Dialing home to access internet

[PMich]

My father has finally gotten a step ahead of me in the networking world and now I need help finding a solution. He recently acquired a broadband connection at home and has a small wireless network running. He would like to drop his dialup connection at the office and dial into the home network for internet access. He is well aware that it will be of dialup speed and not broadband, but his small town midwestern frugality wants to save the $20 a month from the local dialup ISP at the office. He also know it will tie up the home phone line but nobody is home during the day and he doesn't mind doing so. So I have a few questions:

1) Is this doable?
2) Is this legal?
3) What do I call this kind of a setup? (a proxy server, a dhcp server, etc.)
4) How is all of this going to work with the answering machine at home?

He has two desktops and a laptop at home. His main desktop and laptop are XP Home machines, and secondary desktop is a Win98 SE machine. If need be, can I use the secondary desktop (98SE) as the server as is or will it require an OS upgrade?

Also, has anyone seen an article on this so I can read up on it. I have not been able to do much research as I don't even really know the terms to use to refer to this kind of setup. I would like to be as well versed in this as possible before I make the hour trip to try this. TIA.

[SpookJP]

I have Roadrunner and when i am away from home i can use there service through a dial-up connection. Nothing needs to be set-up at home, just get the local phone number from them and hookup to a regular phone line. I would think your father's service has something similar., although you may need to read the fine print about using his services dail-up service.

Hope this helps.

:-) James

[lpc300]

I think what PMich is talking about is using regular phone service to access his home network, hence his broadband connection. It's true that some broadband ISP's allow for away-from-home dial-up (mine doesn't), but I don't think that's what PMich means, right? I think what your father needs to do is set up virtual private networking. Use VNC , it's free, easy to use, and works great.

Hope this helps.

[glc]

Problem with VNC is there still has to be something at the other end to answer the modem. If he wants to go the remote control route he may have to use PCAnywhere.

His frugality is going to cost him more money in the end.

[Redfallon]

Agree, pcanywhere would do the trick nicely, but a) it costs $$$ and b)it will seem worse than a true 56k connection, IMO. I've remoted into a computer this way (with pcanywhere) and accidentaly clicked on the remote's IE shortcut.

[Javelin]

1. I believe what you are looking for is RAS. I do not know if XP Home has the capability. Try right clicking Network Places/Properties. Then click "Make new connection". Select the "Advanced connections" radio button. Then hopefully click "Accept incoming" radio button. Set up the incoming connection to use the modem.

2. Legal ask your ISP, each I am sure is different.

3. If you are not dialed in to the connection when someone calls the computer will answer and they will hear the bird chirps, the answering machine will not kick in. If you are dialed in they will get a busy signal unless you have voice mail then that will work.

Good luck, Jeff

[PMich]

Originally Posted by glc His frugality is going to cost him more money in the end.

I had a feeling this would be the case. Additionally, I checked the Mediacom service agreement and it specifically states that any type of server is not allowed so most options are gone.

With regards to PCAnywhere, how is the connection made between the remote client and the host?

[Redfallon]

you can use dial-up or TCP/IP with pcanywhere. The ISP's restrictions on a "server" are more than likely worded to prevent you from hosting a webserver using their bandwidth. You wouldn't be using their bandwidth for an upload, which is what any ISP's concerns are about. You'd be using their download bandwidth the same as if you were sitting at that computer, it will then forward the info, for lack of a better term, via the dial-up connection. In short, they'd never know, or have any way of knowing. From their end it would look like someone sitting at that computer all day browsing the web.

[glc]

With PCAnywhere, the host is set to answer the modem, the client dials the modem.

What you need to do is see if the Mediacom account comes with any kind of complimentary dialup service.

[PMich]

I haven't been able to find a complimentary number yet. He is going to check his records. Now if we can find his copy of PCAnywhere from two systems ago we might be in business. Thanks for the input guys.