SHaring Internet

[Deanznet]

I ahve a winxp and a windows 2000,

the winxp is master and win2000 shares it internet

When i boot the winxp with linux it dosent share the internet, :S how can i fix that

[Harry Kuhman]

The absolutely best way to do that is to use an inexpensive NAT router. It will not only allow you to share the Internet connection, it will prevent Windows from sapping the speed of the Linux connection and it will provide very inportant NAT firewall protection for the WIndows box. These things are dirt cheap now, there is absolutely no good reason not to use one.

[Deanznet]

Is a NAT router a regular router is it not?

Because if it is i got one.. But still dosent share the connection :S

[Harry Kuhman]

Is a NAT router a regular router is it not?

Because if it is i got one.. But still dosent share the connection :S

The common home routers sold for cable or DSL use are NAT routers. They do Network Address Translation, supporting a locat private network, and serving as a proxy for all the machine on the local network to share the Internet connection. You can generally ID a NAT router because your local machine's IP address will be 198.168.xxx.xxx or 10.xxx.xxx.xxx (other addresses can be used but these are the most common) where xxx is any valid IP number, 0-255. You didn't say what router you have so I can't say if yours is a NAT router. What do you have(make and model), and why do you have it, how many ethernet ports does it have, and if the answer is more than one why do you think it does not share the connection?. A very few NAT routers were made with only 1 ethernet port. These include an unfortunate version form Linksys and a DSL modem/router combination that I think is made by Alcatel and provided by many DSL ISPs. If you have one of these you could add a network "switch" or hub between the router and the PCs and you would be able to share the connection. However, if you have the one port Linksys router is may actually be less expensive to get a different router than to add a switch (most home or Soho routers contain a 4 port switch built in, but since far more routers are sold that switches the routers are actually often less expensive).

There are routers that are used in the industry that are not NAT routers. The Internet is connected by many such routers. But I don't know why you would have such a device if you do not know what a NAT router is and what routers are not NAT routers, so it seems very likely that your router is indeed a NAT router.

Some newer DSL modems do include a router built in. Cable modes could, but I have yet to see one that does. When you say you have a router you are not talking about your DSL or cable modem, correct?

If you don't have a NAT router I strongly suggest you get one, The NAT function provides a very important firewall protection against attacks from the WEB, particularly important if you are running a Windows system.