Connecting an extra computer to Internet

[Dave Ihnat]

On Thu, Jul 05, 2007 at 04:27:30PM +0100, Paul Smith wrote:
> I have a cable-based (not optic) modem/router to connect to the
> Internet (ADSL), which works fine. However, a friend comes in from
> time to time, bringing her laptop. Is there some cheap and easy way of
> letting her laptop to connect to Internet? Unfortunately, I cannot see
> any place in the modem/router to connect an extra cable...

Sure--depends on how you've configured your LAN, though.  If you're
using the Linux box as a firewall, you put a second NIC in it and either
connect her to that, or (more useful) put a switch on it so you have
more than one connection.

If you're NOT using the Linux box as a firewall, then you absolutely
should get a firewall appliance between the cable modem and your LAN.
All of these have at least four, usually five LAN ports.

Cheers,
--
	Dave Ihnat
	President, DMINET Consulting, Inc.
	dihnat at dminet.com