Eli5 In the days of dial up internet how would large organisations (or even homes with more than 1 computer) enable multiple computers to use the internet at once
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For big offices, it was much the same as now. You had a router which would direct a single Internet connection to multiple computers. It was just wired rather than WiFi. If it was important enough you would also have a broadband connection rather than dial-up. These were available, but were high end special products – they would take months to install and cost $thousands per month.
For small offices, you would just have a phone line for each computer, or if data needs were very low, then you might have a router with a dial up modem on it.
Sometimes, you would have one computer connected to internet, but certain apps like email could be routed through that one computer. This way all computers could get email but only 1 could access Web sites.
Fnally,there was router software available. It eventually became integrated into things like Windows. This meant even for a home with 2 PCs, you would dial up the Internet on one and load the router software, and then both PCs would have access.
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