Joe Diaz

February 25, 2000

 

Eric,

 

Congratulations on your new web site. It looks like a

place I will be visiting often. I had to visit on

Tuesday night after all your plugs at the NTea (ed: NT Engineering Association of Silicon Valley)

meeting :) I am wondering how you have the Lynksys

router configured. 1. Does it work with only one NIC

installed in your system? 2. Can we bypass Pacific

Bells' "modem" and plug directly into the router? 3.

Will Pac Bell's recent decision to utilize DHCP

addresses (I won't have DSL access until next week)

prevent me from using the router to assign DHCP

addresses to the other systems in my home? (Since I

won't have a fixed IP as my gateway). I am currently

able to do so utilizing SyGate's product. Have you

thought of adding a FAQ section to your site? 

 

Thanks,

Joe Diaz

System Administrator

Integrated Device Technology, Inc.

 

 
Hi Joe,
 
Thanks for the kind words. Here are the answers to all of your questions:
 
1. The Linksys Router works with only one NIC in your computer. The Linksys Router actually connects this way: The cable from your DSL adapter (CAT 5 Straight Thru cable) instead of going to your computer or a hub, connects to the Linksys Router’s WAN port. You then connect your computer using a standard cat 5 cable (also straight thru) to one of four 10/100 switched ports. All of your computers on your home network only require one NIC.
2. The Linksys Router is not also a DSL adapter. You will still need to use the PacBell provided “modem.”
3. The Linksys Router works fine as a DHCP client connected to your PacBell DSL adapter and will in-turn act as a DHCP Server for your internal network.
4. I plan to have a FAQ section once I have some frequently asked questions. So far, all the questions are fairly unique.
 
You had a follow-up question concerning using, “a cross over cable instead of two NICs with internet sharing
software?” My recommendation is to only use a crossover cable from a DSL adapter directly to a single computer if you are only connecting that one computer to the Internet, but if you do so, run something like BlackICE software on your computer. Alternatively, if you are putting a second NIC in that computer and having it act as a router, use WinProxy from Ositis Software or something similar.
 
I hope that answers your questions. If you would like to follow-up, don’t hesitate to write. - Eric
 
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