[paulat]

Where do they live?

[M1 Garand 30-06]

I believe some modems support something called callback. The other option is having them connect to dial up with your DSL account (I believe SBC DSL provides free dial up for DSL users).

[HAL9000]

The basic concept is good, but you've got it backwards on who-dials-who.

Set up a PPP server at your place (perhaps a Linux box) that they dial to, then share your DSL connection.

[JennysCool]

I'm sure God blesses anyone who does something nice for their in-laws.

My rancher friends out in the sticks all connect through their satellite dishes and are extremely happy with the service. Why go through all the trouble of routers, networks, etc. when you could spend the same money just helping them with the satellite bill?

[HAL9000]

I missed the part about long distance charges. Back to the drawing board.

[ikka]

What you want to set up is called in the Microsoft world a RAS connection. Not sure if Windows 98 supports it explicitly but you should be able to get it to work.

You need to set up the auto-answer feature of the modem, so that when you dial them, it picks up. Then you probably will need to figure out how to handle PPP setup.

An alternative would be for you to give them a second machine running Linux - then you set up the Linux box to do the routing and Win98 just talks over ethernet to the Linux box.

[Kaylee Frye]

Tech Support Ping???

[advance_copy]

Hey chuckles, post #15... cost you $35 for an IBM remote dial in LAN server. It's old, and you will have to look for manuals, etc. But you are just not going to be able to talk a Win98 machine into answering the phone and setting up a PPP connection, IMO.

You could pick up some cheap old Sun box, and spend a couple of months getting it to answer the phone and set up PPP. There's no doubt in my mind that could it be done. No matter what, you'd better have some time on your hands.

[babygene]

Your making things harder than they need to be:

Get yourself a personal toll free number. There usually only about 5 cents per minute. Direct that number to to an ISP and your done.

We do this for our customers so that those without Internet connections can register our software products on-line. We pay the 5 cents per minute for the phone call.

Also, check out some of the large ISP's. They provide access numbers from almost everywhere...

[Musket]

I have a dumb question. If they can't call out, then how will your router/server know when they want to get on the internet? Smoke signals?

[MineralMan]

Why not just get satellite installed and pay for it. My wife and I got tired of her parent's using dial up at their house, since they were always forgetting they were online and we got busy signals. So we just signed them up for digital cable and got them the lowest priced cable internet access package. We pay the bill every month. It's cheap, given their age and health situation. We need to be able to check in with them frequently.