I found a really cool product online today that for $100 is going to make my internal network work a whole lot better. It’s a Linksys Cable/DSL router, and it should share out my DSL connection via DHCP to all the other machines on my network through my 12-port hub. I’m looking at this as a much easier solution, because originally I was going to attempt installing Dialup services on my NT box for the DSL modem, then installing another NIC card and then attempting to serve out the IPs from that machine. If the router is the DHCP server, that cuts out about 2 months and $200 of problems. So I’ll have, when all is said and done, wired up in the basement:

Phone line –> DSL Modem –> Cable/DSL Router –> SMC hub –> Ethernet through the whole house.

With the hub doing the work for now, I should be able to utilize every jack in the house as DHCP connections. Plus the router acts as a pseudo-firewall; I can’t add any other software, but nobody can get in, if I read the documentation right. I may splurge this week and just buy the damn thing to get it up and running up in the office while I get the rest of the wiring completed in the basement. That way I could actually start using my NT box for surfing the internet alongside the Mac.

So much for my attempted ban on spending this month.