SyGate Internet Sharing Software
Last updated: 10/27/99

WIN 98 INSTALLATION.  After writing the last ICS article, I decided to give  SyGate a try (and was prepared to kiss-off another afternoon?).

A Surfboard SB2100D cable MODEM (CM) was interfaced to my computer  with a CAT 5 straight-thru cable and a LINKSYS LNE 100TX Ethernet adapter and a second Ethernet adapter, a D-Link DFE-530TX+, interfaced the PC to the local area network (LAN) via an Ethernet hub.   The LAN was running with the servers and static IP's as it normally does.

I downloaded the latest version of SyGate, double-clicked the executable, entered the registration number Sybergen provided via E-Mail, and checked "Server Mode" when It asked if the PC would be a Server or a Client.    It started it's Diagnostics program, which automatically detects the network configuration and Internet connection, and appropriately configures SyGate.  It paused and prompted me to connect to the Internet, which I did while it waited for me to click Continue (it didn't abort the setup like a lot of setup programs do).  After clicking Continue, SyGate displayed one more screen of diagnostics, said it had finished successfully, and prompted for a reboot. Done!

At the other workstation, I double-clicked the same SyGate executable, which was residing on the NT server, and checked the Client Mode box when prompted.  SyGate did its thing in a similar manner, found the SyGate server running on the other workstation, got it's Internet configuration from it, and prompted for a reboot.  Done and working!

There isn't much "How to" in this procedure.  It simply worked that well and it went through the whole process very quickly.

WINDOWS NT INSTALLATION.  Feeling a little buoyed by this experience, I uninstalled SyGate from my computer, yanked the network card, which was servicing the cable MODEM and installed it in the NT server, connected the cable MODEM, got the cable MODEM working with the server, fired-up SyGate, watched it do its magic again, and installed the SyGate client on my computer.  Done!  I can't remember an installation of any significant, network-related software on an NT server that went so well.

PERFORMANCE.  After running SyGate Diagnosis on the other workstation, we were are all up and running and running about as good as it gets.  Even with the old clunker we have for a network server, a SyGate-managed Internet connection was surprisingly fast.  I could not tell that I was accessing the Internet via SyGate and the NT server.  Browsing seemed to be just as fast as it was when the Cable MODEM was directly attached to my PC, even with two PCs going at it.  Downloads clocked at 40 KBytes/sec. when one PC was downloading as they did before SyGate on good day.  When both PCs were downloading simultaneously, each clocked 24-26 KBytes/sec., which is more than half the speed of one workstation downloading alone--maybe someone can explain how that is possible.

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