Dial Up Network Question

[homer15]

Hi everyone,

i have a small network with 3 (possibly soon to be 4) computers all hooked up to a dlink 704 router/switch. broadband is not available in my area, and the 704 has a serial port where an external 56k could be hooked up. my question is, if i hook a modem up to it, how does it manage the connection speed? does it split the bandwidth evenly, or does does it distribute it as needed? i realize this will be an <b>extremely</b> slow connection, but it's the only option available to me.

[glc]

It will vary - it will act just like when you are downloading multiple files simultaneously on a single computer - what gets through gets through. I had a customer who used a 3Com 56k Lan Modem to share a single dialup over a 12 machine network for 2 years till broadband was available in their area - it was painful. Lunchtime was really bad.

If you have some money to spend, look into multiple phonelines and modems, and a multilink capable ISP account, and compare that to the cost of ISDN.

[homer15]

thanks glc. i would do all of that research, but i don't want to invest too much money into a connection that would be only slightly faster in case broadband becomes available in my area soon. they've been telling us for over a year that dsl will be here "next month," but so far that hasn't happened. still, i don't want to get extra lines and stuff for now.