Once upon a time, when the kids were wee little, I had two phone lines. One for talking and one for the dial-up modem. Then came cable internet, and teenagers. So we kept the modem line for the kids to talk. Now the daughter has moved out and the son got dial-up for Christmas.

Sounds like a happy ending? Not if my son likes to surf the web and talk on the phone (or one of his friends are on the phone). So now I have no phone unless I yell for him to get off!

I thought I remember seeing software that allows a person to use the phone and the internet at the same time (and not get kicked off while on it and getting a call). Any one know if that is true, does it work, and it's name?

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

~Bob

I think there is some software available that will enable call waiting when using a dial-up line. If you have a cable modem in the house, though, your best bet probably would be to pick up an inexpensive router and share that connection among everyone's computer. If the computers aren't close enough to easily run cables, you should be able to get a wireless router for around $70 and wireless cards for each PC for under $50.

-Jeff

Bob,

I used to use CallWave (www.callwave.com). What they do is setup your phone for busy call forwarding to their call center, which then accepts the call and warns you that a call is coming in, it records about 45 seconds of a message and allows you to pick up the call.

Jeff's suggestion is better though, that way the computers not tying up the phone line at all.

Yah, I'm begining to think that will be the best way. The main problem is that I want to make sure that if he does anything to pick up a virus that it won't get into my main computer (it's a work computer).

Is it posible for a virus to get through the firewall of a cable router and get into the main computer?

~Bob

An yes, it's far enough away I will need to go wireless. So this is just temperary until my finacial situation improves, and a test to see if I can trust him.

Bob,

Viruses can get through some firewalls, depending on what the virus is. If your son downloads one and it infects his computer, it's possible that it can get to yours just through the router. I would personally suggest either buying a commercial anti-virus product, like Symantec Anti-Virus, or going with one of the free alternatives like AVG which is free and available here: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

Install that on his computer to ensure he doesn't catch a virus to begin with. If you have Windows XP, turning on the firewall on either/both computers in addition to the built in firewall on the router could not hurt as well. The firewalls on the individual machines, will help prevent them from sharing any communicable viruses over a local network.

It's not a 100% fool proof solution, but it'll help keep you better protected than if you had nothing running on them.

Thanks Dexter.

I do run McAfee virus on both, and have a firewall on both. Also, I like to use AdAware SE to keep the spywear away.

I was just wondering if there were a risk. Thanks for the info.

So, I'll test the waters, give him just enough rope to hang himself, so to speak. If it works out for a while, then the risk may be minor enough.

Thanks again!

~Bob