Please Explain This

[RazorSharp]

Can anyone maybe explain this to me.

I finnaly got Telkom as far as installing DSLAMs in my local exchange. They came to my house and handed me this funny little paper about the costs and advantages about ADSL.

On the paper under ProLog Plus, Telkom's internet package, they state " 1 username and password per ADSL line to offer 4 concurrent sessions with bandwidth sharing ".

Now I am going to share my connection with another PC (or two) in my house, after seeing the above, I wondered if it is required to have an account that offer 4 sessions at one time.

And, is it required that other ISP's offer accounts such as this one. Seeing as I am not going use Telkom as my ISP.

<hr noshade size="1"><center>Take the next shuttle off your little planet and visit the real world</center>

 

[Karnaugh]

Nothing stops you from sharing the connection via NAT with however many PC's, you dont require any special user accounts for this.

<hr noshade size="1">
"Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak."

NetLink Research

 

[RazorSharp]

Great, I was just almost going to stress about it.

Thankx for putting my wayward mind to rest.

OK, now what is NAT? []

<hr noshade size="1"><center>Take the next shuttle off your little planet and visit the real world</center>

 

[Karnaugh]

NAT would be the correct name for "ICS" (Internet Connection Sharing) or whatever you like to call it, often incorrectly refferd to as "proxying". NAT stands for Network Address Translation.

<hr noshade size="1">
"Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak."

NetLink Research

 

[antowan]

Hi

Know that it is better to have a seperate login for each PC because each one will have its own IP.

NAT has some drawbacks, be they minor:

NAT breaks some protocols, those that have not been designed with NAT in mind. This can require tweaks in NAT implementations to support specific protocols. This is bad because it doesn't scale well (there are too many protocols in the world to cope with) and obviously you can't cope with protocols that haven't been invented yet.

Security-wise, NAT security is not much better than good IP filtering, and it's much more limited in its versatility.

If you want to be a server to the outside world, you need some sort of explicit configuration allowing inbound connections. It's not always easy, it can't even always be done, depending on the protocol you want to serve and your equipment.

Finally, NAT breaks end-to-end connectivity. This is just a fancier and shorter way of saying some of the above. Breaking end-to-end connectivity is not pure evil, but it should always be done with great care about the implications.



Cheers
Antowan

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by RazorSharp</i>
<br />Great, I was just almost going to stress about it.

Thankx for putting my wayward mind to rest.

OK, now what is NAT? []

<hr noshade size="1"><center>Take the next shuttle off your little planet and visit the real world</center>
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

He who does not understand the value of war at the right time, cannot comprehend the value of life at any time - Anonymous

 

[RazorSharp]

Now, whats the differnce between an account that has mulitple sessions and NAT?

<font size="1">PS. sorry if this questions seem stupid, but i'd like to know how my connection is giong to work. (so I can trouble shoot it later [^])</font id="size1">

<hr noshade size="1"><center>Take the next shuttle off your little planet and visit the real world</center>

 

[Solar]

In your specific instance I would recommend getting a ADSL Router (with an Ethernet connect on the one end) [just DON't buy telkom's.. its pure crap].

This means that you can connect both of your pc's to a hub, with the ADSL modem. Now you only need ONE account with ONE concurrent login. And both PCs will be able to surf the web and play games online without problems. I don't think you have to be concerned with all the other "bad" implications that NAT brings to the game.

And, just to clarify: Telkom PROLOG gives two concurrent sessions, and ProLog plus gives 4. I've got 13 PCs on one adsl line and only use the standard prolog service, because I use NAT to "share" the connection between the pcs.

To sum up: the difference between NAT and using TWO concurrent connections would be:

With NAT you have just one physical connection to the internet (typically your router, or modem is connected). The other two computers on the lan isn't directly connected, and thus no-one on the outside can easily access your computer. Your computer have to initiate all connections, which, in your case, is what you should opt for.

With Two concurrent connections, you use PPPOE to establish TWO connections to your isp (telkom typically) both pcs are DIRECTLY connected to the internet, and can be accessed as such. With this option you also need some PPPOE client, typically telkom's, which I totally hate.

So my opinion would be to go for NAT.

-Christiaan

 

[antowan]

Hi there...

In response to Christiaan's post. Note that my response is in capital letters. I am not shouting, so please excuse me...


"With NAT you have just one physical connection to the internet (typically your router, or modem is connected). The other two computers on the lan isn't directly connected, and thus no-one on the outside can easily access your computer. Your computer have to initiate all connections, which, in your case, is what you should opt for. "

THUS THE REST OF THE WEB SEES ONLY ONE IP FOR YOUR LAN. DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY PC'S ARE ON YOUR LAN.

"With Two concurrent connections, you use PPPOE to establish TWO connections to your isp (telkom typically) both pcs are DIRECTLY connected to the internet, and can be accessed as such. With this option you also need some PPPOE client, typically telkom's, which I totally hate."

HERE EVERY PC GETS ITS OWN IP ADDRESS. THIS HELPS PREVENT SOME PROBLEMS WHEN FOR INSTANCE YOU HAVE MULTIPLAYER GAMES RUNNING (SOME GAMES DON'T LIKE NAT) OR IN SOME VOICE OVER IP SOLUTIONS.

All depends on your needs, but generally I prefer a seperate session with its own IP for each PC because it is also a little bit more efficient when communicating through the router. This implies that must make sure that you have enough security on each machine.

The best would be for you to find a Linux How-to document at a place like www.linux.org and read up on it. Knowledge is power at the end of the day. How you adapt the knowledge to your situation is up to you...

Enjoy!
Antowan

He who does not understand the value of war at the right time, cannot comprehend the value of life at any time - Anonymous

 

[RazorSharp]

Thanx, all of you, I really appreciate your help []

I am a bit worried about this:
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The other two computers on the lan isn't directly connected, and thus no-one on the outside can easily access your computer. <font color="red">Your computer have to initiate all connections</font id="red">, which, in your case, is what you should opt for.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

My PC would not be on all of the time, does this mean that the other PC would be unable to acces the net?

<hr noshade size="1"><center>Take the next shuttle off your little planet and visit the real world</center>

 

[Karnaugh]

If your PC is responsible for routing to the outside world, yes, it would have to be on for others to connect through it.

<hr noshade size="1">
"Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak."

NetLink Research

 

[Mr Hankey]

If you looking for a awesome router, get the Chronos ADSL Router. It works and no hassles. Has 4 LAN ports and fully configurable.
I paid around R900. Screw Telkom.

 

[SK33T]

I just bought a cnet 8 port swith for R235 and this work perfectly each pc just connects without having the other one on and it works fine for a small lan,OK I only have two pcs on it but this is at home so its fine.[]

 

[rylan76]

Hehehe...

You just try using another ISP. I wanted to do so to and was told by a snoddy telkom type that it is impossible and I HAVE to use Telkom with Prolog, otherwise they will simply refuse me access.

On their form it stated that I may choose my ISP which was a bald-faced lie.


Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician
Polar Design Solutions

 

[Flippit]

I'm using a setup with two computers, no routers or anything - just my USB modem on the one computer with a shared internet connection, the other one set to connect via LAN - works great!

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[podo]

rylan76,

You are free to chose any ISP you wish, but they are all just reselling the internet access from Telkom, so there's not much of a difference, unless you go for DataPro, which have forced Telkom into allowing them to sell service directly, with no 3GB cap, but at a slightly steep R1200 per month, without line rental.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development