Hi, In a separate e-mail, I have a cry for help, but don't let that prejudice your reading of this one... <grin>. I advocate the hardware approach. When I was able to got to "broadband" (cuz they finally brought ADSL to my neibhborhood), I bought a little D-Link DI-704 -- a 4-port hub/gateway -- and connected the house computers to it. When the DSL stuff arrived, I plugged the highspeed modem into the indicated port on the D-Link, and threw away the ISP's CD. It wasn't needed (since I had the D-Link, almost none of the routing was taking place on my computer). Also, the ISP's software was for Windoze and Mac, not for Linux. But, since I didn't need it, I didn't care. Instead, all I had to do was to fire up a browser and type in the default address of the D-Link. That brought up the D-Link's own internal, configuration web page. Following the "for dummies" instruction sheet that came with the D-Link, along with the cheat-sheet from the ISP, I typed in the IP address of the ISP, and checked ONE box that said "Use PPPoE", and ONE box that said something like "I'm a DHCP server, now" (okay, so that wasn't the exact wording, but this was more than a year ago). All three of those items were easy to find, and the setup sheet told me which ones I needed to input for my particular situation. Then, I started browsing the web and doing my e-mail. It was a simple as that. There was no configuration to do (beyond what I described above). The D-Link took care of everything. Yes, there were many more options, if I decided to be a server, but since I'm not serving anything to the world, I didn't have to change any other settings. It worked smoothly for both Windoze and Linux. You'd have the same experience with one of the equivalent LinkSys boxes. It was a bit over $100 Canadian, so figure $60 US. A modest, one-time investment, and worth every penny, I thought. I would do it again even if there was only one computer in the house. Certainly, with two home computers (mine and the wife's) plus the occasional laptop that is brought home from work, the D-Link (or a LinkSys or many other brands would do the same) makes it plug-and-go for any and all of the computers to surf and do e-mail and downloads simultaneously over the single high-speed connection. The computers can see each other if I want them to, but they all think they are the only one connecting to the ADSL line. It's not like in Windoze networking, where you have one computer with the modem acting as server/gateway for the others, and also acting as a bottleneck. On the other hand, if you are geekish (hobbyist) and really LIKE to declare one PC to be a gateway/router, and then figure out how to get your other computers to work THROUGH the only one that's connected directly to the outside world, rather than through an intermediary box, then more power to you. You will eventually learn all the inside stuff that I'm begging for in my other e-mail. Cheers, /kevin On Sun, 2002-02-10 at 16:34, Thomas Beasley wrote:

I'm thinking of upgrading to broadband. About a third of the guys in the Lug use cable modems, which is probablly the route I'll go. My ISP provider, Earthlink, offers

DSL with no Linux support. I've been with Earthlink for six years, but it's probablly wiser to go with the support of the Lug. So I may go AT&T's MediaOne.

-- Kevin McLauchlan Chrysalis-ITS, Inc. "Ultimate Trust(TM)"