Just got cable but already have a adsl modem/router obviously I don't have an adsl connection. Anyway can I connect my cable modem to the router and then distribute the connection to other computers?
The cable modem is a DHCP server but so is the router.....Pretty new to this, my router has wireless connectivity which is why I wish to use it.
Not so much a linux specific question, but thanks anyway.

-Matt

Since I don't know what hardware you have specifically, I cannot promise anything. I don't see any reason why not. You are going to need to play with your equipments a bit though.

What you are going to need to start with is setting up IP addresses that are on the same subnet, but that don't conflict. Most routers will choose an IP address such as 192.168.0.1 or 172.16.0.1 .

To further complicate matters, each router will have two addresses, an internal and an external. The external for your cable modem will likely be set by your ISP by DHCP. The external to your DSL router is likely also set up for DHCP, but doesn't go anywhere. I mention this because you can safely ignore these and concentrate on the internal addresses only (If I understand what you're trying to do).

First, pick a subnet to use. What I would do is set internal addresses to something like this:

192.168.0.1 Cable router
192.168.0.2 DSL router
192.168.0.100-192.168.0.150 DHCP range on the Cable router

The same principle goes with the 172.16.0.0 network. keep the first three numbers the same, and the last different. Since most routers are accessed via html it is important to keep tabs on what the IP addresses are for each.

it will be a good idea to turn DHCP off on one of your devices. I'd probably leave it on in the Cable router because that will need to be your 'gateway ' to the rest of the Internet (the DHCP server is responsible to report the gateway.) If you have trouble getting DHCP leases this way, you may need to manually configure IP addresses throughout your network (not hard, but some people find it intimidating.)

If you need clarification or run into trouble, just ask. Good luck.

I have a netgear DG834G wireless adsl router. According to netgear I found out today and another forum(whirlpool) that the WAN port is the phone line...... Which sucks. Does this mean I cannot distribute the connection even with some kind of trickery? Or is it time to sell up and just get a router?

Thanks heaps for your help

It might be possible to use the netgear unit but you would still need to purchase another router. And so IMHO just get the one that includes wireless too and forget about the netgear unit.

Ok how about this?
I now have my desktop pc with 2 NICS running the cable modem into 1 and using the desktop to route the internet connection to the the adsl/modem router and out again to the other machines in the network?
Like what michealk said.
I'm having a try now.....
thanks.

Has anyone tried what this thread aims for with any success? My situation is this: I have bought an ADSL router because it was on offer, and I will be needing it soon. I have just switched my phone from Cable to BT, but I still have Cable internet. Once I serve my 3 months with BT I intend to see what offers are on, TalkTalk looks cheap, I am aware of the problems there but I have helped others get going with it and I'm pretty familiar with what can go wrong.

In the meantime, I've added a laptop with wireless, so I want to network it to the existing setup, which is just the cable modem straight into my desktop computer via USB. My Desktop computer has 2 Ethernet ports, one of which is in use, and a Wireless port, not used.

If I connect a LAN socket on the Router to the spare ethernet socket on the computer, could I share the internet connection via that (provided of course the computer is switched on)?

Hello, you know in the end I actually swapped my adsl modem for a wireless router, as all I could figure was that the WAN port was the phone line in on the adsl modem router. But recently I had to set up a wireless router as an AP which required me plugging the incoming connection to NOT be plugged into the wan port and it happily works as an AP and a cabled router. With that said I guess you could try turning off DHCP( set a static IP ) on the adsl modem and plugging the cable modem into the adsl modem, the only problem I could see would be that the cable modem might not be able to hand out multiple IPs......You may also need to disable WAN on the adsl modem.....

This all comes from searching for how to use a wireless router as an AP (or access point) that is in turn behind a router.

Good luck thats the best I can think of.

cheers and beers

I did try linking the router to my computer via the spare ethernet, and it should have been working, but my laptop refused point blank to log into it, so I must have been doing something wrong.

No worries, I'll just have to wait until I get ADSL in the new year.

i dont know if this helps, but i was able to use a dsl modem/router as a usb to ethernet adapter for a laptop. had some issues with ip addresses beings i had it setup as cablemodem/wireless broadband router/dslmodem/laptop. the dslmodem and the router liked the same ip's but it was easy enough to re-configure. i was able to switch the dsl off and use it just as a router. worked supprisingly well actualy.

YOUR Linux Box needs to configure each of the Ethernet Ports on the back. All of them. I'm guessing that one of the two Ethernet ports is located on YOUR Motherboard. This may require a separate module/driver to be loaded with the appropriate Linux Kernel. Later when the Linux Kernel; the modules and the drivers are in sync,...the Network may find the Ethernet Cards and they will reach the Internet. YOUR Distro needs to have the applications installed and configured to include, enable and run the Ethernet Cards. Please check YOUR BIOS for the settings to be as close as possible to the software and hardware of YOUR system. This will smooth things over,..for a better chance to align the Networking.

Hope the discussion here helps someone else! I am now on ADSL so my router works normally!