Two ADSL Lines?

OK this might sound daft, but here goes. I am thinking of transferring to
broadband this year. I work form home an have two PC's. One is my company
PC and one is my own. My company are planning to change my current ISDN
connection for their PC to broadband. So my question is, should I hook up
my personal PC to this connection or should I have a stand alone broadband
connection for my personal PC. I realise the cheaper option would be to run
two PC's off the same connection but I am not sure how straightforward this
is, particularly as my company PC is pretty much locked down. If not then
is it possible to have two broadband lines to one domestic address?

Any light shed on this would be gratefully received.

PG

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 10:39:08 -0000, "pgiblin"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>OK this might sound daft, but here goes. I am thinking of transferring to
>broadband this year. I work form home an have two PC's. One is my company
>PC and one is my own. My company are planning to change my current ISDN
>connection for their PC to broadband. So my question is, should I hook up
>my personal PC to this connection or should I have a stand alone broadband
>connection for my personal PC. I realise the cheaper option would be to run
>two PC's off the same connection but I am not sure how straightforward this
>is, particularly as my company PC is pretty much locked down. If not then
>is it possible to have two broadband lines to one domestic address?
>
>Any light shed on this would be gratefully received.
>
It really depends hoe your company sets up the connection and whether
it's within the terms of them providing ADSL for you to use it. There
was a thread, (on here I think or could have been
uk.comp.home-networking), not long ago outlining some of the pros and
cons of doing this.
As far as having two lines at one address ADSL enabled goes, yes you
can.
...

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd.

One of the more common setups for home workers (teleworkers) would be for
the company pc/laptop to use VPN to access the company network. What this
means is that you might have an ordinary every-day ISP for the internet
connection, but then the company PC creates a VPN "tunnel" (think of it as
just that, a tunnel through the normal ISP to your company's network.)
In this case, you'd probably find that all of the security restrictions
exist inside that tunnel and on the company PC, so you could freely plug
your home PC into the same ADSL, it would just exist outside of the tunnel
on the public Internet.

Another case would be that your company plans to have your ADSL 'call' the
company, so whilst it is using the same technology that the Internet uses,
you arn't actually on the Internet, you are on a private line.
In this scenario, connecting your home PC would do nothing cauz you wouldn't
have any internet access from it.


The final and third case that is in the relms of possability is that your
company is planning to do number 1, they'll have an ISP connection and
create a tunnel with it, except they may have a special contract with the
ISP to have everything else around the tunnel locked down. They might impose
a restriction like the connection turns off outside working hours, they
might restrict http (the browsing protocol) or a hundred and one other
different things.
In this scenerio, connecting your home PC to the same line would also not do
much.



Those scenarios are the three most likely possabilities I can imagine. The
best way would be to check with the IT department. At least then you have
their endorsement and it'd be helpful for them to know if any other
equipment is connected.
A company I used to work for used scenario 1, BTOpenworld with a private
tunnel. We aloud users to connect their home PC's and use it outside of the
tunnel, simply because with ADSL in place, they couldn't order another ADSL
on the same line. It makes sense, there is a lot of free bandwidth in ADSL
which business applications might not use.



Hope I havn't confused you too much here! It's a fairly long winded answer
:-)
(Check out Webopedia http://www.webopedia.com if you wanna know what any of
the terms I used mean)

Regards,
-Lawrence Stromski.



"Lurch" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 10:39:08 -0000, "pgiblin"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >OK this might sound daft, but here goes. I am thinking of transferring
to
> >broadband this year. I work form home an have two PC's. One is my
company
> >PC and one is my own. My company are planning to change my current ISDN
> >connection for their PC to broadband. So my question is, should I hook
up
> >my personal PC to this connection or should I have a stand alone
broadband
> >connection for my personal PC. I realise the cheaper option would be to
run
> >two PC's off the same connection but I am not sure how straightforward
this
> >is, particularly as my company PC is pretty much locked down. If not
then
> >is it possible to have two broadband lines to one domestic address?
> >
> >Any light shed on this would be gratefully received.
> >
> It really depends hoe your company sets up the connection and whether
> it's within the terms of them providing ADSL for you to use it. There
> was a thread, (on here I think or could have been
> uk.comp.home-networking), not long ago outlining some of the pros and
> cons of doing this.
> As far as having two lines at one address ADSL enabled goes, yes you
> can.
> ..
>
> SJW
> A.C.S. Ltd.

