Dial-Up Sharing

It is rather easy to share a dial-up connection in Windows 9x or 2000/XP. For 9x users, enable Internet Connection Sharing on the PC connected to the Internet. For 2000/XP users, simply go to the properties dialogue for your Internet Connection in “My Network Places” and enable Sharing.

Broadband Sharing

Surely you’ve heard of a router before, right? Routers are devices which route many connections into one “pipe.” For sharing Internet connections, routers can give many computers access to the Internet, indirectly, through the router. In this setup, a router (sometimes combined with a switch) is connected directly to the cable or DSL modem. The network is directly connected to the router, and thus the router acts as an “Internet Sharing” computer. Routers range in price from nearly nothing (on eBay) to thousands of dollars, but for home users, Netgear’s 4-Port Internet Ready Router/Gateway/Switch or Linksys’s BESRF41 Router are both excellent sub-$50 choices.