Sharing internet through LAN of computer connected to net with USB ADSL modem?

Question

I have a Sagem USB ADSL modem plugged into my laptop which provides my internet connection. I have also been given a Buffalo AirStation WHR-G54S wireless router/4-port switch which unfortunately does not have an ADSL socket to plug in the phone cable that currently goes into my USB modem.

My question is, can I share my net connection to other computers by connecting the AirStation with an ethernet cable to the LAN port of my laptop and then connecting the other computers with ethernet cables to the remaining ports on the back of the AirStation? What settings would I need to make?

This image shows the back of the AirStation to give you an idea of the sockets available (clearly all ethernet cable sockets) : http://news.sosol.com.cn/news/html/xhtml/NewsImages/20070202/20070202153145662.jpg

Many thanks.

I am able to fileshare between the various computers already through the AirStation, but it's just the net access that I'm missing.

Thank you all so much :) All your suggestions helped out perfectly and now both the shared net connection and filesharing is running perfectly, even to my Apple Macintosh. I can't choose all of you as best answers, but they all were :)

Answer 1

You will have to enable Internet Connection Sharing on your laptop. (The best solution is to get an ethernet modem so that you can directly connect your router! That way you won't suffer all the performance issues with ICS!)

Here is the Microsoft tutorial for ICS
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126

There are several others if you aren't running XP. Just search for "How to enable ICS in XP (or Vista etc) on the Microsoft site.

Answer 2

Yes, you can do this - however performance will suffer because the connections will not be routed but shared off your laptop.
If running XP - Start - Control Panel - Double Click Network Connections in Classic View - On the left hand side - click 'set up a home or small office network' - use the wizard to share your Internet connection.

Answer 3

What kind of OS do you have? I know in windows XP you can try the internet connection sharing.
since the network card in the laptop or PC would not have an address you would have to provide a static one(same as the rest on your network but last number different ) then on the wan side of the air station give it a static address.
Example
192.168.0.1 for nic
192.168.0.2 airstation

Short of trying it my self I don't know if this will work but in theory is seems solid.

Answer 4

this is easy to do. you don't need to contact your isp. Here's what to do: Buy a 4 or 5 port router and an extra cat5 network cable. Remove your computer's network cable from the dsl modem. Plug the new network cable into the modem; then plug the other end into the input port on the router. Plug the network cables for your two computers into output ports on the router. You will need to do some configuring on your router. Read and follow the directions carefully. Configure your computers to receive their IP address from the router. That's all there is to it. Enjoy!