PC help: Share a broadband connection around the home

Q You have previously described how to connect more than one computer to the internet using either a wired or wireless network.

Rather than doing that, is it possible to share a broadband connection between several computers by simply plugging each computer into different telephone sockets on the same telephone line, through the microfilters?

Alan James

A Sadly not – the ADSL broadband connection works using an ADSL modem, which plugs into the microfilter, and your computer plugs into the modem. The computer on its own can’t talk directly to the ADSL connection.

Even if you have one ADSL modem per computer, it still wouldn’t work, because the modems would conflict with each other (think of it as them all trying have their own conversations at once, talking over one another, with the result that none of them can understand the conversation).

The best way to share a single ADSL or cable broadband connection is using a router, which in turn connects to the computers wirelessly or via a wired network.

If you’d rather not use a wired or wireless network, the answer might be power-line networking or Homeplug. This turns the existing mains electrical wiring in your home into a network.

You buy a pair of Homeplug adapters and plug one into the mains near the router, running a network cable from the adapter to the router, and another into the mains near the computer, running a network cable from the computer to the adapter.

The computer can then talk to the router over the mains network, and you avoid having to run unsightly network cables around the house or set up a wireless network.