Internet Connectivity - Upgrading and Repairing PCs - page 995

chargeinsomecases.YoucouldalsoconsiderusingafreetrialsubscriptiontoanISPthat
uses a conventional modem.
Ifyoudon'twanttopayforanadditionaldial-upservice,orifyoutraveloccasionallyand
want a low-cost way to work online when you're away from broadband, consider using
a broadband vendor who also offers dial-up connections, such as AT&T ( www.att.com ) ,
EarthLink ( www.earthlink.com ) , or SpeakEasy ( www.speakeasy.net ) . Having both broad-
bandanddial-upaccesscanbeusefulforthosewhotravelbecausebroadbandconnections
are not always available when on the road, especially overseas. Also, if your broadband
connection goes down for some reason, you can usually check the broadband carrier or
network status online using a dial-up connection to access the company's web pages.
If you have 3G or 4G wireless service, you can add a 3G or 4G adapter to your PC and
use it as a faster (albeit more expensive than dial-up) way to access the Web. Check with
your mobile telecom provider for data plan details.
Sharing Your Internet Connection
Whether you have a broadband or dial-up modem connection, one connection is often not
enoughforahomeorsmall-officesetting.Youcanshareyourconnectionwithothercom-
puter users with one of the following methods:
• Router-based sharing solutions —These work by connecting all the computers on a
networkwitharouter(orgateway),whichisthenconnectedtothemodem(orbridge),
whichisthenconnectedtotheInternet.Mostroutersaredesignedtoconnecttobroad-
band modems that use an Ethernet connection. Some older routers had serial (COM)
portconnections fordial-upmodems(orincludedabuilt-indial-upmodem),butthose
are generally no longer available.
• Computer-based sharing solutions —These work by connecting the computer with
Internet access to a network and then using software to make the computer act like a
router, sharing the Internet connection with other computers on the network.
Typical computer-based sharing solutions include the following:
• Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), built in to Windows 98 Second Edition
(Win98SE) and later
•Third-partygatewayorproxy-serverprogramssuchasWingate,Winproxy,andothers
Both ICS and third-party programs can also work with non-Windows computers because
theTCP/IPnetworkprotocol,thestandardprotocoloftheInternet,isusedfornetworking.
See “ Network Protocols , ” p. 825 ( Chapter 17 , “ Local Area Networking ”), for details
of the TCP/IP protocol.