Coyote Router

The Coyote Router is a good way to use a very slow 486 (like a 486/20 or 486/33) which is too small and slow to be of much use for anything else, and yet it can be very useful for groups that receive several refurbished computers that they want to connect to the internet, but where they cannot afford a broadband service like Cox Cable or DSL. Coyote Router allows several computers to share one dial up internet connection from a company like FamilyNet which offers dialup internet for only $9.95/month ($99.50/year) which filters out pornography, and they have a Local Tulsa Office. You will need a Network Interface Card (NIC) in each machine, a Hub, and some Cat5 cable in addition to the Coyote Router. Obviously such a system would not be fast enough if everyone wanted to download big files at the same time, but it could support multiple computers doing email and surfing web pages.


Hardware Requirements

Your Coyote computer should be a recommended minimum:
  • 486DX-20, (not SX, since it needs the math coprocessor)
  • It should not have a PCI bus if using a 486 motherboard since these can be problematic
  • 16mb ram
  • 3.5" 1.44mb floppy drive
  • no harddrive is required, but it is convienent to have one to create the Coyote floppy. If you include a harddrive, try setting it to power down (in CMOS) after some short time to conserve power & reduce heat. An alternative is to mount the hard drive in a drive tray and only use the key to turn it on when you are using it to make a floppy disk
  • Use a 3com 3C509 network card for the easiest & most trouble free router setup. See the file COYOTE_NIC for other supported network cards.
  • You MUST use a HARDWARE modem in the router, preferably set to COM 4, IRQ 3, these modems will be ISA slot and will have jumpers for the Com port & IRQ settings. U.S. Robotics modems are good choices. PCI bus modems WILL NOT WORK.
  • Note: Routers built from computers with better specifications than above DO NOT perform better, they just waste power and will probably be noisier. Systems built on 486-33 or slower usually don't require CPU fans (lower power, less noise) and if there is no harddrive or the drive can be powered down in CMOS the power requirements are minimal. On such systems the power supply fan can be rewired from 12v to 5v which again reduces power consumption & will make them virtually silent.
  • Once the router is functioning properly the monitor can be left off or even disconnected.


    How To Make a Coyote Router floppy

    Boot up the Win95 operating system. If your machine has the hard disk in a drive tray, you will need to use the key to turn the power on to the drive. The system will come up with an error message saying "Your display driver does not suppoer QuickRes", but don't worry about that. Just click OK
    Click "Make a Coyote Floppy"
    Doing that will run the program wizard-2.16.0/coyote.exe
    No changes necessary. Just press Next
    On this screen you will set up an administrator password. I usually just use admin, but you can use whatever you want. Normally you will not need to logon, just to use the router, but if you do, the user name is root and the password is whatever you set up here. Once you have entered the password twice press Next
    Just leave the "Syslog Server Address" blank, and press Next
    Click PPP Modem Dialup which will change this screen
    to this screen. Fillin the Username field with the logon name provided by your dialup Internet Service Provider (ISP), enter the telephone number your ISP tells you to have your computer dial in the Phone Number field, enter the password your ISP tells you to use in the Password field, and enter it again in the Confirm field. Click the dropdown box to select the Com port (COM4 works best), To use manual dialing/hangup to get positive dialup and hangup, uncheck DIAL ON DEMAND TIMEOUT to disable demand dialing, Use modem intit string AT&S11=55S6=5 if you have the phone companies "call notes" answering machine service.
    NOTE: ISP's that require you to use their software (AOL, Compuserve, Juno, etc.) will not work with a Coyote router. You need an ISP that offers a plain POP3 account. Enter the DNS server names (or IP numbers) for your ISP. There should be two different DNS servers; enter one in the Nameserver 1 box, and the other in the Nameserver 2 box.

    To determine your internet providers DNS servers (name servers) address's, connect to the internet and then:

    • click START
    • click RUN
    • type WINIPCFG
    • click OK
    • click MORE INFO
    You may have to get this info by calling the ISP or Googling on the internet
    This screen will look somethng like this. Press Next to go to the next screen.
    Check the Enable the Coyote DHCP Server box, and press Next
    Click on the dropdown box, and select the model of the NIC card you used (usually 3c509). Click Next
    Click on the dropdown box, and select your preferred language. I use English, but if you prefer you can select Portugese, Spanish, French, or Romanian. If one of those languages is your preference, you may be having trouble following these instructions.
    Put a blank floppy in the A: drive and click on the box to write a floppy. You can make multiple floppies if you desire, and the floppy can be copied if you prefer that way of making a backup.
    You have now finished making the Coyote Floppy.


    After The Floppy Is Created

    Connect the NIC on the router to any regular port on your network hub or switch and boot it, if you're using DHCP (recommended) be sure the client computers are set to use DHCP.

    When you turn the computer on, it will boot up on the Floppy you just created. Initially it will scroll a lot of information, including automatically dialing your dialup ISP. to the internet.
    Once it finishes on this screen all computers conneted to the network hub or switch should be connected.
    You will not need to do this in order to use the internet from the client machines, but if you want to you can enter "root" as the "Coyote Login", and enter the password you set up when you made the floppy as the password (it will not disply when you enter it).
    If you press the "c" key you can see whether the phone line is connected (Internet UP), and whether the LAN network through the hub seems to be working (LAN network UP)
    The Coyote Router should only be turned on when at least one of the client computers needs internet access, and when there are no client computers needing internet access turn off the Coyote so that it will hang up the phone, and allow others to use that port at your ISP.

    Note: Your Dialup ISP may offer Unlimited Internet, but that means Unlimited Access, and it does not mean that you can remain connected all the time, just in case someone wants to use the internet. Most Dialup ISPs will detect accounts that abuse their service by doing this (called Modem Parking), and they will disable your account.

    The user will usually not need to do the following, but if you need to control the setup on the Coyote router ppen a browser and type in the URL address http://192.168.0.1:8180 Enter user = root and the password you assigned when making the floppy. This will connect you to the Coyote Web Administration application.

    Disable DNS cache to get pop3 email clients, such as Outlook, to work.

    • click DHCP CONFIGURATION
    • uncheck ENABLE COYOTE DNS CACHE