Can anyone reach back into the dark ages of dial-up internet access? We are in a rural area and use dial-up for our internet. (Not willing/able to pay the difference to get satellite or buy an air card.)
I have three computers that have been networked through an old Linksys 5-port ethernet hub and am using Internet Connection Sharing to access the internet from any one of the computers. I had the internet connection on an older Dell Dimension 2350 but when the modem went out switched the connection to our Dell Latitude D830 notebook computer. When I had to leave for a couple of weeks and took the notebook PC with me, my son connected to the internet using the modem in his ancient HP Pavilion. Everything was working before I left – all computers could access the internet and see files/folders/share printers.
Since I returned and hooked the notebook back into the network, the two desktop computers can see the internet is active on the notebook – but cannot send/receive email, view web pages etc. File/folder/printer sharing is working between all the computers. All three computers are running Windows XP Home SP 3. I tried to ping the other computers from the notebook but that request timed out.
I have a feeling that it might be a problem with the hub because when I first hooked the notebook PC back into the network the file/folder/printer sharing was not working till I changed the cable to a different port. Is there a way to test the hub? I purchased (mail order/online) a router/switch I thought would work to replace the hub but the documentation says it won’t work with dial-up… so I could use recommendations for something that will work if my hub is bad.
Any troubleshooting tips you can share would be appreciated.
