I just upgraded to a new motherboard and it came with on-board LAN. My cable modem plugs in right next to the keyboard, speakers, etc, on the back of my computer. Is there any reason I can't use this same connection for ethernet? I have the required crossover cable. I'm just wondering if there are any additional concerns I need to be aware of. Thanks.

yeap, it'll work. no worries.

I don't understand your question. You want to know if you can use your ethernet port for ethernet?

There are a number of questions that might be asking. If you mean ``can I simply unplug my cable modem and plug in my empeg (using an appropriate cable) and expect it to work'', then Loren's answer of yes is correct, given one or two assumptions.

But if you mean something else, then probably not. If that's not what you meant, let us know.

If you're surfing the net with your cable modem (assuming you don't have a router) and unplug your modem and plug in the empeg without rebooting, no. It shouldn't work because your machine will still have an "Internet IP address."

You can then either give your computer an internal ip (such as 192.168.0.1) and empeg 192.168.0.2 or, if you have XP or 2000 you can refresh your ethernet card's IP in an attempt to get one of those generic (uPnP?) IP addresses. Empeg will get one of those if an IP is not specified and a DHCP server is not available. Perhaps I am getting too confusing?

Actually you could give your empeg an "Internet ip address" as well as long as it lies within th same subnet as your PC, but this is not realistic.

If you want to be able to connect to the net AND your empeg simultaneously via ethernet you could get a broadband router and configure all the devices to have ips within the same subnet..

There are lots of variations and from the sound of your question none of the answers here will really help you get it working. You'll need some amount of technical knowledge to get this stuff working. The empeg is not a very novice user friendly device, and neither is networking..

-John M

Actually, a few important questions, and this may be really easy.

What version of Windows are you running?

Do you run any firewall software?

Does your cable modem automaticially assign you an address?

If it's a recent version of Windows (ME, 2000, XP), and your cable modem assigns you an IP, you can simply unplug the modem and plug in the empeg (assuming all cables are correct) and have it work. You need 2.0 software on the empeg. Any time these newer versions of Windows loose their link and gain a new one, they will try to obtain a new IP. If noone answers, it sets it's self up with one, as does the empeg (as robricc explained). Keep in mind this does delay the time it takes to see the empeg, but it will work.

If you are not running XP, it would probably be easier to just use USB for the empeg , as you never know when you might want the internet connection. Emplode can take a while to sync music, and it has no proper way of stopping a sync.

You can get a cheap Realtek-based NIC for $9.99 and then you can have both plugged in all the time. This is by far the best solution.

Any time these newer versions of Windows loose their link and gain a new one, they will try to obtain a new IP.

Annoyingly, it seems to do this regardless of the link status. On numerous occasions, my DHCP server has gone down (due to power -- it's more sensitive to blinks than my PeeCee) and the Windows box almost immediately relinquishes its IP address, which is very annoying, since it can then no longer talk to the rest of the machines on my network.

Hmm, what is your lease duration?

12 hours. First thing I checked.

12 hours. First thing I checked.

Minimum or maximum? Windows likes taking the minimum value and ignoring the max.

You really ought to put everything on a UPS if you're getting power problems. The mains power supply where I live managed to wipe out two PCs completely through spikes.

I've got everything hanging off an 1000VA SmartUPS now. It makes me worry less, anyway.

That I'll have to check. I only saw Windows report one value in ipconfig. (I figured it made more sense to see what Windows was seeing rather than what it should be seeing. Those are often two wildly different things, in my experience.)

You're right, but my 1.2kVA UPS went tits-up a while back while I was out of work. Hopefully, I'll be able to fix it fairly soon.