Newbie questions of a very simple nature

I apologize in advance for my appalling lack of knowledge in this area,
as the questions I ask will no doubt either be easily answered and will
have been answered many times before. However after having a look through
Deja I haven't been able to find exactly what I'm after, so if anyone
could clear up these questions I'd be extremely grateful.

1) - Is broadband piped directly through the phoneline, meaning that you
can receive it from any phone socket in a connected house, as long as a
microfilter and a modem are connected.

2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems) directly
to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the same time and
have them both downloading without the need for a router?

3) - Which provider is generally reckoned to offer the best 512kbps
unlimited service?

Thanks very much, and I'm sorry for all the simple questions!

The entity currently known as El Beatle wrote:

> 1) - Is broadband piped directly through the phoneline, meaning that
> you can receive it from any phone socket in a connected house, as
> long as a microfilter and a modem are connected.

Yes.

> 2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems)
> directly to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the
> same time and have them both downloading without the need for a
> router?

No. Neither will work.

--
Iain A F Fleming

"El Beatle" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) t...
> I apologize in advance for my appalling lack of knowledge in this area,
> as the questions I ask will no doubt either be easily answered and will
> have been answered many times before. However after having a look through
> Deja I haven't been able to find exactly what I'm after, so if anyone
> could clear up these questions I'd be extremely grateful.
>
> 1) - Is broadband piped directly through the phoneline, meaning that you
> can receive it from any phone socket in a connected house, as long as a
> microfilter and a modem are connected.
>

Yes. It is the same cable. You can connect anywhere so long as you use the
filters.


> 2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems) directly
> to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the same time and
> have them both downloading without the need for a router?

No. Essentially a broadband modem uses all the high-end bandwith on your
phone line. You may only connect on broadband modem to a line. ( You can
ofcourse get another line installed )

If you want to use more than one pc then either get cheap PC and a EITHERNET
HUB, or get a EITHERNET dsl modem and a HUB, or you can get a DSL modem with
multiple eithernet hubs. Do some research on this on the net. maybe try
scan.co.uk thet sometimes have cheap "today only deals" on this sort of
equipment.

> 3) - Which provider is generally reckoned to offer the best 512kbps
> unlimited service?

I haven't found out yet really.

EITHERNET reads ETHERNET. Hmm.

"Spacen Jasset" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cani98$d2a$(E-Mail Removed)...
> EITHERNET reads ETHERNET. Hmm.
>
>

Domn spull chickers.... ;-)

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
El Beatle <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I apologize in advance for my appalling lack of knowledge in this
> area, as the questions I ask will no doubt either be easily answered
> and will have been answered many times before. However after having a
> look through Deja I haven't been able to find exactly what I'm after,
> so if anyone could clear up these questions I'd be extremely grateful.
>
> 1) - Is broadband piped directly through the phoneline, meaning that
> you can receive it from any phone socket in a connected house, as
> long as a microfilter and a modem are connected.
>
Yes, but you must also have filters on *all* other sockets into which analog
devices (phones, faxes, etc.) are plugged.

If you can contrive to plug your modem/router/whatever into the *master*
socket, a far better solution is to use a filtered faceplate - with all the
extension wiring connected into the back. You don't then need filters
everywhere else. You can get filtered faceplates from Solwise
http://www.solwise.co.uk/adsl_splitters.htm among others.

> 2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems)
> directly to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the
> same time and have them both downloading without the need for a
> router?

NO! Only one modem can synch on the line at a time. The mere presence of a
second one will stop the first one working.
>
> 3) - Which provider is generally reckoned to offer the best 512kbps
> unlimited service?
>
You pays your money, and takes your choice! Have a look at
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

A number of ISP (including PlusNet which I use) have recently introduced
tiered services - where the price depends on how many GB per month you
download, but with a premium service (at a higher price, of course!) which
provides unlimited downloads. I think (from memory) that PlusNet's 512k
unlimited service is 22 quid per month - but you have to pay up-front setup
charges and provide your own modem etc. on top of this. You can have a
service without setup charges by paying a few quid extra for the first 12
months.

