Telewest - Sharing broadband with 2 Computers and Xbox360. Help!

[Euge]

Hey,

I am a Telewest customer and have the surfboard modem connected to my PC via the Ethernet. Now I want to allow a 2nd PC and an Xbox 360 to use the internet at the same time independently (not having 1 PC on all the time). Now in the past with BT, I had one of their voyager ADSL modem/router and that worked great. Now I understand I can’t use an ADSL solution like last time as now my internet is via cable. So I just picked up a 4 port router for £10. I plugged my modem, the 2 PC’s, and the Xbox into that believing that should work fine but it doesn’t. The original PC can still access the internet but the rest can’t. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.

[Aragorn]

Does the router have a make and model?
Unless it's a 'cable/DSL router' it won't work.
Also you need to power cycle the modem, but by the sounds of your problem it prob isn't a cable router. (If it is it would have a 'WAN' or 'Internet' port separate from the four internal ports).

[Tech_Boy]

You could try specifying an ip on the second pc, if it is not all ready set up to pick up a DHCP assigned ip, not sure how the xbox 360 works, but if it is anything like the original in set up ypu would have the same options of DHCP or manually assigned ip addresses.
or it could be duff cables or teh wrong type (should be straight patch, not xover) or duff ports on the router.
Hope that this helps.

[Euge]

Thanks for the speedy responses.

The router make is mercury, i cant remember the model number but will check when i get home. It does not have a 'WAN' or 'Internet' port but i didnt think that would matter as with the modem plugged into it one of the PC's can use the broadband.

The 2nd PC and the Xbox360 did not automatically optain an IP address so we manually assigned one simular to the working PC's IP address, just changed the last number. All the wires are straight patch and we swapped them about and the ports but the same thing would happen, just the same PC would access the net.

When we ran the test config on the Xbox it passed the IP test but it failed the DNS test. Using ipconfig on the working PC i optailed 3 DNS addresses which we entered into the xbox and the 2nd PC but none of the addresses would work.

Not sure what else to try apart from getting hold of a cheap Router with a WAN and hoping that will solve my problem.

[Stuart]

It sounds like you have bought a hub or switch rather than a router.

A router is effectively a switch or hub that has software onboard to do things like allocate IP addresses.

One possible way around this is to connect the PCs and Xbox together via the hub, then connect one of the PCs via USB to the cable modem. Restart the cable modem and Windows should install the right drivers.

Once this is done, you need to enable "Internet Connection Sharing" on the connection created for the modem. You'll have to search for Internet Connection Sharing either in Windows online help, or google, as I can't remember exactly how to use it, and the procedure is different on the computer I am using.

[Euge]

That’s exactly what I have done, I assumed it was a router due to the fact it had 4 ports but it is just a hub. Picked it up a few years ago as we used it to share an internet connection via ICS which is why I thought I could just plug in my modem and do the same thing. I am sorry for being so useless and I appreciate the help and the speed of response from everyone.

Will hopefully be up and running with ICS when I get home now that I know what I am doing.

Once again, thank you.

Originally Posted by Euge

Now I want to allow a 2nd PC and an Xbox 360 to use the internet at the same time independently (not having 1 PC on all the time).

Originally Posted by Euge

Will hopefully be up and running with ICS when I get home now that I know what I am doing.

ICS is ok and works when you have it set up, its just going to kill what you originally set out to do. Personally I would just buy a cable router.

[Tech_Boy]

I have bought 4 of these over the last couple of years, one for myself & the other 3 for friends & family and they have all worked perfectly, and for £15 & shipping, it is a bargain.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/52897