Help with my wild imagination

[BDillon21]

I don't know if this is possible, but I need dial up Internet access for when I travel. I travel to a lot of rural cities, as well as big cities. I currently use ProAxis dial up via a toll free number, but my bills can get rather large at times. Would it be possible to use my desktop at home as a Internet server? I use AT&T @Home, so I have enough bandwidth. I'm just not sure what software I would need, if any. I can almost guess that if I can do such a thing, it would be rather spendy, but worth it for me.


Thanks in advance

[Dakota]

Well....That is totally against your AUP (I think that's the right acronym), but I would imagine that if a person would install a remote operating system such as say, PC Anywhere for example, that they would probably be able to boot up IE and surf the Net.

[MosDef112]

I'm not really sure whether it'll be cheaper to continue using the toll free Internet access number rather than make long distance calls to your RAS server at home to access the net. In any event, yes, it is possible to do this. You'll need a Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 Server PC at your home attached to a regular phone line, and to your cable modem. In this setup, connecting via dial up is the equivalent of connecting to your home network from a workstation in your LAN. You will need software to share your Internet connection, you can download that from my site...

ftp://ftp.omarnyc.com/public/software/winroute/wrp41enw2k.exe

Then you would need to setup Remote Access Server (RAS) on your Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 box, and configure the software to accept incoming connections. In Windows NT its a little intricate because you first have to install your analog modem, then install RAS, then install the Internet connection sharing program, then configuring a user that is authorized to dial in. If you could handle it, after you go through the steps I said above, you would configure a second IP address to the NIC attached to your cable modem so that the NAT software can do the IP translation for you. This second IP can be any private address, like 10.10.10.2. You must configure RAS to use an IP within that range in order to accept incoming connections. When configuring RAS, simply tell it to use a static range of 10.10.10.25 to 10.10.10.26. In Windows 2000 server, it's much simpler. Simply go to the Network and Dial-Up Connections applet, click Make New Connection, click Next on the wizard box, and select Accept incoming connections. The rest is really self explanatory by just reading through the prompts. I hope this isn't too confusing. Let me know if you need anything else.

[MosDef112]

*** In response to BlueJetta ***

I don't imagine his wishing to access the Internet connection he's paying for remotely via dial up being a violation of his service AUP. As I explained to him, the way he could do it is by implementing a RAS server, which would be the equivalent of implementing ICS on his home LAN. The only difference that lies here is that it is a personal remote access connection. Now if this person intended to resell this broadband line by leasing multiple analog lines from his telco, buying racks of V.90 modems, and offering pay-per-use Internet to customers, I would then say there's wrongdoing taking place.

[scrotus]

At my last company, we had a deal with AT&T worldnet that had a dialing proggie for us travelling salespeople. We had a dialer program that AT&T supplied but it had local phone numbers for POPs in the cities we were in. So if I travelled to Phoenix, I would pull up all the phone numbers for Phoenix and I could make local calls. We paid a monthly fee for this service. I don't know how much it cost though. I am assuming we had a corporate deal for around $20 a month. You may want to call up AT&T and inquire about such a program. AT&T should have POPs in most areas so your access should be availble in the local cities. But, they did not always have POPs within local calling distance. We would then dial long distance or use an 800 number. The 800 numbers cost somewhere aroun $0.20-0.25 per minute where long distance may cost less.

[BDillon21]

MosDef112,

Thanks for all that info. Now, to answer BlueJetta, I already use pcAnywhere to use my host pc for Internet. Doing it this way is very sloooooooow. I already have a 800 number in my home, so I figured why not use it. I don't believe I would be in any violations of my AUP, at least no more than using a router, etc...


MosDef, if you get the chance, I would like to talk more about this.
Does Win2k professional have these capabilities???

[cyberskye]

Pretty sure you need a server OS to be a RAS server.

Check your fine print - I have a personal 800# that costs 10 cents per minute to use.

