Hello again Jim
  I'm going to try to answer your questions and comments fairly succinctly
and inline for clarity.  Any expanding can be done later if you so desire.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: inkleput{at}isp.com
> No problem on the top post.  At the moment I have a laptop with wifi and
> a desktop on a wire.  I'm trying to be ready for the event in which I
> would put on more than 2 computers, and can't budget broadband right
> now.
>
   Someone has mentioned a router which has a serial connector and if such
is both available and of decent quality regarding features, security,
configuration possibilities etc that is probably the easiest way to go. 

 However a router in modern terms is just a mini-PC that does a very
limited set of applications all involved with networking.  Routing used to
be handled by stand-alone servers and of course is still often done that
way in larger systems.  It is also done that way by the DIY crowd and by
those who want the best possible setup for the least expense thanks to
bootable floppies and bootable CD's that run routing applications which
include DHCP (for automatic addressing) port forwarding and port blocking,
secure shell login, domain name service, etc etc.  IOW one can setup a
standalone PC which requires very little power such as the aforementioned
486 and as long as it has 2 separate devices that can be networked (direct
cable connection, modem, nic, etc.) one as "internet" and one (or
several) as an "intranet", that machine can act as a
router/firewall. 

 One networking device, say a modem as in your case, connects the machine
with the outside world and acts as a centralized hub, along with a
multi-port switch if more than one other machine is to be served by a wired
connection, or again as in your case the second device could be a wifi
router.  This could even be further broken down to an additional subnet
with say a machine capable of routing that connects to the outside world
through the wifi-through-modem machine on one end and through nics or
whatever to the new subnet if for example you had a wireless nic that was
as yet unsupported by say OS/2 but wished to connect it remotely from the
modem machine.

> I'm almost totally behind the door regarding networking, so I have no
> idea what you mean by "setup a main machine as the router." 
I don't see
> how a wifi laptop would talk to an old 486 unless it was through an
> actual wifi router, which would seem (perhaps I'm wrong) would make the
> 486 beside the point as long as I don't have more computers (and I
> won't) than the router has ports.
>
  Hopefully you can find a commercially available router that will accept a
modem connection which would make the 486 beside the point.  If not you can
still make this work since a PC with a router capable OS can handle dialup
and PPP required by the modem and also handle a connection to the wifi
router making all subnets possible.

> My question is whether it would be wasted time and/or money setting up
> any of this before I actually have a broadband connection.  That is, if
> the router can't connect to the internet, why have it?
> 
  Any router by it's very nature can essentially connect to any network
given the right connections and software capabilities and connectors seems
to be the biggest issue you face since modem connectors are rare whereas
ethernet connections are commonplace.  The only waste you may suffer
depends on what you'd have to spend on hardware since most of the OS's are
free.  Seeing you already have the modem and the wifi router, should you
have an old PC lying around with either a floppy or a CD drive which will
accept that modem and a NIC, there would be zero expense excepting time and
effort.

  You might wish to peruse the following

                           http://www.freesco.org/index.php?id=d

                           http://www.ipprimer.com/overview.cfm

to get an idea of how much effort is likely.  However I found that it seemd
far more daunting than it was especially in the case of Freesco which when
booted in "router" mode simply asked me a series of questions
such as the IRQ of each networking device (if they weren't PNP) the desired
networking addresses assignments and bingo! it was working.  I later added
on modules for ipforwarding, gui, openssh, openssl, etc as my needs and
knowledge expanded.  It took considerable searching and expense to find a
commercial router with anywhere near the flexibility and robustness of my
homemade router running freesco (stands for "free-cisco"). It
spoiled me!

> Thanks

No prob.  Hope this helps if you can't find a modem compatible commercial
router.  Obviously if broadband is just a month or so away this route may
be more that you wish to take on for just a month's worth of convenience. 
OTOH it is a great way to really learn networking if you've any inclination
to gain power over your machines.

Jimmy



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
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