BT Broadband

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f1nutter
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BT Broadband

Post by f1nutter »

It looks like BT are forcing us all to move to broadband. I use to have BT evenings and weekends, 10 pound per month. It then went up to 12 pound per month.

I then needed it during the day and paid 15 per month, then it went up to 16 pound per month. Now, BT have cut the number of hours in half, its disgusting!

Anyway, I might as well move to broadband and have a few questions. We have 2 PCs, my own, and a family machine, networked together. They are both connected to the internet using a second phone line (one at a time).

Is it possible for both PCs to use the internet (broadband) at the same time?
If so, is it just a case of buying two modems, and converting the phone sockets using the supplied adapter?
I also see that BT suggest a firewall, but have found them quite restrictive, any suggestions?

Cheers.
Coco
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Post by Coco »

well if you use xp, the wizerd does it all for you...
otherwise you can get proxy+ from download.com... works ok but its a bit of an arse to set up (i still cnat get outlook to werk :( )
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llimllib
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Post by llimllib »

You only need one modem, as long as your 2 computers are networked together, regardless of what operating system you have.
Firewalls, further, are only as restrictive as you set them; The ones you probably have experience with are at your work, where the sysadmins try to keep you out of anything fun. You are certainly not required to do this to yourself on your personal machines.
Probably you want to ask this question at a more hardware-oriented forum if you want specific answers.
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mikeq
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Post by mikeq »

BT seem quite expensive to me, have you looked at others?

I am looking at http://www.freedom2surf.com it is around £22 a month, take a look at their site they have some good explanations on the different ways you can hook up to their service. They also provide you with webspace/PHP/MySQL etc free as part of the service, they also allow you to run your own computer as a server, you get a static IP address.

Networked PCs sharing 1 one modem.

A router connected to the modem and the PCs connecting to the router (maybe slightly more secure as it is the router IP that is visible to the outside and not your internal networked PCs).

I use ZoneAlarm firewall (by ZoneLabs) they have a free version and is very good at its job, as llimllib said they are only as restrictive as you set them you have complete control over it. But I will say it is absolutely essential you run a firewall, just install ZoneAlarm and see how many alerts you get (people/applications trying to either access you PC from the outside, or applications on the inside trying to get out - not just trojans but things like Advertising apps that are installed without you knowing about them on your machine) even with a dial up connection.
BarryS
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BT Broadband

Post by BarryS »

You do not need BT for Broadband, in fact they are the worst offering, try Nildram or Zen (8 free ip numbers), These rank the best adsl broadband suppliers.

No problem sharing one adsl modem rpovided it is an adsl modem router, you can get one for £59 now and are less problematic than usb's, or pci's. You can either use a hub on an adsl router, which I started with, or better still get a 4 port switch adsl router for £99. (This is faster than a hub as the hub solution is slower (half duplex signalling.
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