How does a small start-up company share a single Internet connection among several computers?
- Tuesday Nov 3,2009 09:34 PM
- By diddy
- In Others
So like a small start-up company has a limited budget and needs to configure the LAN so the company makes use of what is a single dynamic IP address it’s obtained from its ISP as part of its low cost internet access account but can also give 3 other computers internet access also. How would i do this?
Budget, Company Share, Computers Internet, Dynamic Ip Address, Internet Access, Internet Account, Internet Computers, Internet Connection, Isp, Lan, Limited, Share Internet, Small Start, Start Up Company
6 Comments
If you have (or need to create) a small private network of business computers and you need to allow those computers to have Internet access, then in addition to your Internet service itself, the correct solution is to purchase a firewall with a built-in Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway.
NAT is the standard solution to the problem of providing a gateway between an internal corporate network and the Internet. It’s relied upon by companies small and large which choose not to pay for individual Internet IP addresses for each computer within the business.
Pretty much all modern firewalls have built-in NAT functionality allowing them to double as gateways. Another nice feature which most have is a built-in Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. DHCP usage is less common in business and is not essential like NAT, but it can be a convenient feature in that it allows your internal network to mostly configure its own network settings.
If you have Internet service and a modern firewall with built-in NAT gateway and DHCP server functionality, then the only additional piece of hardware which you’d need to set up a rudimentary small network is a simple switch to interconnect the various devices including the computers and the firewall.
Firewalls in the SOHO sector include the "Sonicwall SOHO" and the "Checkpoint Safe@Office". Either one of these firewalls will allow the type of connection sharing you’re describing. One step up from the SOHO sector is the SMB sector with other products. The Cisco PIX line of devices is one of the most common in business.
A quick search suggests that some of these devices can be had for as little as a few hundred dollars. That’s probably the minimum-grade solution you should consider when thinking about putting business data in close proximity to the Internet.
If that kind of spending is out of the question currently, you could use consumer-grade equipment designed to achieve connection sharing in residential settings. Technically these products work the exact same way, at least in respect to the very-limited set of functionalities which I’ve described here. I won’t mention specific products in that market segment, but any consumer electronics salesperson can steer you in the right direction. In the consumer sector, the devices are branded as "routers" but technically that’s a misnomer since the task at hand is to gateway between two networks, not route within one.
One thing to keep in mind is that your Internet Service Provider might be able to provide and support a business-appropriate firewall/gateway device together with its business-class Internet service. If that’s the case, it’s definitely something to consider since it’s nice to have technical support and a failed hardware replacement agreement available for critical infrastructure. It also prevents the Internet Service Provider’s support team from giving you pushback (e.g. "that sounds like a firewall issue, you better check with your firewall support") during times when you’re in need of help.
You mentioned that you intend to use a low-cost Internet service. Low cost is good, but be sure that whatever service you purchase is recognized as a business-grade service by the provider. You should never try to sneak by with a residential-grade service for a business because residential service is generally provided with something like a 48-hour SLA if any whereas a business circuit generally comes with a 4-hour response guarantee in case of outage.
Well if the company is that small, just go with a simple router. The router will allow you to use multiple computers on a single ip address.
Just use a ROUTER
Either a WIRED ROUTER - (You have to connect Ethernet Cords to each pc and then every pc connects into the WIRED ROUTER)
or
WIRELESS ROUTER (Each pc can be wirelessly connected to the internet through the WIRELESS ROUTER) No need for all of the ETHERNET CORDS everywhere.
TOTAL COST?? APPROX. ($45.00)
use a switch
It is hard to answer your question with this little amount of information.
How does 1 computer connect to the Internet at the moment? If it is by a standard network cable then instead of plugging that network cable into your computer then you could buy a little Hub and a number of network cables. Plug your LAN into one of the ports on the hub and plug each PC into the hub also. The internet access should then be shared.
Create A Wireless or corded Network. Heres a tutorial http://www.ehow.com/how_108552_network-computers.html
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