1. Use ICS / Dial-Up
Networking’s auto-connect and auto-disconnect capabilities.
For auto-connect, this means that any user on your network may simply
use the internet, and the ICS host will dial the connection to the
Internet … the user never knows the difference. For auto-disconnect,
this means that when all Internet related network activity has ceased
for a specific period of time, then the ICS host will automatically
disconnect your modem from the Internet. It initially sounds great…
even perfect! However, there are several problems with this:
A. Any Internet
related activity means any TCP/IP activity. For the layman,
TCP/IP is essentially the "language" that two computers
use while communicating over the Internet. Unfortunately for the
auto-disconnect feature, most network applications written today
(including games!) are written to use TCP/IP, even when you’re
not on the Internet!! Many network applications that run
only on your local network use TCP/IP. Again, for the layman, a
local network (even a home network) that uses TCP/IP applications is
generally called an "Intranet". The ICS host
won’t disconnect you from the Internet if Intranet activity
exists! So, if you’re playing a game, or running any other
applications that use TCP/IP, you’re phone bill (and/or Internet
bill) may just keep going up! Not to mention the fact that if your
Internet Service Provider has a time limit it, the time allotted may
be used up for nothing!
B. If the person using the
ICS host computer is done using the Internet, they may accidentally
manually disconnect all of the other computers by closing the
Dial-Up Networking connection. This might happen because they think
no one is using the Internet (If they see no apparent activity on
the modem "status lights"), or even out of force of habit.
If they do this, someone still actually using the connection will be
abruptly cut off.
C. If you use any
TCP/IP based program (again, many are TCP/IP based), the ICS host
will try to automatically connect you to the Internet… sometimes
even when Windows® first boots! It doesn’t know that (for
example) you’re just reading the email you’ve already
downloaded, and your family member is on the phone, and attempting
to connect will nastily interrupt their conversation.
2. Manually go to the ICS host
computer and connect / disconnect.
Besides the inconvenience of having to go to another room to connect
or disconnect, reason "B" (above) applies. Someone else in
your home or office might accidentally disconnect your Internet
service while you are actually using it!
