I am in the process of setting up a 2-system home-based LAN around a MAC G4 and WinME PC via a LinkSys Router (BEFSR41 v. 2). Two questions:

1) AT&T says there is an extra $4.95/mo charge for two PCs on one connection. I have friends in another part of the Midwest connecting 2 PCs to AT&T Broadband via the router mentioned above, who are not charged the extra fee. What's up?

2) Should I anticpate any configuration problems connecting a PC and MAC through the router?

SnapperOne

1) The extra fee is for an extra IP address. Since you are using a router, you only need one IP address, and AT&T has no way of telling how many PC's you have hiding behind that router.

2) Nope - as long as the router is set up as a DHCP server (which they usually are), both the Mac and the PC should pick up IP's and get out on the internet just fine. Now if you want to start sharing files between them, well, that may be a whole other issue.

you will also need to clone the MAC address of the computer that you regestered the account with. In the linksys routers its under one of the advanced tabs i believe

Not necessarily... In my area at least, AT&T controls access by machine name, not MAC address. I've changed network cards several times (which changes the MAC address), and not had any trouble. But I have to have the machine name to get on, which is something like "a1234567-b" (that's not mine of course). When going through the router, you would now set the linksys to use that hostname rather than your computer.

Oh, and just to make sure there's no confusion for the less network savvy people among us: MAC address refers to the unique address of any network device. MAC here stands for Media Access Control, and has nothing to do with Macintosh computers...

Charter Communications in NC only require the MAC address of the cable modem, supposedly, if you take the modem to another physical line (still serviced by Charter's network) you can get internet access, as that modem's MAC is registered in some authentication database.

ATT only needs a MAC address.

;( Like I said, it must depend on the area, because AT&T in my area doesn't require the MAC address, only the hostname.

put a second nic in your PC computer and use ICS - then both go through the same NIC / MAC adress

and then also no issues with file sharing.

but good luck sending files form msn and such on the internal computer unless u use 3rd party software to NAT.