networked home pc's & dial up connection sharing questions...

[GS]

Situation: Several PC's running XP, connected via ethernet for home
workgroup, one PC has modem connection to dial up. I set up home
networking on all PC's, with "main" pc set up as the machine others
connect to the internet thru. The trouble is, when I connect with a
computer other than the "main" pc it dials up thru the "main" pc but at
that point my control over the connection is gone, when I close the
browser I have to go downstairs to the main PC and manually disconnect
from there. The networked pc's will also dial up on their own
inexplicably for some reason on occasion, if I'm not carefull and forget
to physically turn the modem off I sometimes go way over my allotted
hours which can mean big $$$

What I'd like: To have an (network)icon on the "other" pc's like in the
"main" pc that lets me manually disconnect the modem connection, and
also have a way to connect on its own without having the browser do it.
There is a 3rd party utility called razzmon that does this
(http://www.gadec.com/razzmon/default.asp) but I feel I should be able
to do this without incurring extra $$$!

What I'd really like: Perhaps hook up a router that dials up
independantly, so the "main" pc does not have to be on? I have heard
that this will also speed up the connections somewhat, as the networked
pc's connections are currently noticeably slower than the "main" pc's.
Any routers I have seen however seem to be for broadband connection
sharing only, which is not available in my area. Is there a
router/hardware solution that I can use with dial up?

TIA!

 

[Gordon]

GS wrote:
|| Situation: Several PC's running XP, connected via ethernet for home
|| workgroup, one PC has modem connection to dial up. I set up home
|| networking on all PC's, with "main" pc set up as the machine others
|| connect to the internet thru. The trouble is, when I connect with a
|| computer other than the "main" pc it dials up thru the "main" pc but
|| at that point my control over the connection is gone, when I close
|| the browser I have to go downstairs to the main PC and manually
|| disconnect from there.

If you use Windows XP Firewall (have you got SP2 on each machine?) and run
the network setup wizard on each one, then you should have an icon for the
ICS on the machine you are currently on. (There is an option on the gateway
machine to allow other users to control the dial-up).

 

[Steve N.]

Situation: Several PC's running XP, connected via ethernet for home
workgroup, one PC has modem connection to dial up. I set up home
networking on all PC's, with "main" pc set up as the machine others
connect to the internet thru. The trouble is, when I connect with a
computer other than the "main" pc it dials up thru the "main" pc but at
that point my control over the connection is gone, when I close the
browser I have to go downstairs to the main PC and manually disconnect
from there. The networked pc's will also dial up on their own
inexplicably for some reason on occasion, if I'm not carefull and forget
to physically turn the modem off I sometimes go way over my allotted
hours which can mean big $$$

What I'd like: To have an (network)icon on the "other" pc's like in the
"main" pc that lets me manually disconnect the modem connection, and
also have a way to connect on its own without having the browser do it.
There is a 3rd party utility called razzmon that does this
(http://www.gadec.com/razzmon/default.asp) but I feel I should be able
to do this without incurring extra $$$!

What I'd really like: Perhaps hook up a router that dials up
independantly, so the "main" pc does not have to be on? I have heard
that this will also speed up the connections somewhat, as the networked
pc's connections are currently noticeably slower than the "main" pc's.
Any routers I have seen however seem to be for broadband connection
sharing only, which is not available in my area. Is there a
router/hardware solution that I can use with dial up?

TIA!

You could use VNC (freeware) to connect to the ICS host PC downstairs
and control it remotely.

As far as the random connects from client PCs it could be spyware trying
to phone home. Use Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware (both free for
private use) to check them.

Steve

 

[GS]

GS wrote:
|| Situation: Several PC's running XP, connected via ethernet for home
|| workgroup, one PC has modem connection to dial up. I set up home
|| networking on all PC's, with "main" pc set up as the machine others
|| connect to the internet thru. The trouble is, when I connect with a
|| computer other than the "main" pc it dials up thru the "main" pc but
|| at that point my control over the connection is gone, when I close
|| the browser I have to go downstairs to the main PC and manually
|| disconnect from there.

If you use Windows XP Firewall (have you got SP2 on each machine?) and run
the network setup wizard on each one, then you should have an icon for the
ICS on the machine you are currently on. (There is an option on the gateway
machine to allow other users to control the dial-up).

thanks

I'll check that out tonight, I dont recall seeing the option on the
gateway machine, how do I get to it?

I do have SP2 on each machine, and I believe that the firewall is
activated as well. There is no icon for the ICS on the other machines
though.

 

[GS]

You could use VNC (freeware) to connect to the ICS host PC downstairs
and control it remotely.

As far as the random connects from client PCs it could be spyware trying
to phone home. Use Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware (both free for
private use) to check them.

Steve

I thought of that, I actually have come to prefer dameware for this, and
I suppose I could use remote desktop as well. I just thought for
simplicity there should be an icon in the taskbar I could right click on
and choose "disconnect"

 

[Steve N.]

I thought of that, I actually have come to prefer dameware for this, and
I suppose I could use remote desktop as well. I just thought for
simplicity there should be an icon in the taskbar I could right click on
and choose "disconnect"

On the ICS host you can set the Dialup connection properties to show
icon in notification area. At the host machine (or via remote session to
it) you could then right click the icon in notification area and select
disconnect.

Steve

 

[GS]

On the ICS host you can set the Dialup connection properties to show
icon in notification area. At the host machine (or via remote session to
it) you could then right click the icon in notification area and select
disconnect.

Steve

I already have that, what I want is that same icon on a machine that is
*not* the host machine. Connecting to the host machine remotely to do
this should not be neccesary IMHO

 

[Steve N.]

I already have that, what I want is that same icon on a machine that is
*not* the host machine. Connecting to the host machine remotely to do
this should not be neccesary IMHO

Ok, I figured you might have but thought I'd mention it anyway.

Steve

 

[Li'l Roberto]

What you need is a modem router, but it will probably mean going
Broad Band, which you say isn't available locally, how about DSL ?
often teco's will be able to offer it in lieu of ADSL.

rgds
Li'l Roberto

 

[GS]

What you need is a modem router, but it will probably mean going
Broad Band, which you say isn't available locally, how about DSL ?
often teco's will be able to offer it in lieu of ADSL.

rgds
Li'l Roberto

Unfortunatly plain old 28.8 (31.3 on good days) is all I have available.
I dont know it there is a hardware solution for this or not, as that
is ultilmatly the way I want to go so each PC on my network can connect
without the host pc being turned on.

On an aside, last night I did get the client machine to show the
connection so I can control it from there, not sure how as the setting
on the host so that have clients control over the connection was already
checked off, I was playing with the settings on the client machine (not
changind anything) when voila, the connection showed up magically in my
network connections so I created a shortcut on the desktop for it and
also added an iceon in the task bar.

I'd still like to look at a modem router though, as the client internet
connections are noticeably slower and some pages time out, which never
happens on the host machine.