Need assistance...

[Math Daddy]

As you might recall, I was looking into setting up a network because of my BIL moving in with us. Well, his father gave us the router he'd been using to connect both their computers to the internet. It's a Netgear ds104 4 port hub. I followed the directions: Plug the cable modem into the hub, connect the two computers to the hub, plug the hub into the power supply. My computer instantly worked fine, surfing the net like there's nothing different. His....won't. The computer shows the local area connection as being there, and being hooked up, but that's it. (It shows the exact same info that mine shows.) Neither IE nor Firefox, nor any other program, for that matter, can access the Net. We called the FIL, and he said that I'd done everything he did. Not sure if it matters, but I have Windows XP and BIL has Windows 2000 Professional. We have spent the entire afternoon trying to get his computer to connect to the internet.

[sao95]

check to make sure tcp/ip is checked, also "obtain an ip automatically", also did you turn the comp on after you turned everything else on, and did you run the disk for the router setup?

[seattle]

The problem you have is that you need a router and not a hub. The Netgear ds104 is a HUB only and not a router. Your ISP (Cable company) one allows one IP for your account. Your computer gets an address since it has been online before but when the other computer tries to get one your ISP does not give it one. A router will let you share your Internet connection since the router will be the only device with a real IP address from you ISP. You can use the HUB after the router to share more ethernet connections but you need a router to share the cable modem connection.

[sao95]

#-o good save

[seattle]

#-o good save

Thanks Sao.

[Math Daddy]

Went and got a broadband router. Hooked it up, and now everyone's surfing fine. Thanks, guys!

[seattle]

Went and got a broadband router. Hooked it up, and now everyone's surfing fine. Thanks, guys!

Glad to hear it is working.

[craigbass76]

Switches, in case anyone is wondering, fall in between hubs and routers. One still would not have worked in this situation, as it doesn't do NAT like a router does. I believe the difference between switches and hubs is how computers talk through them; traffic on hubs goes willy-nilly through it, while switches make a path for data to go between two computers that's kind of static for the duration of the connection/info-transfer.
Cisco has crazy switches, which kind of border on being routers (the layer 3 switches come to mind) so what I've said before applies to the cheaper linksys type 8 or so port switches that can be had for 50-75 bucks.
Any other gurus here? Did all that come out right?