Windows Vista™ Inside Out

Setting Up a Shared Internet Connection

To share an internet connection safely on a small network, you have two options:

• Install a router or residential gateway. This piece of hardware sits between your network and your internet connection (usually an external DSL or cable modem, although you can also use a conventional modem in this configuration). To the outside world, the residential gateway appears to be a computer with its own IP address, although it’s considerably more secure because it does not have any running programs or disk storage that can be attacked by a would-be intruder. This class of hardware typically uses network address translation (NAT) to assign private IP addresses to computers on your network. Because it’s always on, any ...