I recently purchased the NetGear FVS318 router to split my AOL DSL line for my small business. The AOL provided modem is an ActionTec USB/Ethernet. We run 7 computers and a network printer off of the hub portion. As for the set up of the router, I have called both AOL and NetGear to make sure that we have it set up correctly. We use our AOL username and password to log into the PPoE, with DNS enabled. The domain name has been left blank as per AOL’s directive. We also disabled logging in an effort to prevent a memory overload. Now for the problem. When we log on to the internet from one computer right after start up of the modem and router, we have no problems. We can logon from at least three of the computers, though we have not yet attempted to logon with all seven computers. After a time, which appears to be random but may be related to traffic, the router’s WAN port loses its connection with the internet (WAN IP of 0.0.0.0 with no confirmed connection info at all), though the modem is still on. The modem does work on individual computers for as long as it is connected. We have updated the firmware on the router, and checked the network configurations on each of the computers. The local area network still works when the internet is lost, but AOL sits on the logon screen “looking for AOL via TCP/IP” without connecting. If there is anyone who has experienced a similar problem and successfully fixed it, please reply to this post or email me at hvacengi@yahoo.com. Thank you in advance for your help.

At the beginning there were problems with ADSL external modems, particularly USB ones. I have had better experience with internal ADSL models, keeping the connections for longer periods of time. As for sharing, the provider charges $10 a month for the **equipment** and sharing itself. I simply use the main machine as a proxy server, hook up the rest of the machines to a hub/switch I already had, and configure those machines to go to the internet thru a proxy server --> configured again, in the main machine connected to the network. Although this is different to what you have, it works beautifully. Does AOL allow to share the connection without limitations? Good luck

Officially, AOL does allow multiple connections, and even ofers four port routers (including netgear's) through there broadband acessories page. Perhaps we could do the proxy server, I would presume that AOL must be loged on for the first computer every time, as the other computers could not directly access the modem. Thanks for the help, I hope it works!