Connecting via a Regular Modem For some small networks, an Internet connection via a single, ordinary 56K modem

is an acceptable compromise between cost on one hand and performance and conven ience on the other. If several people want to use the network Internet connection at the same time, only the first person to connect must wait through the dial-up and authenticatio n process. After a connection is established, anyone on the network can access i t without waiting. After the last person finishes accessing the Internet, the co nnection is broken and the modem is idle. Speed Today's fastest modems can receive information at 56.6 Kbps (kilobits per second ), although it's not unusual for a 56K modem to reduce its speed significantly. What's more, a 56K modem is limited to 33.6 Kbps for outgoing data. As the computers on a network access the same modem connection at the same time, everybody's access will become noticeably and ruefully slower. If yours is the only computer connected to the Internet, you'll get access to the modem's entire 56.6 Kbps. But after a second person connects to the Internet via the same mode m, you have to share that 56.6 Kbps. If five people simultaneously engage in hig h-traffic activities such as downloading files or visiting Web sites, everyone g ets an average of 11.2 Kbps from the one modem, which is pretty pokey. Connecting via a Cable Modem There's no getting around it: Modems can't match the speed of the Internet or a local Ethernet network, and thus can be the bottleneck in your Internet connecti on. You can eliminate this bottleneck by acquiring a faster method to access the Internet, such as a cable modem. A cable modem connects your local Ethernet net work to a cable television coaxial cable, which then connects to the Internet. A nd no, you won't be able to watch cable TV shows on your computers! They're really fast A cable modem has enormous capacity for ferrying data between the Internet and y our computers: The cable modem's theoretical maximum rate for incoming data is 30 Mb ps (million bits per second). Its best rate for outgoing data from your computer s to the Internet is 10 Mbps. Replacing a regular modem with a cable modem is li ke replacing skinny water pipes in a house with big, wide ones. With a cable modem, several computers can connect to the In ternet simultaneously, and nobody will suffer a slowdown. The actual speed your cable modem delivers may be less than the theoretical maxi mum of 30 Mbps. For example, your cable company may offer only 1.5 Mbps because its connec tion to the Internet backbone is via a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. Whatever the nominal rate, 30 Mbps or 1.5 Mbps, sometimes a cable modem connecti

on to the Internet does slow down. When homes in your neighborhood use the Inter net through their cable modems at the same time you're doing so, everybody exper iences slower services. This happens because all the cable connections in a neig hborhood are interconnected by the cable that runs down the street to the cable company.

Cable modem pricing Cable modem pricing varies, but installing and maintaining a cable modem connect ion to the Internet costs more than a regular modem connection, but less than ot her high-speed connections (DSL and ISDN).

Cable equipment obligations: Don't buy any cable modem equipment before you check with your local cable company. The company may require that you use only c ertain brands of cable modems; you may have to buy or rent equipment directly fr om the cable company.

Get trapped: If you get cable modem service but don't want cable TV, make sure t hat the cable company technician installs a video trap, which is a filter that p revents you from receiving TV signals. The Cable Modem Connection Inside your house or office, the cable attaches to a splitter box . Into this sp litter box, you plug your television and your cable modem. Next, you can plug th e cable modem into the uplink port of your network hub using a standard Ethernet cable, or you can plug it into a regular hub port using a crossover cable. Because a cable modem connection is an Ethernet connection, your computers are a lways connected to the Internet --no dialing up is required. Cable Modem Security Issues Plugging a cable modem into an Ethernet hub makes your local network part of a l arger network that includes all your neighbors who also have cable modem connect ions. Without some protection on your end, those neighbors could potentially acc ess shared files on your computers, and you might be able to access your neighbors' shared files as well. You can pr otect against this security risk in several ways. For one, you can lock neighbors out of your share d folders and disks by requiring a password to connect to a shared item. For more protection, you can install a gateway with a firewall that can be set u p to filter out file sharing that uses the TCP/IP protocol. Dual Ethernet improves security You can provide additional security by plugging the cable modem directly into an

Internet gateway that has two Ethernet ports. Your network hub connects to one port, and the cable modem connects to the other. This dual-Ethernet gateway can be a hardware box with two Ethernet ports, or a software gateway running on a co mputer with two Ethernet ports. The gateway provides a path between the ports fo r Internet traffic and other TCP/IP traffic but does not provide a path for traffic that uses other protocols used for file and print er sharing, such as the NetBEUI protocol, which PCs can use, or the AppleTalk protocol, which most Macs use.