Many thanks guys for your detailed response, I know that our IT dept have
said that we can use the Broadband connection. They will pay for 512kps
from BT and should we want more than that then we will have to pay for it.
Although I see no reason for this.

However the fact that they will be using BT openworld does not fill me with
confidence. I currently have two BT lines plus one ISDN. So I might
consider having the company line connected to BT openworld, as they require,
and the other line connected to Plusnet,Zen, Nildram or something similar
for my own use. At least if there are problems with the BT line I should
have connectivity for my own PC.

Regards
Pete G


"Lawrence Stromski" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c0ic9o$8kq$(E-Mail Removed)...
> One of the more common setups for home workers (teleworkers) would be for
> the company pc/laptop to use VPN to access the company network. What this
> means is that you might have an ordinary every-day ISP for the internet
> connection, but then the company PC creates a VPN "tunnel" (think of it as
> just that, a tunnel through the normal ISP to your company's network.)
> In this case, you'd probably find that all of the security restrictions
> exist inside that tunnel and on the company PC, so you could freely plug
> your home PC into the same ADSL, it would just exist outside of the tunnel
> on the public Internet.
>
> Another case would be that your company plans to have your ADSL 'call' the
> company, so whilst it is using the same technology that the Internet uses,
> you arn't actually on the Internet, you are on a private line.
> In this scenario, connecting your home PC would do nothing cauz you
wouldn't
> have any internet access from it.
>
>
> The final and third case that is in the relms of possability is that your
> company is planning to do number 1, they'll have an ISP connection and
> create a tunnel with it, except they may have a special contract with the
> ISP to have everything else around the tunnel locked down. They might
impose
> a restriction like the connection turns off outside working hours, they
> might restrict http (the browsing protocol) or a hundred and one other
> different things.
> In this scenerio, connecting your home PC to the same line would also not
do
> much.
>
>
>
> Those scenarios are the three most likely possabilities I can imagine. The
> best way would be to check with the IT department. At least then you have
> their endorsement and it'd be helpful for them to know if any other
> equipment is connected.
> A company I used to work for used scenario 1, BTOpenworld with a private
> tunnel. We aloud users to connect their home PC's and use it outside of
the
> tunnel, simply because with ADSL in place, they couldn't order another
ADSL
> on the same line. It makes sense, there is a lot of free bandwidth in ADSL
> which business applications might not use.
>
>
>
> Hope I havn't confused you too much here! It's a fairly long winded answer
> :-)
> (Check out Webopedia http://www.webopedia.com if you wanna know what any
of
> the terms I used mean)
>
> Regards,
> -Lawrence Stromski.
>
>
>
> "Lurch" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 10:39:08 -0000, "pgiblin"
> > <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> > >OK this might sound daft, but here goes. I am thinking of transferring
> to
> > >broadband this year. I work form home an have two PC's. One is my
> company
> > >PC and one is my own. My company are planning to change my current
ISDN
> > >connection for their PC to broadband. So my question is, should I hook
> up
> > >my personal PC to this connection or should I have a stand alone
> broadband
> > >connection for my personal PC. I realise the cheaper option would be
to
> run
> > >two PC's off the same connection but I am not sure how straightforward
> this
> > >is, particularly as my company PC is pretty much locked down. If not
> then
> > >is it possible to have two broadband lines to one domestic address?
> > >
> > >Any light shed on this would be gratefully received.
> > >
> > It really depends hoe your company sets up the connection and whether
> > it's within the terms of them providing ADSL for you to use it. There
> > was a thread, (on here I think or could have been
> > uk.comp.home-networking), not long ago outlining some of the pros and
> > cons of doing this.
> > As far as having two lines at one address ADSL enabled goes, yes you
> > can.
> > ..
> >
> > SJW
> > A.C.S. Ltd.
>
>

In article <c0idlf$o23$(E-Mail Removed)>,
pgiblin <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>"Lawrence Stromski" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:c0ic9o$8kq$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> One of the more common setups for home workers (teleworkers) would be for
>> the company pc/laptop to use VPN to access the company network. What this
>> means is that you might have an ordinary every-day ISP for the internet
>> connection, but then the company PC creates a VPN "tunnel" (think of it as
>> just that, a tunnel through the normal ISP to your company's network.)
>> In this case, you'd probably find that all of the security restrictions
>> exist inside that tunnel and on the company PC, so you could freely plug
>> your home PC into the same ADSL, it would just exist outside of the tunnel
>> on the public Internet.
>>
>> Another case would be that your company plans to have your ADSL 'call' the
>> company, so whilst it is using the same technology that the Internet uses,
>> you arn't actually on the Internet, you are on a private line.
>> In this scenario, connecting your home PC would do nothing cauz you
>> wouldn't have any internet access from it.
>>
>>
>Many thanks guys for your detailed response, I know that our IT dept have
>said that we can use the Broadband connection. They will pay for 512kps
>from BT and should we want more than that then we will have to pay for it.
>Although I see no reason for this.
>
>Pete G

If you are supplied with a modem only, and you work PC is "locked down".
You'll have the hassle of moving the modem from once PC to another.
If you get a router, then you'll have no problems.

