Enabling/Disabling Internet Connection through Router

  • Thread starter Thread starter boongles
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boongles

I have a network set up in my house that runs through a dlink di-704
router with an analog modem plugged into it's serial port for its
source of internet. I have this setup simply because dial-up is the
only internet option in my area and I wanted a wireless connection for
my laptop while at home (i also have a linksys access point for that
reason).

My problem is that I need to be able to enable and disable my internet
connection manually as my modem is sharing my home phone line. I still
want to be able to keep my LAN intact so that I can have the computers
linked for gaming and such. Though the user interface for my router
has a "dial up" button, it still dials up on demand so that whenever
I'm not home one and one of my kids starts screwing around on their
computers they sometimes accidentally use a program that trys to
connect to the internet and thereby starts the modem up.

I've tried all sorts of things and the best I can come up with is
switching my modem off when I don't want to be connected. I'd really
like to have the router just not connect to the internet for certain
periods of time but still network my computers. Is there perhaps some
sort of script I can use to switch the connection on and off? If it
came down to it, I'd even be willing to disable the internet connection
on all computers but my own so that other people might not accidentally
trigger the modem to dial up.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!
 
boongles said:
I have a network set up in my house that runs through a dlink di-704
router with an analog modem plugged into it's serial port for its
source of internet. I have this setup simply because dial-up is the
only internet option in my area and I wanted a wireless connection for
my laptop while at home (i also have a linksys access point for that
reason).

My problem is that I need to be able to enable and disable my internet
connection manually as my modem is sharing my home phone line. I still
want to be able to keep my LAN intact so that I can have the computers
linked for gaming and such. Though the user interface for my router
has a "dial up" button, it still dials up on demand so that whenever
I'm not home one and one of my kids starts screwing around on their
computers they sometimes accidentally use a program that trys to
connect to the internet and thereby starts the modem up.

I've tried all sorts of things and the best I can come up with is
switching my modem off when I don't want to be connected. I'd really
like to have the router just not connect to the internet for certain
periods of time but still network my computers. Is there perhaps some
sort of script I can use to switch the connection on and off? If it
came down to it, I'd even be willing to disable the internet connection
on all computers but my own so that other people might not accidentally
trigger the modem to dial up.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don't know about your particular router, but the one I used to use
for dialup (a 3COM) had a configurable option controlling whether it
would automatically dial out. Have you searched the manual for such
an option?
 
boongles said:
I have a network set up in my house that runs through a dlink di-704
router with an analog modem plugged into it's serial port for its
source of internet. I have this setup simply because dial-up is the
only internet option in my area and I wanted a wireless connection for
my laptop while at home (i also have a linksys access point for that
reason).

My problem is that I need to be able to enable and disable my internet
connection manually as my modem is sharing my home phone line. I still
want to be able to keep my LAN intact so that I can have the computers
linked for gaming and such. Though the user interface for my router
has a "dial up" button, it still dials up on demand so that whenever
I'm not home one and one of my kids starts screwing around on their
computers they sometimes accidentally use a program that trys to
connect to the internet and thereby starts the modem up.

I've tried all sorts of things and the best I can come up with is
switching my modem off when I don't want to be connected. I'd really
like to have the router just not connect to the internet for certain
periods of time but still network my computers. Is there perhaps some
sort of script I can use to switch the connection on and off? If it
came down to it, I'd even be willing to disable the internet connection
on all computers but my own so that other people might not accidentally
trigger the modem to dial up.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You didn't say what OS you are using, but WinXP has an option in
"Internet Options > Connections" to "Never dial a connection". I think
this is what keeps any program from trying to connect to the Internet.

My SMC router has an option to only dial manually, but it seems to
interpret requests from programs as a "manual request".

Good luck, jimbo
 
jimbo said:
You didn't say what OS you are using, but WinXP has an option in
"Internet Options > Connections" to "Never dial a connection". I think
this is what keeps any program from trying to connect to the Internet.
Click to expand...

I think that only applies to modems the OS controls directly.
 
boongles said:
I have a network set up in my house that runs through a dlink di-704
router with an analog modem plugged into it's serial port for its [...]
My problem is that I need to be able to enable and disable my internet
connection manually as my modem is sharing my home phone line. [...]
have the router just not connect to the internet for certain
periods of time but still network my computers. Is there perhaps some
Click to expand...

Sounds like the easiest solution for you is to get an appliance timer
from the hardware store and plug the external modem power supply into
it. Easy to override (most have a "turn on now" wheel/switch) and
would be off when you've told it to be off. Another easy option is an
X10 modual which can be turned on/off with a remote control.

We had a similar setup when we were on dialup. I had the luxury of a
base station computer being where the modem/wireless router was
located. I used the modem on the computer, and set it up to share the
connection. the computer became the service provider for the wireless
router. I had it set to dial on demand, but IIRC, there were ways to
say only dial between these hours.

If you have a computer near the base equipment, that might also be a
solution... but i think the timer/X10 switch is the quickest/easiest
solution.

Another thing to look into is the "idle time before hanging up"
setting of your router.... set it lower so even if the kids do connect
to the internet, they don't tie up the line for long. (hopefully)

good luck.
 
Thanks a lot for all the advise. I think I'm going to go with a
combination of setting windows to "never dial a connection" and setting
the idle time before hanging up to something like 15 minutes.
Currently I have the modem right next to my desktop and I just manually
switch the power off when I'm not home.

I checked all over the manual and user interface of my router and
couldn't find any sort of control over whether it dials automatically
or not and found nothing. A friend of mine had suggested writing a
telnet or perl script to use as a switch. Unfortunately, I have
absolutely no idea how to do such a thing.

I really appreciate the help! Thanks again.
 
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