Satelite Internet Connection?

[xmsdfafdn]

I have reached the limit a couple of times when I had DirecWay. It was usually because one, two or three of my daughters had been downloading video movies or music from their Win 2000 computers tied to the Win 2000 Server that's connected to the satellite receiver. What happens is that all of a sudden, your access drops to a very low throughput, the Internet starts to "crawl". Downloads take forever. But you just have to wait for some time to pass, maybe 8 hours or so. Then, speed picks back up to normal.

As a sidenote, Direcway says that it's customers are not supposed to use a Windows 2000 Server OS. But people do, so that they can tie other in-house computers to the satellite receiver. They do this by using Windows 2000 Server as a router (not possible with Windows 2000 Professional). Of course, they tell Direcway tech support they are just using Windows 2000 Professional. It doesn't really make any difference, it's just that Direcway tech support doesn't want to deal with the additional complexities of the Server version. Or maybe they don't want their customers connecting more than one computer to the satellite receiver without paying more. Whatever.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Bert,

I am getting ready to have Directway installed at my new house - and the networking is one of my big issues. I currently have a cable modem hooked to a small 5-port router which goes to 3 computers and a network printer.

I'd be very interested to know how you accomplished the Win2000 thing. I am fairly familiar with Win2000 server and setting up a small network with this - is there any tips/tricks to make this work with Directway that you could let me in on?

Thanks,
Michael Elliott
michael@michael.net

 

[xmsdfafdn]

First, if you are going to have someone else install your satellite system - and I would assume that Direcway will insist on this - then the installer may complain if he sees the "Server" version. So, you may have to give him a Win 2000 Professional computer to install on. No, matter - you can reinstall on Win 2000 Server after he leaves. Just remember to tell Direcway tech support, if they ask, that your Server machine is a Professional machine, otherwise they may balk at helping you.

As far as settings - it's too bad I no longer have my server set up for the Direcway Satellite receiver. Then, I could give you my exact settings. However, I now have DSL and have removed Active Directory from the server.

I'll give you some general guidlines:

1. You will have to configure your server with "Active Directory",so that it can be a router.

2. I used NAT (Network Address Translation) rather than ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). I found out through hard experience that NAT is more straightforward to work with; albight more low level than ICS. You may first want to try setting up with ICS, however.

3. Get "Windows 2000 Essential Reference" by Steven Tate. Chapter 8.7: "Connection Sharing" should help. This may be enough to get you going. If not, you may want to call Microsoft Technical Support - especially if you've 30 days free support.

4. Direcway is going to give you a Gateway DNS and IP for the server to use in accessing the outside world. You give your server an internal IP of something like 192.168.0.1. You use NAT (or ICS) to map this to the external IP.

5. Then you assign IPs to each of the clients, e.g. 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, ....

6. On each client you set the gateway to be your server, i.e. 192.168.0.1. You set the DNS to the same external ones assigned to you by Direcway. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools->Internet Option->Connections and select "Lan Settings". Check "Use Proxy Server" and "Bypass proxy server for local addresses". Then put 192.168.0.1 in for the proxy server and port 80. Click "advanced". Check "use proxy server for all...". You may need to put "*.*" in the exceptions box. It depends on what Direcway is doing however.

7. With respect to hardware: You will need an an Ethernet card in your Win 2000 server and of course each of the clients. You can connect your clients to the server using a switch (recommended) or a hub. The switch is more efficient than the hub; but also more expensive. So, the connection looks like: Direcway Satellite Receiver ---- USB Cable ---- Win 2000 server ----- Ethernet Switch/Hub ---- Win 2000 Professional/XP/Me/98 client -------

These are only guidlines or hints. I don't have time to answer detailed questions on this, because I don't have a set up here that I can use for reference. I could only advise you to get a book or somebody local to help you or call MS support (in which case hope for the best).

 

[Michael Elliott]

Bert-

Thanks so much for all the details!

I have printed your post for reference, and I think I will be OK setting it up. This is similar to what I had to do with my old cable company (which did not allow multiple computers either).

Since it's getting to be that Windows2000 is a bit older, I may wait and get the XP server version.

I'm just glad to hear that networking is physically possible with Directway.

-Michael Elliott
michael@michael.net