ip addresses and we need 6 computers on our network. Here is a list of what we have:

Cable modem
5 port Linksys hub (2 of these)
Plenty of rj45 cable
Network interface card in all computers, and two in my win2k machine

Now I would like instructions on how to set this thing up.
I am thinking run the cable modem to my computer's 1st NIC then run a line out my 2nd NIC to the uplink on the 1st hub.
I can split to 4 computers off of that. The run a line from the 5th port of the hub to the uplink on the 2nd hub and i can split to 4 more computers on that.

Hopefully that works, if not please tell me how to change it. What I also need to know is what information will i need to enter on the rest of the computers in order to not have to purchase additional ip's?

Thank you very much for your help

[MaStAYoDA1]

Personally I use sygate because its real simple to use. Its a lot easier than setting up specific network settings, and basically sygate handles all the traffic from the other PC's. Basically all you need to do for sygate is make sure you can make contact with the other computers, and after that, install the software on your main PC as server, and the rest as client, and that's it.

Or if you really don't want to turn on one pc all the time, you can always get the linksys cable/dsl router and uplink it to the hubs.

[rogeryang]

Here, I have 6 computers on a little LAN. Our @Home goes through an NT Proxy/File Server. We have the proxy, and the rest of the computers, connected to a Linksys 8 port switch.

- Roger

[xyrth]

hey roger, howsit going?

i highly recomend the linksys router -- no hassle of proxying, no dealing with xtra nics, no one computer has to stay on .. it's easy.

you can pick up the 1 port version for about 100$, well worth it in my opinion.

- xyrth

[PapaRoach]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I went with Sygate since I managed to get it for free, if you now what I mean. Pretty easy to setup and I dont mind leaving the server computer on if it means not spending an extra $100+ for a router when i already have 2 hubs. Might have gone that route if i didnt already have my current hardware. The other thing that's nice about Sygate is you only have to have one NIC in the server.

[puppie]

Hey PapaRoach, I think I found one thing wrong with your configuration. You said that you were going to plug the 2nd network interface card into the uplink port on one of the hubs, I believe that you should plug it into a regular port. The uplink port is only used to plug hubs into hubs. I've had a similar configuration to yours before, and I used Windows internet connection sharing, but before that, I used Sygate. I only switched because of the number of users my version allowed (4) and I needed more. Anyhow, the most important point here is, not to plug a network interface card into an uplink port. It might actually work if you have a crossover cable, but it just confuses everything esp. since there usally is a regular port next to the uplink port.

[puppie]

I also believe that you need two NICs in the server for sygate to work. I've tried this before, and you need one for your LAN, and one for your WAN? (cable connection) But if you get it to work, don't listen to me.

[PapaRoach]

Thanks for the rest of the info guys.

Just to keep you posted, you're right about me plugging the cables in wrong. I did have the 2nd NIC going to the uplink on the hub when it should have gone to a regular port. This must be why it didnt work. Oh well, Sygate works well and the version I have supports unlimited users.

And again, you only need one NIC with Sygate 4.0. So if you don't have or want to pick up another network card, pick up Sygate, just dont pay for it.