Question about sharing a Virgin Media Broadband connection with 2 PCs?

Question

Hi,

In one house me and my brother both had separate Virgin Media Broadband accounts, with separate cable modems (and separate cabling on the outside of the house).

I've just cancelled my service with them. Is it possible to somehow share his internet connection with me? Given the fact that the cabling is in place and even the modem. I have a splitter which on one end has Broadband, one TV - Can this be used perhaps?

If not then when my brother goes on vacation am I able to on the outside of the house where the cables are, unscrew his line and screw in my line into his as his is active and mine is not active? Would that then provide me with broadband to my room?

I think it would, but am I right?? And how can we go about sharing the broadband connection? Is it even possible? I mean the modem has a USB and a Ethernet connection, if he were to use the USB and then I had a long enough Ethernet going from that one modem to my PC - is there a way of sharing the connection that wa

Answer 1

My husband and i use virgin broadband and only have one account, we have had the PCs networked and are connected with a router. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Uhh.... you really need to rewrite that, I can hardly make head or tail of it. Do you mean your brother lives in the house next door or in the same house as you?

If he lives in the same house, then the only way you could have had two accounts going at the same time is if you had two separate phone lines installed.

Sharing a connection is very simple, first you will need a wireless network router. Buy a "modem/router" like this one which contains both the modem and router in one box:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/52244

If he lives next door, then it might be better to buy one with more range; a "G" type is probably okay, but a "G+" has more signal strength. Check the distance before you buy.

You will also need a wireless network card:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/cat/Wireless/subcategory/PCI-Adapters
I'm assuming that you have a normal desktop PC, but if you have a laptop, you will need one designed for laptops (they are sometimes already built in). Note that the more you pay, the better the card you will get.

Install the software for the modem router BEFORE installing the wireless network card. You will probably have to do it with the new router connected by a cable. set up the router, type in a password and see if it connects. If it doesn't work, go through it step by step and try again - it's usually something very simple.

Now install the software for your card, then open up the PC and plug the card into a spare PCI slot (the white slots).
Start up your PC, click on the wireless utility, select the network and type in the password.

You can have as many computers as you like using the same broadband connection; it is only limited by how many computers your router can handle (about 10-20) and your bandwidth allowance.

BTW, when did you last check what deals Virgin were offering? A couple of years ago I found out that I was entitled to a FREE upgrade from 2Mbs to an 8Mbs connection.
If you don't check, they won't tell you!

Answer 3

So many things wrong with that question. But to the answers....

1) You can not use a cable splitter and connect it to your modem. Only one modem can be connected to a line at any time.
2) You can not put a long ethernet cable from the modem to your computer while your brother is connected using USB. Only USB or ethernet can be used at the same time, not both.
3) There are two ways to do this.

a) connect a wired router to the Modem and connect ethernet cable to your brothers computer and yours
b) connect a wireless router to the modem and connect a ethernet cable from the router to your brothers computer and buy a wireless adapter for your computer.

Note: To do this you will need to setup the router with your brothers username and password to connect to your service provider.

Answer 4

If you put a cable from his modem into your computer it wont work as the modem will only work with the computer which it was set up on, the one that the cd was put into. You can easily share the connection by getting a router, you plug the cable that at the moment goes from his modem to his computer into the router. Then you need to get 2 ethernet cables of appropriate length and plug that into the back of your computers and voila. It's definately a good idea to avoid paying evil virgin media twice the money, but remember they have 'traffic shaping' measures - which means that if you download too much stuff ('too much' depends on which speed of services you have, see http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html) between 4pm and midnight your speed will be cut in half for 4 hours, so bare that in mind if your brother or you download alot of music or movies.

Answer 5

well you could always hook up a wireless router to his modem and have you rpc connect wirelessly.

Is your broadband cable or phoneline? as this depends on what router you need

I have cable virgin broadband at home and i share my connection with my missus and step daughter, all wireless using a belkin wireless router, so yes it can be done.

only prob i have found, that if I connect to the modem direct, my download speed is in excess of 14mb, but with the router attached, its down to 1.4mb-1.9mb. thats because my router is a G grade, you need at least a G+ Mimo to have any sort of decent speed, and they can cost you up to anywhere around £70.

if you dont want to go wireless or buy a router, then you can also buy a long ethernet cable and connect that way, but you will have to be prepared to put up with the cable running through the house. you can get cat5 cables that are like 20 meters in lenght so this shouldnt be a problem.

good luck

Answer 6

Do you mean if there are 2 human beings surfing the internet on a similar time? Then sure, whilst 2 or extra all and sundry is surfing the internet on a similar time the bandwidth of the internet connection is chop up on your community between the a number of human beings. in case you mean you're making use of a telephone line splitter to connect a modem and a telephone on a similar time then no, this shouldn't impression the linked fee at which your broadband operates. sturdy good fortune, Jamie.

Answer 7

u hav 2 options...:
get a 4 way gate router which allows you to split ur broadband connection to4 computers
or:
u can get a wirless router and connect that to the iternet and then have both the computers on wireless by using a belkin usb adaptor or suomthing like that. most new laptops also will have wi-fi built in!

gd luk if u want to know anything else feel free to e-mail me: [e-mail]

Answer 8

You just need a router, this allows you to share the single connection