Internet Sharing
Internal Sharing is one of the most seek after solutions in all companies. In a typical setup to access the Internet, there are at least 2 pre-requisite that needs to be met. The Bridge and the Line.
The Bridge refers to equipments more commonly known as the modem
The Line refers to the Access Media to the Internet. Most of the time, this is just a set of copper wires but it could also refers to Wireless Signals.
The most basic setup to access the Internet is through the use of dialup. The diagram on the right shows a typical modem dialup connected directly to a system.
In order to share a common Internet Connection, some changes are required. In addition, there are several means to share the Internet Connection and we are going to look at some of these.
Proxy / Sockets Solutions
This solution is the cheapest means to share an Internet connection. Most of the time, a working system is select to be the proxy or sockets Server. The Bridge is connected to this machine and any requests for Internet Access from other systems connected to this system will cause it to initialize and establish a connection.
Router Solutions
This is an alternative and more commonly used method today. A router is like a Traffic Junction, re-directing Internet requests and services to and from the LAN to the Internet. As shown in the diagram below, a router is need and is slightly more expensive than some of the proxy/sockets solution as shown above. In addition, it is much more robust and does not require to have a system solely reserved for it. The initial setup and configuration is very much more easier but lack certain features like loggings and traffic volume usage controls on certain models of router.
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