WIRELESS connection via DIALUP?!?!

[blurhahn]

I was helping my friend (a girl) troubleshoot her internet connection over the phone. They have dialup b/c they can't get high speed where they live. They were getting connection from one comp but not another desktop or two laptops (wirelessly). They were working fine yesterday and for months before. I first asked her to describe how the cords were laid out. There was a phone line plugged into the main computer(the one that was working) and an ethernet cord coming out and going to a Linksys Wireless G router. There was another ethernet cord going to their 2nd desktop(not working) from the router. These were all the cords involved. They definitely DO have dialup, I heard the modem sound over the phone. The laptops have only 1 cord plugged into them...the power cord.


How is this possible? Are they splitting dialup 4 ways, 2 of them being WIRELESS?? Am I an idiot?


This is all new to me, I'm completely baffled.

 

[InorganicMatter]

Yeah, you can do that easy. My router now has two WAN connections, one an RJ45 port for plugging in your cable modem, and one phone connection for dial-up or ISDN. It's possible...but you'd have to be stupid to try and split dial-up 4 ways...no offense to your GF (you know she is ).

 

[pixelbaker]

Aaaahhh. Internet connection sharing on networks with dialup. I remember that...

I had my home network setup using Ad-Hoc wifi and then one comp shared the internet connection and connected to the ISP via dialup modem so I didn't have to buy a router just yet.

I'm pretty sure the PC with the modem just has internet connection sharing enabled and that ethernet cord goes to a LAN port on the router which allows it to use the comp as 192.168.1.1 (the internet gateway). The comp with modem is probably doing DHCP for all the other comps on the network and the router is really just a wired+wifi bridge.


Anyone with more networking experience correct this post.

 

[SmokeRngs]

Aaaahhh. Internet connection sharing on networks with dialup. I remember that...

I had my home network setup using Ad-Hoc wifi and then one comp shared the internet connection and connected to the ISP via dialup modem so I didn't have to buy a router just yet.

I'm pretty sure the PC with the modem just has internet connection sharing enabled and that ethernet cord goes to a LAN port on the router which allows it to use the comp as 192.168.1.1 (the internet gateway). The comp with modem is probably doing DHCP for all the other comps on the network and the router is really just a wired+wifi bridge.


Anyone with more networking experience correct this post.

This is the most likely scenario. I've done the same thing with dial up and cable connections but without the wireless stuff. I didn't have a router (still don't) and this was the easiest way to get the computers connected to the internet. Didn't have to d/c with one computer when another one needed the connection. It would automatically go through the connection on the first computer with dial up. Later on, it was the easiest and cheapest way to share the cable connection.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Coule be the WiFlyer....
http://www.alwaysonwireless.com/wiflyer.html
Basically just a dial up router.

There have been dial up NAT routers around for many years...which will take 1, 2, even 3x dial up connections....and share them to an internal network just like broadband routers. Web admin, the usual 192.168.1.XXX or whatever on the inside, DHCP, port forwarding, etc. Web Ramp, 3COM, several makers had products. I've set up quite a few. Sure not as fast as broadband, but some places couldn't get broadband, and these did the job. Even on a single dial up connection.