Internet Sharing

Introduction

You can share a broadband connection using a DSL or cable connection. The same principles also apply to ISDN lines and, in some cases, dial-up lines.

We have provided for your convenience. We make no claims for its accuracy, its reliability, or its completeness. There are numerous ways to set up a network and we cannot guarantee that these instructions will work for you.

Please use your discretion and common sense when making any type of buying decision and when dealing with computer professionals, retailers, and service providers.

Your Internet Service Provider, or ISP, will not normally support a shared connection so you should set up Internet sharing in stages. This article is organized with the assumption that your Internet connection is installed and possibly functional, however, you can jump around as needed after you have read through the material.

• Get your Internet connection working one one computer.  
• Build a network and ensure that at least two computers can talk to each other.
• Set up your computers to share one Internet connection.
• Add additional PCs to your network.
• Set up a firewall to protect your PCs from the Internet.
• Ensure you can restore the connection to a single PC without a firewall if you have problems with your service. Most ISPs will not troubleshoot a shared connection or one that has a firewall.

How Internet sharing works

Every device accessing the Internet is identified by a unique IP Address. All of your computers are on a network that has a Gateway. The gateway acts as a bridge between your computers and the Internet, with all computers appearing to use the same IP address.

One of the most common methods of doing this is with Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT is a bit complex but the hardware and software solutions available today hide that complexity from you. NAT adds a header to each message sent onto the Internet. NAT decodes the headers of received messages and routes them to the proper computer.

Internet Security

Your computers are always connected to the Internet and therefore vulnerable to attack. You need a Firewall to protect you from viruses and attacks. Hardware gateways generally include a firewall. Software gateways need a separate firewall. You can read more about this in on the Resources page.

Connecting to your office network

If you want to connect with your company's Virtual Private Network (VPN) you should consult with your company's network specialists before putting any Internet sharing solution into place to ensure that it will be compatible with their VPN.  

• If you have a software firewall you may not be able to connect to a VPN.  There can be conflicts between these two forms of security.
• Some companies require connecting to their VPN with a laptop or a desktop PC that they support. This system may not be able to see the rest of your network.

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