OK, I've been given an old computer (486) and I've been told that I can use it to connect my pc to the internet, and that it would be faster as well as safer (something to do with how the files are shared?). I've also heard that connecting like this may affect games (I'm only ever going to use one machine to play games). I don't know much about networking, so if anyone knows anything that could help me out, I would be very grateful.

P.S. Sorry if I've managed to confuse anyone else, but it's almost 4:30 AM and my brain's stopped working :P

Though I'm hardly in a postion better than you in knowing how it works, I think what you're describing is setting up one computer to act as a firewall.....

I agree that it sounds like you are talking about setting it up as a server and using it as a firewall. I don't know about increased speed though. I would think that one more connection to go through would slow it down, but I wouldn't know for sure. You can get programs that act as a firewall for your computer without having to have a second computer. I use ZoneAlarm. Works pretty good for free software. The only other reason I could think of that would make connecting through a server useful would be if you had multiple computers that needed to be connected to the internet, but you don't so that is a useless feature.

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There is another possiblity here... he could have meant that you could create a proxy server... with a HDD that cashes the most frequently visited websites/content... that way everytime you browse to the site it would load off of the HDD as opposed to try and dload it again from the "Net" On the downside im sure it's a little painful to set up for the first time... and if you like to hit a lot of news sites where frequent updates are the norm... well you'd end up refreshing constantly anyway and pretty much alleviate any performance increases you'd experience with the proxy... An yeah you can install a firewall / proxy on the same computer... to give you the added protection. Hope this helps a little

But in regards to games... I really don't see how this would affect them, unless you had your firewall security settings set WAY too high... and everything was prevented from communicating (been there done that :P) That's all I can think of right now... been a long day If I come up with anything else i'll let u know

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I heard that games would be faster because the ping would be between the network cards, instead of over the internet. (Like I said, I don't know much about networks!)

If anything, as was said earlier, it'd make your games slower, because there's one more step between you and the internet. However, since you're only connecting a few PCs maximum to the server, it'd be practically unnoticeable.

I think what's being discussed here is setting up a 486 as a Linux router. By installing 2 NICs in the machine and setting up Linux on it (And doing the appropriate configs, of course), you can filter the traffic going through to your machine...as well as have several computers accessing the internet at once (Instead of plugging a second computer into the router, plug in a hub with a crossover cable). The problem with games is that, depending on how you set up your system and how your ISP works, you may have each PC visible on the internet as the same IP address. So, basically, as far as an online server would know, it'd see two connections coming in from the same machine (Which isn't far from the truth, seeing as how both connections are coming from the router). So, the only way this would bother you is if you had two computers or more on the network, and they were trying to play an online game on the same server at the same time.

Of course, all the above is said with the idea in mind that you're using broadband internet. If you're on dialup, then instead of the first NIC, you'd have a modem installed...but same principle. Think of it like this - You've got a waterhose that several people want to drink from...so you put some pumps and extra hoses in this big bucket, and you put the waterhose in the bucket. Now everyone can drink, but they're going to be sharing however much water comes out of that hose.

Hope that helps!

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