Can i use my old dsl modem as a wireless router for my cable internet?

Question

i have a 2wire dsl modem "gateway"

i have a computer w/ built in wireless in motherboard

i have cable internet service (faster than dsl)

i connected my cable modem to port1 of dsl modem ran port2 to computer without wireless and on my computer with wireless i can connect to 2wire modem(dsl) but will not let me connect to internet

what do i need to do? is it possible? i really do not want to buy a wireless router

Answer 1

You will need to understand a few things first. DSL is an acronym for Digital Subscriber Line (this includes cable). Due to the way that cable and phone companies differ and how they got to their present status ( fast access or not) and even different cable companies differ. Generally with the cable companies they supply a box. You connect via that box hooked up to the cable (and some to a digital box). The box you describe as DSL is probably a phone line box. It is probably locked into the phone company via the firmware so no you can't get there from here. It is not clear if you want to hook up a second computer or not but if you want to hook up a second computer a lot of  cable companies want to sell you another box with another fee for the second computer they lock each box so that it will not work if more than one IP address is asked for. In that case there is only one choice which is to buy a "residential Gateway" or router. You can find them for $45 or less. I found one for $20 used and it has wireless. What this does is it only shows 1 ip address to the cable company and assigns ip addresses (locally - in your house) to every other computer you connect. With a wireless all your friends can come over with their notebooks and all go on-line at the same time. Basically it boils down to pay the cable company for the extra connections repeatedly every month or get a router (wireless or not). Note one correction in your question. Some cable companies (who do networks well) are faster than some phone companies (who don't do networks well). Similarly there are some cable companies (who do networks well) who are faster than other cable companies (who don't do networks well).

There are possibly ways to hack your firmware but if you do - it could fail and cause damage to your system or the cable company's system or both and you need to have a good hanldle on networks and protocols and addressing devices.  Could be very dangerous in inexperienced hands.

Hope this helps.

Tekkiefirst