I'm not sure what Lawrence means by "your ADSL calls the company... you are
on a private line".
ADSL is a method of accessing the internet. The only entity it can call
is the ISP.

In short, I wouldn't worry. I think ADSL will be fine for your purposes.

Pete

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 14:06:58 +0000 (UTC), Pete
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm not sure what Lawrence means by "your ADSL calls the company... you are
>on a private line".
>ADSL is a method of accessing the internet. The only entity it can call
>is the ISP.

That's not technically true. Most people only use ADSL to connect to
the Internet but some people use it (without an Internet Service
Provider) to connect directly to their company network. Though it is
necessary for the company to have an arrangement with BT to allow this
to happen.

Just like the old fashoned way of dialing into a modem sitting at the
office, if your company has the right kit, the same thing can be done with
DSL.

You still have to make a connection to the DSLAM at the exchange, but i
believe companies can buy from BT, space to install their own gateways
and/or have it routed to your business?
Little unsure on this, havn't read the material. There is stuff about it on
the BTWholesale site.


(Similar i guess as to when you put in the bt_test user and pass for your
adsl connection, you only get access to the BT Test Intranet and pages,
nothing else.)

-Lawrence.



"King Queen" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 14:06:58 +0000 (UTC), Pete
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I'm not sure what Lawrence means by "your ADSL calls the company... you
are
> >on a private line".
> >ADSL is a method of accessing the internet. The only entity it can call
> >is the ISP.
>
> That's not technically true. Most people only use ADSL to connect to
> the Internet but some people use it (without an Internet Service
> Provider) to connect directly to their company network. Though it is
> necessary for the company to have an arrangement with BT to allow this
> to happen.

(Bad form replying to my own posts... especially before the news server even
gets a chance to process it, i know)

BlackBox sell the kit a company would need for incoming DSL i believe. It's
expensive stuff, i suppose why no one does it. Two modems is a lot cheeper.

-Lawrence.



"King Queen" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 14:06:58 +0000 (UTC), Pete
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I'm not sure what Lawrence means by "your ADSL calls the company... you
are
> >on a private line".
> >ADSL is a method of accessing the internet. The only entity it can call
> >is the ISP.
>
> That's not technically true. Most people only use ADSL to connect to
> the Internet but some people use it (without an Internet Service
> Provider) to connect directly to their company network. Though it is
> necessary for the company to have an arrangement with BT to allow this
> to happen.

pgiblin wrote:
> OK this might sound daft, but here goes. I am thinking of
> transferring to broadband this year. I work form home an have two
> PC's. One is my company PC and one is my own. My company are
> planning to change my current ISDN connection for their PC to
> broadband. So my question is, should I hook up my personal PC to
> this connection or should I have a stand alone broadband connection
> for my personal PC. I realise the cheaper option would be to run two
> PC's off the same connection but I am not sure how straightforward
> this is, particularly as my company PC is pretty much locked down.
> If not then is it possible to have two broadband lines to one
> domestic address?
>
> Any light shed on this would be gratefully received.

Would be worth asking your employer if you can use the service for personal
use out of working hours. That way you will know where you stand. Setting
up a network to your second pc is generally an easy job, you can ask in here
for help when the time comes.

pgiblin:
>However the fact that they will be using BT openworld does not fill me with
>confidence. I currently have two BT lines plus one ISDN. So I might
>consider having the company line connected to BT openworld, as they
require,
>and the other line connected to Plusnet,Zen, Nildram or something similar
>for my own use. At least if there are problems with the BT line I should
>have connectivity for my own PC

Almost all ISP providers use BT DSLAM equipment at the exchange, so you
'private' line to PlusNet, Zen etc. would be subject to the same potential
disruption ( when BT engineers do their upgrading etc.).

Only ISP's that provide their own equipment at the local exchange would be
routed separately. The only one I can remember is Bulldog, but even that is
only at selected exchanges.

Regards,
Martin