DSL Modem / Router??

Crummy · February 21st, 2002, 01:22 PM

Hoping you guys can help me out. I've been working on a small network that has 5 stations and a DSL connection. The DSL modem is plugged into an 8 port 10/100 hub. The DSL is from Verizon and came with an install CD that had to be ran at each station in order for the connection to work. When I look at the network settings on each station (Win 98) there is no IP addresses, gateways, or anything that I can see in terms of how these computers connect to the internet. My question is, because I don't see any IP's on the stations does it mean that the DSL modem is handing out the IP's using DHCP. And if thats the case does it mean the modem is also a router. Thanks in advance for your help, let me know if I need to supply more information.

Imanage · February 21st, 2002, 01:30 PM

Each of those 5 PCs can get to the internet over the DSL at the same time? What is the brand or model of the DSL modem that you have? I would have to ask was your network all working with each PC seeing each other before the DSL was added. I don't know if you have the service with multiple ip addresses or not.

Crummy · February 21st, 2002, 01:37 PM

I'm going to the office in a couple of hours so I will be able to tell you the brand of the modem then. The network was setup the same time as the DSL was installed. To share files and printers I had to install Netbeui, otherwise I couldn't get it to work.

And yes each of the computers can access the internet at the same time.

**Whir** · February 21st, 2002, 01:40 PM

Are you sure it's a hub? Sounds like you've got a router, rather than a hub. You should be able to go into control panel and under each connection under IP it should say something about configure IP automatically, which would mean that the computer is set to DHCP. Otherwise, the only other way you could do what you're doing is if the modem could in fact handle multiple IPs and each computer had it's own, which would most likely still be DHCP. Check that hub!

Elsewise, one of the computers could be configured as a server, though usually that takes more than one NIC in the computer. Then it gets a little messier. :P

-Whir

Crummy · February 21st, 2002, 01:46 PM

Thanks for your replies. 100% sure its a hub, Netgear, not sure of the model, it was only 70-80 dollars at CompUSA. Could the DSL modem also be a router??

DVNT1 · February 21st, 2002, 01:52 PM

Quote:

DSL modem is handing out the IP's using DHCP

If there aren't statically assigned IP addresses then yes, there must be a DHCP server invloved somewhere. It could simply be they are paying for five Public IP addresses and the DLS modem is just a modem.

At the Win98 PCs run WINIPCFG to see what their IP addresses really are.

Quote:

Could the DSL modem also be a router??

Crummy · February 21st, 2002, 01:59 PM

I'm confident that there is no DHCP server setup on the stations, so the only other place would be the DSL Modem, right?? I'll be heading over there shortly, so I can run WINIPCFG and get the scheme. Thanks again for your help, I'll keep you posted.

BTW the main reason I was asking was because someone brought up the issue of security. My understanding was that if the DSL Modem was also a router than the stations on the network would be invisible to the outside world. Am I understanding this correctly??

**Whir** · February 21st, 2002, 02:02 PM

Yep. Routers pretty much make everything behind them invisible to the outside world.

-Whir

DVNT1 · February 21st, 2002, 02:05 PM

Quote:

I'm confident that there is no DHCP server setup on the stations, so the only other place would be the DSL Modem

no, the ISP's DHCP server may assigning the IP addresses

Quote:

if the DSL Modem was also a router than the stations on the network would be invisible to the outside world

Imanage · February 21st, 2002, 02:09 PM

A router can do NAT, network address translation, so that you have one ip address to the outside world and your internal network with a different range of ip addresses(usually with 192.168.x.x which is one range reserved for internal use). I would recommend you get rid of the Netbuei and reconfigure your network for ip protocol.