3 computers only 1 needs internet

[stevie lee]

well the place where i work has finally decided to get broadband, previously using dial-up 56k for the past 8 years.

they'll be getting a modem - dont know how many ethernet ports its got on the back, but i'm assuming that if theres only 1, you can daisy-chain it to a 4 port ethernet router hub thing (can you tell i dont know what i'm talking about) to plug all 3 computers into it afterwards.

because of the nature of the people who work here - in other words, they are very likely to mess up the PC with viruses and things downloaded from the internet - is it possible to configure the router/hub/modem to only allow certain things through depending on what port they're plugged into?

so port 1 allows - printer sharing, internet, email, automatic updating from various software, internal network

ports 2, 3 and 4 - printer sharing, internal network.


don't know the name of the modem, or even the company they're going with, so this is just a hypothetical question. will be 2-3 weeks before they tell me more details.

so any help appreciated.

[aidanjt]

Chances are *very* good that they'll send you out a 4 port router. It's almost expected as standard these days. But if they only give you a 1 port router, just connect a small switch to it to distribute the connection.

[watercooled]

Ah, but if it has just one port there's a chance it's not a router at all - in this case a switch may not work as every PC would need a separate public IP address and most ISPs only supply you with one. Even if it is a router, it won't do any harm attaching another one to share the connection.
And, depending on the router you can configure access to a certain extent, chances are you will at least be able to block certain machines from accessing the Internet if that's what you want.

[peterb]

Set the PCs with static IP addresses and disable the DHCP server on the router. Then leave the default gateway on the machines that you don't want to access the internet blank. That way they will still talk to each other, but only the one with a default gateway (set to the router) will be able to see the internet. Make sure you don't have internet sharing enabled on the machine that can see the net.

[blueball]

Setup the TCP/IP network manually instead of using DHCP and don't allocate a Default Gateway to the PCs that shouldn't connect to the net

bah beaten to it LOL

[stevie lee]

Set the PCs with static IP addresses and disable the DHCP server on the router. Then leave the default gateway on the machines that you don't want to access the internet blank. That way they will still talk to each other, but only the one with a default gateway (set to the router) will be able to see the internet. Make sure you don't have internet sharing enabled on the machine that can see the net.

is that done from 'inside' the router - the bold bit - from the 192.168.1.1 address? and is it just a case of ticking the right boxes on the screen?

i can just about do the static IP addresses and default gateway.



as i said before, this is just hypothetical at the moment, it will be a couple of weeks before i'm back here saying whether it works or not.

thanks so far everyone

[watercooled]

Yeah, it's done from the router. The address isn't always 192.168.1.1 though so remember to check. An easy way to find it is to go Start>Run>type cmd>now type ipconfig>look for the address next to default gateway - that's your router's internal IP address.