DSL in two locations with one line.

May 13, 2009 11:22 AM

Questions about dual modem/router connections on one dsl line.

Some friends and I are trying to get wireless and wired internet in an office away from the house, where the modem and router currently are. This office has phone jacks, and has been previously used with a modem and router to hook up to the internet. My question is, with the dsl connection that my friend has, would it be viable to hook up the phone jack in here to a separate modem, and that to a separate router, and have internet in both the house and the office? Or would I we have to purchase another phone line for a separate dsl connection for the office? Of course, another option is running an ethernet cable out here to the office, but that would be a lot of work and not the first option we would like to choose. Thank you for the answers!

posted by CliffDiving44 to computers & internet (5 comments total)

You cannot have 2 DSL modems on 1 line. Would be cheaper to get a high gain antenna and another wireless router for the remote office anyway. I've never used it, but you could try HomePNA as well. It uses the phone lines to network the locations instead of running an ethernet cable, won't be as fast as wireless though.
posted by Kupo? at 11:37 AM on May 13

How far is the office from the house? Is there line-of-site between the two? You can get two wireless bridges with directional antennas and just extend your network over that. I can provide additional details if the distance and LOS is not a problem.
posted by odinsdream at 11:46 AM on May 13

Yeah, the two modem thing won't work. Before you go with wireless, I'd look into what you can do with the existing phone lone between the two.

It's pretty likely that a phone line will have two twisted pairs, which you should be able to run Ethernet over at 10MBps if you are willing to give up the phone circuit. I think there are also home phoneline networking tech that can piggyback on a phone line.
posted by Good Brain at 11:56 AM on May 13

Your local phone company may offer a "dry pair"- basically, just a physical connection between the facilities (it gets routed through the central office, but there's no dialtone). You can then use sDSL or a netopia router to connect the two locations.

This is probably more time and expense than just running ethernet or buying a second DSL connection.
posted by jenkinsEar at 11:58 AM on May 13

Is the office served by the same electrical service as the main house? If so, you might be able to use a power-line networking product to connect the house to the office. Example power-line networking kits are the D-Link DHP-303 ($121), Linksys PLK300 ($130), or Netgear XAVB101 ($121).

One problem might be that sometimes an outbuilding will served by a subpanel connected to a different phase of the electrical service from the main building. These products generally don't work well unless they're on the same phase of your electrical service, although you might be able to use a phase coupler to overcome this problem.
posted by RichardP at 1:16 PM on May 13