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Public Class GeoffAppleby

Inherits Microsoft.VisualBasic.MVP : Implements IBrainFart
What A Stupid Modem

While I'm staying at my parent's house, I had a look last night into what it would take to get my laptop online, while still allowing their PC to be online too.

My first port of call was to check out their modem. My parents have cable internet (through optus, but that's irrelevant), and so I had to check out what it could and couldn't do. A check of the modem itself showed a USB and a LAN port, so it looked promising right form the start - my parents are using the USB port, so this should be simple.

But I did a search on what the modem is capable of. They were given a Motorola SB4200 to use - which a quick search showed that I was in for disappointment.

Yes, it has both a USB and LAN port, but you can only use one or the other, not both.

So use the LAN port, and connect a hub. Is the modem a DHCP server? Sort of. The modem can support up to 32 users - but only one will be connected to the internet.

Bloody hell.

For now, I'm going to get myself a crossover cable, plug the laptop directly into the LAN port on my parent's PC, and bridge the connections. It means that for the laptop to have connectivity, the PC must be on too - but I'll live with that for now :)

I might go research other cable modems now...

Posted: Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:49 AM by Geoff Appleby
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Comments

William said:

Hey Geoff, I have a similar cable modem at home.

You'll need to get a router to get it to work.

You can probably pick something up for about $50 (if you don't want wifi, etc).

See: http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=router+state%3Avic

# October 2, 2006 8:25 PM

Geoff Appleby said:

Hey man,

Yeah, that's where my research has led me for this morning. Actually, my sister just told me she has a wireless router sitting around at her place that she's not working, so she's bringing that round tomorrow night and everything should be sweet :)

# October 2, 2006 8:36 PM

Deb said:

Ah, sisters. We rock. :P

# October 2, 2006 10:06 PM

Jordana said:

wrong sister Deb!

Geoff if it doesn't work please don't spend too much money fixing it up just so you can get net access without having to kick your parents off of the computer.

# October 3, 2006 3:48 AM

Geoff Appleby said:

Yeah yeah, whinging bloody woman! :P

I spent 4 dollars yesterday on a crossover cable, and it works fine. The router from jen is just a bonus :)

# October 3, 2006 4:08 PM
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