If you don't need more that 1 or 2GB per month, the services start at about
15 quid per month. See http://www.plus.net/info2/index.html

[If you do decide to go with PlusNet, you could save me a few bob by
entering "mills37" into the Referral Box!]

> Thanks very much, and I'm sorry for all the simple questions!


HTH.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 19:46:12 +0100, El Beatle
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I apologize in advance for my appalling lack of knowledge in this area,
>as the questions I ask will no doubt either be easily answered and will
>have been answered many times before. However after having a look through
>Deja I haven't been able to find exactly what I'm after, so if anyone
>could clear up these questions I'd be extremely grateful.
>
>1) - Is broadband piped directly through the phoneline, meaning that you
>can receive it from any phone socket in a connected house, as long as a
>microfilter and a modem are connected.
>
>2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems) directly
>to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the same time and
>have them both downloading without the need for a router?
>
>3) - Which provider is generally reckoned to offer the best 512kbps
>unlimited service?
>
>Thanks very much, and I'm sorry for all the simple questions!

I can't really add anything that has not already been said about 1,2
and 3 so I won't bother - but I would say don't worry about newbie
questions. Everyone had to ask them once, you're certainly not alone,
and there are plenty of people in these groups more than happy to help
:-)

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 19:46:12 +0100, El Beatle
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I apologize in advance for my appalling lack of knowledge in this area,
> >as the questions I ask will no doubt either be easily answered and will
> >have been answered many times before. However after having a look through
> >Deja I haven't been able to find exactly what I'm after, so if anyone
> >could clear up these questions I'd be extremely grateful.
> >
> >1) - Is broadband piped directly through the phoneline, meaning that you
> >can receive it from any phone socket in a connected house, as long as a
> >microfilter and a modem are connected.
> >
> >2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems) directly
> >to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the same time and
> >have them both downloading without the need for a router?
> >
> >3) - Which provider is generally reckoned to offer the best 512kbps
> >unlimited service?
> >
> >Thanks very much, and I'm sorry for all the simple questions!
>
> I can't really add anything that has not already been said about 1,2
> and 3 so I won't bother - but I would say don't worry about newbie
> questions. Everyone had to ask them once, you're certainly not alone,
> and there are plenty of people in these groups more than happy to help
> :-)
>

I felt I had to add that, having seen people get their heads bitten off
for asking simple questions in other newsgroups. Glad to see it's not the
case here - you've all helped me a great deal. Thanks very much to
everyone who's helped.

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 09:59:21 +0100, El Beatle <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I felt I had to add that, having seen people get their heads bitten off
>for asking simple questions in other newsgroups. Glad to see it's not the
>case here - you've all helped me a great deal. Thanks very much to
>everyone who's helped.

Well I'm pretty new here too, but I've spent time on other groups like
uk.comp.home-networking and found the folks there to be fairly
friendly :-) Sorry to hear that people have had their heads bitten
off on some groups.

El Beatle uttered in <(E-Mail Removed)> :

> 2) - Would it be possible to connect two computers (with modems) directly
> to two different phone sockets (with microfilters) at the same time and
> have them both downloading without the need for a router?

As answered before, no.

You have two options for providing internet connectivity to multiple
computers in a house.

1) Use wired ethernet connections. Either have wires dangling all over the
place, or run them properly through the walls. Best setup requires a DSL
router + ethernet switch + n network cards (where n = # PCs without onboard
ethernet).

2) Use wireless connections. Best setup requires a DSL router + wireless
hub + n wireless adapter cards.

Wired networking ties your machines down to a location, but has a higher
speed for sharing files between machines. Wireless lets you move systems
around (within range of the access point [wireless hub]), but at a speed
sacrifice. Both wired and wireless are much faster than the DSL
connection, so it doesn't matter much in that respect.

Wireless can suffer from interference, walls and distance limitations, but
is quite acceptable in your 'typical' UK house. Don't stick the AP near
the microwave though.

Linksys, Netgear, Solwise and others all make combination DSL router +
wireless hub / ethernet switch gear, providing one box to do most of the
hard work.

--
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net for direct mail.