Dear All,

Please help! I access t'internet on a desktop pc via Virgin (nee NTL) cable modem. This has one ethernet port on it; everything runs well!

However, in an attempt to reduce the painful amounts of money I pay to Virgin each month by way of phone calls (in-laws in Canadia @ 30p/min, sister in Switzerland @ 40p/min!) I bought an RTX Dual Phone. This has a base station that connects to your landline as normal, and also via ethernet cable to t'internet and talks direct to Skype. I can plug that into the modem, and again, all is well.

In an attempt to have both available at the same time, I purchased from Maplins a 5 port ethernet switch/hub (not a router). This, I was assured, should auto config to make everything work. It doesn't – I can either run the PC or the VOIP phone, not both.

I'm happy to take it back to Maplins, but before I inflict a trip into town on myself, is there anything I can try locally?

Thanks for any help.

Chris

I don't know how virgin work but it's a modem, it would normally only provide a single IP address. You need a router/switch to provide multiple IP addresses.

Samuri is right. A router uses NAT (network address translation) and DHCP which allocates a unique internal (private) IP address for internal traffic then allows it to use the "real" "public" address when it makes a request onto the internet.

If you buy a cable router such as this Linksys router It should provide what you need and will also provide several rj45 network ports so you will be able to add more Ethernet devices and wont need a seperate switch which means you should be able to take the Maplins one back.

I dont have one of the cable routers above it was just an example, there are loads around.

Good luck

Thanks guys, will give that a try.

Chris