TSGL: Network Adress Translation

[H Davis]

Don,

It certainly wasn't obvious on mine. After having the problems I 
mentioned I called the ISP's support desk and luckily got someone that 
actually knew what he was doing. It quickly became apparent that they 
had had my problem before, probably a lot (which begs the question, why 
was there nothing about it in the sparse documentation I got with the 
modem?). The tech took me through the steps to "bridge" the router 
function and while he was doing that I questioned him as much as I could 
to enhance my understanding.

I subsequently found the manual for the modem on line and found some 
references to Network Address Translation (NAT) and Network Address Port 
Translation (NAPT) in it. Most of the discussion is beyond me but it 
seemed to confirm what the tech had said. Whether this is a true router 
as I understand it, I'm not sure but it was certainly causing my problem 
and the tech didn't argue with my use of the word router. When the 
router function was "bridged" my problem went away.

The modem itself has only 1 ethernet and 1 usb connector available to 
connect to my local machine or router (plus 1 ethernet connector for the 
incoming DSL line). I assumed these were redundant; just offering me two 
ways to connect to my machine or router but this does not seem to be the 
case. They seem to represent two different output sources if desired. 
I've never tried using the usb connection so I'm not sure about this. 
The modem is one in a series with varying feature sets so the router 
function might be something that's used in a more feature laden model. 
Since the router function is probably all done in software, the vendor 
might just supply the same software in all the models.

I repeat, I think this is a long shot. But if you have any modem 
documentation or speak to a tech at your ISP you might inquire about 
this possibility.

If yours is a SpeedStream modem or you're just curious, I can send you a 
pdf of the manual.

HTH

H Davis

Don Penlington wrote:
> H Davis wrote:
>   
>> Make sure your modem doesn't have a router hiding within.>>
>>     
>
>
> How can I tell?  My DLink modemDSL302G doesn't have any extra sockets, only 
> power, USB and Ethernet. Plus, of course, one phone socket. The manual is 
> pretty sparse, only covers installation, doesn't say anything about router.
>
> Don Penlington
>
>
>  From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
> Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
> http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
>
>   

-- 
H Davis   hdavis1 at gmail.com