Two modems on one line?

I've just received ADSL courtesy of the limits being removed, my pack
arrived today from BT and everything is working fine on my main PC (download
at 576, upload at 288).

We also have a laptop, and I'm aware that I network these together
wirelessly for around £100, but I also happen to have a spare ADSL modem
kicking around which I'm positive will work on the laptop.

I'm guessing I can't connect them both at the same time, but can I hook up
this modem to the laptop and connect while the main PC is switched on (and
therefore giving the modem power and illuminating the DSL light), or will I
need to have my main PC turned off...I'm not sure whether the DSL light
signifies a connection that will stop me using a second modem.

Thought I should ask before I stuff one (or both) of the machines up.

thanks

Neil

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:15:23 +0100, "Neil Pearson"
<nhpearson@**removeme**@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>I've just received ADSL courtesy of the limits being removed, my pack
>arrived today from BT and everything is working fine on my main PC (download
>at 576, upload at 288).
>
>We also have a laptop, and I'm aware that I network these together
>wirelessly for around £100, but I also happen to have a spare ADSL modem
>kicking around which I'm positive will work on the laptop.
>
>I'm guessing I can't connect them both at the same time, but can I hook up
>this modem to the laptop and connect while the main PC is switched on (and
>therefore giving the modem power and illuminating the DSL light), or will I
>need to have my main PC turned off...I'm not sure whether the DSL light
>signifies a connection that will stop me using a second modem.

AFAIK you cannot plug more than one modem into a single ADSL enabled
line. If you plug in 2, neither will work irrelevant of whether they
are powered or not (my source for this info is this forum).

Do both of the machines have a NIC card installed? If so you can get a
crossover Cat5 cable and use windows ICS to share the single
connection.

>
>Thought I should ask before I stuff one (or both) of the machines up.
>
>thanks
>
>Neil
>


--


Shevek

Get DigiGuide - a downloadable desktop PC TV and Radio Guide
http://getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=31493

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Neil Pearson <nhpearson@**removeme**@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> I've just received ADSL courtesy of the limits being removed, my pack
> arrived today from BT and everything is working fine on my main PC
> (download at 576, upload at 288).
>
> We also have a laptop, and I'm aware that I network these together
> wirelessly for around £100, but I also happen to have a spare ADSL
> modem kicking around which I'm positive will work on the laptop.
>
> I'm guessing I can't connect them both at the same time, but can I
> hook up this modem to the laptop and connect while the main PC is
> switched on (and therefore giving the modem power and illuminating
> the DSL light), or will I need to have my main PC turned off...I'm
> not sure whether the DSL light signifies a connection that will stop
> me using a second modem.
>
> Thought I should ask before I stuff one (or both) of the machines up.
>
> thanks
>
> Neil

As someone else has said, you can't have 2 ADSL modems plugged into the
telephone line at the same time - because neither will then work. To make
the 2nd modem work with the laptop, you don't need to turn the other PC off,
but you *do* need to unplug its modem from the phone line.

Again, as others have said, it's far better to network the computers and
share a single connection.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Tiscali Tim
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
>Neil Pearson <nhpearson@**removeme**@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I've just received ADSL courtesy of the limits being removed, my pack
>> arrived today from BT and everything is working fine on my main PC
>> (download at 576, upload at 288).
>>
>> We also have a laptop, and I'm aware that I network these together
>> wirelessly for around £100, but I also happen to have a spare ADSL
>> modem kicking around which I'm positive will work on the laptop.
>>
>> I'm guessing I can't connect them both at the same time, but can I
>> hook up this modem to the laptop and connect while the main PC is
>> switched on (and therefore giving the modem power and illuminating
>> the DSL light), or will I need to have my main PC turned off...I'm
>> not sure whether the DSL light signifies a connection that will stop
>> me using a second modem.
>>
>> Thought I should ask before I stuff one (or both) of the machines up.
>>
>> thanks
>>
>> Neil
>
>As someone else has said, you can't have 2 ADSL modems plugged into the
>telephone line at the same time - because neither will then work. To make
>the 2nd modem work with the laptop, you don't need to turn the other PC off,
>but you *do* need to unplug its modem from the phone line.
>
>Again, as others have said, it's far better to network the computers and
>share a single connection.

In a similar situation I simply use a peer-peer 'network' between the
laptop and the desktop, with the desktop broadband connection shared.
Total cost about £7 for a short ethernet crossover cable from Maplins.
The windows XP network set up wizard worked a treat so it was easy -
much to my surprise. When at home I only use the connection to the
laptop occasionally (mainly windoze updates and virus updates) so this
solution works for me.
--
Richard C

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
RCC <richard@mapson_cowling1.demon.co.uk> wrote:

..
>
> In a similar situation I simply use a peer-peer 'network' between the
> laptop and the desktop, with the desktop broadband connection shared.
> Total cost about £7 for a short ethernet crossover cable from Maplins.
> The windows XP network set up wizard worked a treat so it was easy -
> much to my surprise. When at home I only use the connection to the
> laptop occasionally (mainly windoze updates and virus updates) so this
> solution works for me.

Yes, that works fine for many people. The downside - causing many others to
go for a router is:
* your ADSL connection is probably via a USB modem
* the directly-connected PC has to be switched on whenever you want to go
on-line with the other one
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 10:16:51 +0100, "Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
>RCC <richard@mapson_cowling1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>.
>>
>> In a similar situation I simply use a peer-peer 'network' between the
>> laptop and the desktop, with the desktop broadband connection shared.
>> Total cost about £7 for a short ethernet crossover cable from Maplins.
>> The windows XP network set up wizard worked a treat so it was easy -
>> much to my surprise. When at home I only use the connection to the
>> laptop occasionally (mainly windoze updates and virus updates) so this
>> solution works for me.
>
>Yes, that works fine for many people. The downside - causing many others to
>go for a router is:
>* your ADSL connection is probably via a USB modem
>* the directly-connected PC has to be switched on whenever you want to go
>on-line with the other one

* ZoneAlarm totally borks the setup, at least it did with my setup.
Speedtouch 330 on an XP SP2 machine with ZA 5.1.011 with all the ZA
ICS settings enabled. It would work for a while then stopped
altogether. Had to stop using ZA and go with SP2 firewall. Then I got
a router ;-)

--


Shevek

Get DigiGuide - a downloadable desktop PC TV and Radio Guide
http://getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=31493

>
> In a similar situation I simply use a peer-peer 'network' between the
> laptop and the desktop, with the desktop broadband connection shared.
> Total cost about £7 for a short ethernet crossover cable from Maplins. The
> windows XP network set up wizard worked a treat so it was easy - much to
> my surprise. When at home I only use the connection to the laptop
> occasionally (mainly windoze updates and virus updates) so this solution
> works for me.
> --
> Richard C

I'd considered this but really didn't want to leave my main PC on all the
time - In the end I went for a Router and wireless setup Netgear DG834G and
WG511 card and the results are excellent, a strong signal all round the
house and the implementation was simple (well it was when I'd read the
instructions properly), thanks for all the help.