Can my computer act as a router?

Question

I have Directv cinema plus which has to have internet connection, is there any way i can plug the ethernet cable from the cinema box directly into my pc and set it to act as the router?

Answer 1

1. Set up sharing of your connection on your COMPUTER (I assume your Internet comes some other way then Ethernet or you do have at least 2nd Ethernet cards)
   • Internet Connection Sharing for Windows XP (and previous)
   • Internet Connection Sharing for Windows Vista/7
   • Internet Connection Sharing for OSX 10.5
   • Internet Connection Sharing for Ubuntu Linux
2. Set up static ip address on COMPUTER with INTERNET (192.168.5.1 or so)
3. Connect your COMPUTER with your Cinema
4. Set up static ip address on your Cinema settings with GATEWAY pointing to 192.168.5.1 - Ip address from range 192.168.5.X), as DNS servers you could use some google servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
5. Enjoy :-) As long as you've shared your connection on COMPUTER properly you should be fine.

Another alternative for you which seems more reasonable and future proof would be to buy router (there's a big choice of routers for ADSL, PPPOE etc) and plug telephone/ethernet cable into it. Then your router can be on 24/7 and you can share your inet for as many computers/cinemas as you wish. Then you could simply enable DHCP and WIFI on it. Then it's PLUG & PLAY :-)

Answer 2

You mean Internet Connection Sharing?

[Mac] [Linux]

Answer 3

The easiest/cheapest way to remedy your problem (based on the information you provided in the comments to @MadBoy) would be to BRIDGE your your network connections. Assuming Windows 7, go to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections, highlight your USB network connection, and the Local Network Connection (which belongs to one of your Ethernet ports). Once both are highlighted right click one of them and select Bridge Connection. Creation of the bridge takes a few minutes, but once it is done you can plug an Ethernet cable directly from your PC to DirectTV.