/ LAN Without Internet Sharing

LAN Without Internet Sharing

I am trying to setup a LAN network in my house. I pay for one regular cable ISP for downstairs and pay for another same one but with static IP upstairs. I’m trying to setup a LAN network between the two without any of them sharing either internet connection. Kat Delong

Your question prompted a lot of discussion around here in an attempt to answer it. I consulted with my very own tech support, and his main question was why would you want the system set up this way? The only reason we can guess is that you are in a roommate situation and for some reason each of you needs to pay for your own Internet connection. After mulling it over for a while and drawing a bunch of diagrams, we’ve decided that it can be done if you really insist on paying for two ISP connections and don’t want to share.

LAN Setups

The usual reasons for setting up a LAN (Local Area Network) in the home are to allow two or more computers to share data, share printers, scanners and other networked devices, play music or games together, video conferencing and most of all, to share an Internet connection. There are ways to set up the LAN so that areas of one hard disk are not accessible by others on the network.

Setting Up Your LAN

First off, you are going to need a fair amount of cable and a switch. Luckily both of these are pretty inexpensive to get. You also won’t need routers for your computers, assuming that each one is connected to the Internet directly through its own modem. You will then need a switch that is connected to each computer via cable and you need to set up TCP/IP filesharing on each machine. Each computer also needs to have its own name, but be in the same work group.

There may be a way to do it wirelessly - it’s much easier and cheaper to run cable if you can - and the best way to explain the process is to point you to an article in Wikipedia on how to set up a Wireless Distribution System.

Hopefully, this set up will work for your needs, depending on what you are looking to share between computers. If not, you might want to consider a conventional LAN setup and opt for ISP sharing.