I though that this was going to do that? This seems to be getting a lot more complicated than I originally thought.
Connecting to the internet
Easiest is to get a cheap cable/dsl router with a built in switch, like the Linksys models that are about $50.00 US. Hook your DSL modem to the WAN input of the router. Put your computers on the private IP address subnet of 192.168.1.x.
Connect each ethernet NIC from each computer to the LAN plugs on the router. Open a web browser on one of your computers to 192.168.1.1 (Linksys) and make the necessary settings for the router to connect to your DSL service.
Enjoy surfing from any computer behind the router.
You can use Internet Connection Sharing in a windows computer which does the same kind of NAT routing, or you can configure a linux box to do NAT routing. But the external router is much simpler and easier, and you don't have to depend on a 2nd computer being up to get to the net.
True - my situation is a little different, as the server that is controlling the net access / proxy also doubles as file server and mail server for the house - so making it a multifunction machine was the easiest (and cheapest) way round.
Originally posted by Doug G
Easiest is to get a cheap cable/dsl router with a built in switch, like the Linksys models that are about $50.00 US. Hook your DSL modem to the WAN input of the router. Put your computers on the private IP address subnet of 192.168.1.x.
That's all very well if you have a DSL line. However, bubblenut connects using Freeserve which is an ADSL company.
Does anyone have any specific reasons why I should not go with the suggestion made by the Network manager here at work?
11 days later
piersk - you are indeed confused 
ADSL is DSL. DSL is the generic term for all "Digital Subscriber Lines". They include RADSL, IDSL, ADSL VDSL etc. They all work in the same way, but the exchanges are set up differently. These different standards exist due to the differences in phone lines/distances DSL is expected to work over. RADSL, for example, works better for long distances (but is slower).
No matter what sort of internet connection you have, be it dial-up, cable, DSL (of any sort) - you can put a router between the outside world and your network. If it's dial-up you'll need a special router/modem, but it is easily done.
Although DSL is what ntl: call their cable modem service (or at least one of their techie guys did) i.e. down is the same (or pretty close to) up, whereas with ADSL down is usually about twice as fast as up
Cable is completely, utterly different to DSL. If their tech guy called cable DSL he needs to brush up on his terminology. They're as similar as a submarine is to a whale. They go the same places, but they're completely different. Perpetrating usage of the term "DSL" to mean cable is seriously hazardous to the internet community
ADSL is faster downloading than uploading. That's what the A means (asynchronous). IDSL is synchronous (meaning both upstream and downstream speeds are the same). Cable, funnily enough, also has different download/upload speeds.
So, basically, (DSL==ADSL) && (DSL!=Cable).
Originally posted by dave420
piersk - you are indeed confused
ADSL is DSL. DSL is the generic term for all "Digital Subscriber Lines".
Except if you went to your broadband ISP and asked for DSL you probably wouldn't get ADSL.
Both telewest broadband and ntl: call their service which uses a cable modem DSL.
If I went to pretty much any ISP, and asked them for their DSL service, they either wouldn't have the faintest idea what I was talking about and probably get very confused (more likely) or say that they don't have a DSL service to offer.
[edit]oh, and FYI, IDSL is actually a way of providing broadband over an ISDN conenction[/edit]
I have a blueyonder (telewest) cable account, and they most certainly do not call it DSL. Both telewest and NTL call it "broadband", and not DSL. DSL is something completely different to cable. Different wires, different infrastructure, different ideology. The only similarity is they're both ways to get data into a house.
Are you from the UK? Do you know every single ISP in the country knows EXACTLY the difference between cable and DSL? That's their game. It would be like a butcher calling pork "beef" because they both go in sandwiches, or Apple calling "OS X" "Windows" because they both use the mouse. The technologies are so fundamentally different the interchangability of their names is 0.
I'm not trying to start an argument (far from it), but I can't see how you've come to the conclusions you have.
(IDSL is "Integrated Digital Subscriber Line", which just means a bundled digital connection over existing infrastructure, which includes over ISDN, but also includes regular phone lines.)
Originally posted by dave420
Are you from the UK? Do you know every single ISP in the country knows EXACTLY the difference between cable and DSL?
Of course I don't but having spoken to both telewest and ntl people, they both called it DSL.
Then why is it called "broadband" on their websites, and they have absolutely, positively 100% no mention of "DSL"?
Originally posted by piersk
Of course I don't but having spoken to both telewest and ntl people, they both called it DSL.