Advice needed; Have two ISP, one home LAN

Our home network consists of five PCs (three running Win 7, two running Win Vista) connected via router that has WAP also connected for one PC running Win 7, one MacBook, one iPhone, and four iPods. My three sons PCs, an extra PC, and my wife' PC all use the home network via Cat5 connection to the router and all share a 7GB DSL internet connection. My computer is running Win 7 and is connected directly to a 12GB cable internet modem.

What I want to do is connect my computer to our home LAN for file sharing and LAN games while maintaining my separate connection to Cable internet. Basically I do not wish to access their internet connection nor share mine, but I do want to share files and play LAN games with my sons.

What are my options?

• Dual NIC cards; one for internet and one for LAN?
• Install a router on my internet connection and bridge to our home LAN?
• Wireless connection is an option and I do have a USB wireless NIC adaptor, but I do not wish to use it; too many issues with file sharing when I used it in the past, plus I want LAN speed, not wireless speed.

Our home LAN with DSL also supports our VOIP phone service through CityNet via Cat5 connection.(similar to vonage for those not familiar with CityNet) Our phone is a 12 handset Vtech DECT 6.0 with Blue Tooth connection to our cell phones. It will also connect via Blue Tooth to headsets and other Blue Tooth devices. I realize it's a whole different question, but has anyone used a Vtech DECT 6.0 phone with their PC's bluetooth?

aem said:

Hi PaulMedik, your question, is made of many questions.

Sorry if i haven't read it all letter to letter, but the theory is this. If you want a LAN just for sharing files and printers, then one way is to setup manual IPs for each of the machines and get them all seeing each other and setup sharing. The other way is through Homegroup but this only applies to machines with w7s only.

If you don't want internet access for certain machines, this can be done in a couple of ways. Restrict the access using MAC addresses in your router setup. Some routers can go down to the day and time of the week that you disallow internet access. The other way is to applie a non working DNS IP.

My suggestions is you don't worry about internet accesses just yet, first thing is to get all the machines connected and sharing files.

AEM,

All of the machines on our home LAN are set correctly for file sharing and for sharing their internet connection. They all share and connect fine. What I want to do is connect my PC to our home LAN for file sharing and LAN gaming only, while using my separate internet connection and not use their internet connection. I can connect directly via Cat5 to our home LAN router and share files and play games via LAN, but to do I must physically disconnect the wire from my cable internet and connect it to our home LAN router.
What I am looking for is an option other than physically disconnecting from my Cable modem to connect to our home LAN router.

RedBirdDad said:

I think he needs just a second NIC on his PC if I read it correctly.

I concur on that

aem said:

Everything is at home right, and not outside of the house? If you want two types of connections per machines, meaning two LAN connestions, you will need two NICs per machines, and even a separate switch to connect all the secondary LANs to. I'm sure this will require manual IP settings for these connections. I'm not a gamer so i can't advise on how to setup games or link them.

AEM,

Yes, everything is at home and not outside. I only need to connect my computer to the LAN that my wife and sons are connected to while maintaining my separate internet connection.

RedBirdDad said:

I think he needs just a second NIC on his PC if I read it correctly.

RedBirdDad,

Yes, I think you interpreted my jumbled question correctly. I guess I offered too many details initially.
Second NIC is one option I considered. Any setup tips for how to make it go smoothly would be appreciated. Current NIC is onboard. I have three open PCI slots. Should I disable on board NIC and get two PCI NIC cards? Do they make a dual NIC PCI card?

computersplus said:

RedBirdDad said:

I think he needs just a second NIC on his PC if I read it correctly.

I concur on that

computersplus,

I've read several posts on various forums about setting up two NIC cards for two internet services, but in my case I do not plan to access their internet service nor give them access to mine. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

you need the second NIC for the home LAN connection that's it make sure that computer is in the same workgroup name