Bruce Johnson writes,
<I think your problem is pretty simple. It sounds like you've connected
a DSL router to a switched network directly, and it doesn't work this
way.
[NOTE: this only holds of the DSL box you have has only one Ethernet
port on it, if it's got 4 then it's broken; get a new one].>
Yes, the DSL box has only one Ethernet port.
<DSL and Cable "modems" are actually routers in that they connect a
SINGLE ethernet device to an external network. Most will only
recognize a single MAC address until restarted.
What your DSL modem 'sees' now is a collection of several computers
all connecting to it at once instead of the one device it's supposed to.
The solution is to use a router in the middle, so that your DSL modem
sees a single device (the router) which then takes care of keeping all
your computers sorted.
ASCIIGraphically (switch to a monospaced font to see this):
What you have:
{Internet}----[DSL]------Mac1
|--------Mac2
|--------Mac3
...etc.
The DSL modem cannot do the local area networking properly, it'll only
assign an IP address to one Mac at a time, and that address is likely
in a different range than your Appletalk network is, so what happens
is that the Mac you access the internet loses track of the rest of
your LAN. The DSL router wants to make a LAN of only one of the
computers it connects to. The switch is actually invisible to the
network; it does not have an IP or Ethernet Address, it's merely a
wiring solution in this sense.
What you need:
{Internet}----[DSL]---[Router]---Mac1
|--------Mac2
|--------Mac3
So now the DSL modem is happy, it has only one device to ever talk to,
and your Macs are happy, they get fed IPm addresses by the router and
all is golden.>
Got it. :-) Thank you so much for the explanation of what to me made no
sense (my Ethernet network "acting up" since I changed from dialup to
DSL), although when I called my BF last night to tell him about it and
started to read him your email, he "got it" right away and asked, "Ohhh.
Can you use a WIRELESS router?" LOL so I said yes, since I'd read and
kept this whole email. It may take awhile till I get it (i.e., until his
next trip down here) but he says he's almost positive he's got one and
will dig it up for me.
But in the meantime, at least I understand the problem now and know I
can shut off the DSL modem/go watch Star Trek or a movie instead of
trying to surf the Net when I need to transfer data over the Ethernet.
~Yersinia.
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