bt broadband has me over a barrel help

silverfoxdude

this is my first post i found this site on radio 2 three days ago im now addicted to it lol .i wonder if anyone can help me with my problem with bt ?the other day i had a friend round to help me network my 2 pcs together we found out i have the wrong modem because when i joined bt broadband i subscribed to the bt basic package with free modem .when i started using it there wasnt enough downloading space so i upgraded it to bt broadband 1 week later but they didnt send me another modem. but it still worked fine so i didnt persue the modem but now i need it they told me if i had ordered it would have cost 25 pounds and that is what it cost today new customers get it when they join today but i cant its hardly fair i cant cancel the bt because the first years contract ends in august any suggestions?

newfoundglory

You don't say what type of modem you currently have is.

Well, you can try hastling them I suppose and see if they will send you a multi-port router (or even a single port router, see below) in exchange for you sending your current modem back?

If not, then *depending on what type of modem you have*, you could just buy a network switch. 4 and 8-port network switches are dead cheap... you can get an 8-port ethernet network switch for about 10 quid. You plug it into the lan ethernet port on your modem, and you can then have up to 8 computers sharing the internet.

If you have just an USB modem, i'm not sure what routing capabilities and ports such a modem provides. If there are switches and routers you can plug into it, I would have thought they would be quite expensive.

It is possible to access the internet from the second PC through the first PC which is already connected to the internet. In Windows you need to turn on internet sharing on the host; although you can share using Linux and Unix-based operating systems too. You will also need a special type of ethernet cable called a crossover cable to join the PCs together.

silverfoxdude

Hi Newfoundglory. Thank you very much for your response.

Your last paragraph sounds like what we were trying to do all along. We have the crossover cable connected to both pc's, and they both talk to each other, pc A is connected to the internet, pc B is connected to pc A with crossover cable. When pc A is connected to the internet pc B wont pick up the interent connection also, although both pc's are picking up the shared files on the other. Can you advise on what to do?

I have tried to use a router, the make was Belkin, but it would not accept the BT modem. The BT modem is a BT Voyager 105 USB.

Regarding BT, I threatened to leave them, but they werent bothered, as they informed me I'm under contrat until August this year... Got by the short and curlies!!!!

Thanks

Browntoa

I had the same problem, could'nt share the internet....I was using Zonealarm Firewall on the main PC, I removed that and replaced with the free one from www.sygate.com and up it all came !!

silverfoxdude

thanks mate i have zone alarm on both pcs will change to sygate and see what happens let you know soon

m00nie

silverfoxdude wrote:

thanks mate i have zone alarm on both pcs will change to sygate and see what happens let you know soon

try disabling zone alarm 1st and try it rather than switching just incase.

MarkyMarkD

If you don't have Windows XP on both PCs you need to install the internet sharing software on the older PC.

Firewalls can be a pain too as reported above. We have a 98 PC networked to an XP PC and the internet and file sharing all work now, but it was a bit of a palaver.

silverfoxdude

Hi. Turned all the firewalls off and pc B was enabled on the Local Area Connections (to pc A). Still no joy. On pc A I could look at the shared files on pc B, but not visa versa. And lets just say by some miracle they were talking to each other properly, how would pc B connect to the internet, e.g what button should I press, 'cos I wouldnt press 'dial' now would I???? Seen a BT Broadband Router on eBay that would connect 2 pcs, as the cabling doesnt seem to work, that sounds the best way forward??

silverfoxdude

p.s they are both on XP and have network cards and the crossover cabling...

Pal

When I last set up Internet connection sharing (about 3 years ago) I found this site http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/ very useful. Have a read through.

Chances are that your internet connection settings are not correct on machine B (the one without the internet connection).

When you say that the modem didn't work with the router, presumably it is because it is a USB modem and the route uses normal cables?