Proxy Server
Last year I wrote about using a Proxy Server with Windows NT Server, allowing all the computers in your office to get to the Internet through that one machine. This allows your server to act as a firewall and caches all content, which speeds up connectivity throughout the office.
It's a great solution, as well as saving you to have a static IP address for every machine in your office. This solution works in your home as well. However, the price of Proxy Servers do not come cheap - typically $995 for it alone. (I have seen them as low as $100 at computer shows.) You can also order the Microsoft Small Business Server which includes Exchange and Proxy as well as Windows NT Server.
One great feature of the Proxy Server is that it has a built-in cache. Some people see that a cache does not do them any good anyway, and with just a couple machines, it does not really help. Let's take the case of upgrades to illustrate my point. Suppose you have twelve machines and every one has to have a service pack installed. You take the time to download the service pack (SP) and it gets cached within the Proxy Server. When you start the install of the SP on the second machine, the server sees the SP in the local cache and the update is as much as ten to twenty times faster.
Internet Connection Sharing
There is another way of doing it with Windows 2000. This is called Windows Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). ICS comes with Windows 98 Second Edition, Millennium Edition, Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server. It has its own Domain Name Service (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) built in. This means that all your computers connected to your ICS machine just need to accept information given to them through TCP/IP properties through the built-in mini DHCP server. All you do is let ICS proxy your requests to the Internet and all your connectivity is funneled through. Many people use this solution at home as well. All you do is hook up your modem or DSL to your ICS machine, and the other machine to your small network, and you have Internet on both machines.
It does have a downfall compared to the Proxy Server in that it does not have a cache. But it works well in a small environment.
Internet Connection Server
If you purchased the Windows 2000 Advanced Server, you have yet another way of sharing the Internet. It's called the Internet Connection Server, which is a component of the routing and remote access part of the Advanced Server. This is the big brother of Internet Connection Sharing. It works best if you are using the Active Directory and you have DNS installed. You can also install DHCP and have all your machines automatically have their IP addresses assigned by the server as well. It works as well as the above Proxy Server; however, it, too, does not have a cache. But it's a great way to connect machines to the Internet.
There is a lot more to routing and remote access than just Internet Connection Server. You can configure virtual private networking (VPN), allowing machines to work from remote locations like your home; remote access, allowing people to dial in from home to your server; network router, allowing this server to communicate to other networks; Macintosh shares, allowing Macs to connect to files and printers; and of course Internet Connection Server, allowing machines to connect to the Internet through your server.
Routers
There are other ways to share Internet connections. You can always purchase a small router that can share your connection to the Internet via Network Address Translation. NetGear has a great router that is a cheap way of sharing your connection. Some DSL providers are configuring their routers with NAT so you can connect up to 255 computers to your connection. This makes it unnecessary to use any of the above solutions.
Either way you chose, sharing is a great way of cutting down on the high costs of purchasing IP addresses. IP addresses costs as much as $25 each. Until we change to 128-bit addressing, i.e., IP version 6, we have to pay those high prices. So, since most people have more than one computer, share that connection!