Like Scrotus, we use AT&T global. Local access numbers for almost every exchange. You can add limitted internet access for $4.95/month (150 minutes)


Have fun,

Skye

[MosDef112]

Windows 2000 Professional does have RAS capabilities, but only supports one concurrent connection, as opposed to multiple concurrent connections with Windows 2000 and NT 4.0. You really only need to connect one remote node, yourself, at a time, so it's sufficient for your purposes. What would you like to discuss further?

[BDillon21]

Actually MosDef, I think you have answered most of my questions.

Thanks again.

[MosDef112]

You're welcome. Let me know how you make out.

[Dakota]

I was just going by what I had read here before, by supposed experts, that it was against your AUP to run a dial-up server.

[BDillon21]

I guess there is a really thin line between what is right, and what is wrong.
In my opinion, I don't see a problem with it, though I can see why ISP's don't like the idea. Technically I could do like MosDef said and rent out my bandwidth. I really don't have the time, or skills to even want to deal with that.
If I were stealing business from them, then yes, I could see where it would be immoral. They way I see it is....I pay for their bandwidth and feel I can use it any way I see fit, just as long as I don't sub it out to other people either to make profit.....which I have no intnetions of doing.

[MosDef112]

*** In response to BlueJetta ***

I don't mean to flame you. That is in the least of my interest, so don't regard my post as defensive in any matter. Sometimes so called experts in this forum really post responses that are not backed by any facts or, at the very least, intelligent and/or educated opinions.

[Dakota]

MosDef112: No. I totally understand that and I do not take that as a flame at all, but I think they are technically correct. My AUP says:

Customer shall not use the (TCI) Equipment or the Service to, directly or indirectly:

(i) resell the Service or otherwise charge others to use the Service. The Service is for personal use only and Customer agrees not to use the Service for operation as an Internet Service Provider or for any other business enterprise in competition with the Service ; or

(j) connect the cable modem to any computer outside of the Customer's premises.

[MosDef112]

*** In response to BlueJetta ***

I know why they added that section. Once upon a time, landlords in multiple apartment buildings would lure tenants into paying for Internet access provided by him/herself out of his/her own personal Internet account, instead of requesting to deploy MTU (Multiple Tenant Unit) lines for wholesale, and had some contractor do the wiring. This made a decent profit for the landlord, but would certainly cause network nightmares for the ISP, not to mention would rob the ISP of revenue that could be had. Although there is really no way for an ISP to tell whether the traffic being generated out of anyone's node is legitimate or not, this is one way to try to stop this.

[Dakota]

Exactly, MosDef112. That provision is for the extreme. But, since a member is asking, he/she must be made aware of all the circumstances.

Heck, I could toss a couple of CAT5 cables out my window, off my router, and my neighbors have cable access in a matter of minutes. ;)

[MosDef112]

*** In response to BlueJetta ***

:) Yeah.. That sounds like something I would do. :D

[BDillon21]

Acutally, some people I have met at my old job do something similar. They all went in on a Wireless Access Point and 802.11b cards. In an apatment comlex you can reach quite a few people with this.
In this case, I would say it is a violation of their AUP.

[IranianHobo]

Hmm.. guess that my idea to run a pvc pipe with cat-5 cables inside between me and my neighbor just flyed away. Or did it????? ;) No but seriously although was and idea that I had a while ago (mainly it was El Bob who wanted to do it though :rolleyes: ) now both me and my neigbor have cable modems so there is no point. Ah well. Interesting though.

And also do you guys actually read those agreements???? Auhg

[Dakota]

Originally posted by portspy
And also do you guys actually read those agreements???? Auhg

:rotfl: Actually, that was the first time I had ever looked at mine and I've had the service over two years! Note that my quote says TCI, which was bought out by ATT. ;)

[IranianHobo]

I wonder if that voids the agreement? If it does then if I were you I would have many freaky ideas (run AOI <uppercase i; out of your basment giving each user 1kb of bandwith just like AOL does :D HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA of course I don't know how to do that but eh what the hell.