alright. i was under the impression that the cablemodem will act as an internet gateway for my home network. this is how i thought i could set it up but i can't get access to the cable modem
i have a DLink DSS-5+ switch to which each device is connected to(cable modem, and my 2 computers)
the 2 computers have windows xp on them and i set the tcp/ip netowrk settings to obtain automatically from my Motorola SB5100 cable modem.
well, nothing happens.
help a n00bert out!
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The 'gateway' is the device which is assigned the WAN IP address by the ISP. It may be a router, it may be a computer. Your cable modem is just an extension of either device; unless it has a router function included.
The switch provides an Ethernet connection between to nodes on a network, but it doesn't do any more. Something, somewhere else has to assign LAN IP addresses to each device attached to the LAN. The switch does not do that.
Well, if you are paying for a typical cable ISP connection, you are only getting one WAN IP address. The switch won't share that IP address; it goes to whichever computer comes up first.
If your cable company offers multiple IP addresses for an additional fee, that is one way to go; but it means making your LAN shares available on publicly accessible IP addresses, which isn't a good thing.
More secure would be to use a broadband router/switch combo unit. Such devices only need one WAN IP address, and can be purchased for as little as $30 new. The lowest price devices are not firewalls, but the NAT/PAT feature which allows sharing a single WAN IP address with multiple LAN computers affords sufficient protection for home users.
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