Figure 5-13 shows the Motorola SB4200 cable modem popularly used to connect to residential broadband services. Many users have ADSL/DSL modems instead of cable; some users even have satellite Internet access. Regardless of whether you use cable, ADSL/DSL, or satellite, you should have a device (such as the cable modem shown in Figure 5-13) with flashing lights and an Ethernet port that provides you with Internet access. You may have bought this device in a computer store or directly from your ISP, or perhaps you rent it from your ISP. Figure 5-13. The Motorola SB4200 cable modem
A common limit of broadband connections is that only one computer can be connected to the Internet at any one time. As discussed in Chapter 2, there are many ways the ISP can impose the restriction, such as MAC address locking, or issuing a single IP address to the cable modem. So to enable multiple computers to wirelessly access the Internet, you could use a wireless router. (See DHCP and NAT earlier in this chapter for information on how DHCP and NAT features found in wireless routers work around this limitation.) One such wireless router is the Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b Wireless Access Point with 4-port switch (see Figure 5-14). Figure 5-14. The Linksys BEFW11SE Wireless Access Point with 4-port switch (802.11b)
Figure 5-15 shows one possible configuration for a home network. Figure 5-15. The configuration of a home networkSee Section 5.4, later in this chapter, for information on setting up and configuring the BEFW11S4. |