network connection help
 

We (my wife actually) just had a cable internet connection added. Currently it is only hooked to my wife's computer in the basement, but would like to be able to connect the other two computers (mine and our daughters) to it too.

What is the easiest way to do it and exactly what hardware/software do I need? Is it easy to make all three systems able to access the net at the same time, or would we just switch which system is active? My computer is up three stories from the connection point, but I could run another cable up to the library. My daughters computer is right next to where my wife uses her laptop.

Thanks - Greg

The easiest way to do it would to be a cable/dsl router. They can be bought for about $60-$70. Mine is wireless (and wired) and it was $79 two years ago. The good thing about the wireless is that you don't have to worry about running wires all over the house. The bad thing is you would have to buy wireless cards for your other computers if you didn't want to do the wired thing. The cards can be bought for about $50 ea. pcmcia (laptop) and PCI card (regular computer). If you go the wired route, you would only need the router and NICs in all the computers (probably built in).

Chris

Does the router allow simultanious use, or just one active at a time? What is a "NIC"?

-Greg

Network Interface Card

Go wireless-it is only slightly more money and saves a huge amount of headache. When you are using a router you have a built in firewall(remember that cable is always open to the internet) and you can all use the internet at the same time. As an aside, your in house network will only look like one computer to the cbale company in case they charge you for different connections.

There are some good deals on wireless stuff at

www.tigerdirect.com

If you do go wireless go with the "G" cards-they offer the best performance.

Chris has got you pointed in the right direction.


NIC: Network Interface Card.
Some puters have them built-in. They are recognized by an extra large "phone cord" plug (RJ45). A regular phone plug is an RJ11 and has 4 wires - an RJ45 is extra wide and has 8 wires. You can go to Control Panel/System/Device Manager (Win95/98) and look to find "network connections" and look for something like "10/100 ethernet" or something like that.

If your desktop computers don't have an Ethernet connection, you can buy a cheap 10Mbit NIC for as cheap as $5 at a computer liquidator. A 10/100 NIC (faster tfer speed) is as cheap as $15. For a laptop, it is a little more expensive at around $20.

If you go the wired route, I saw a Linksys router/switch for $30. You plug the cable modem into the WAN port and the computers into the LAN ports and all can use the Net simultaneously.

As was said, for $70 (11Mbps 802.11b) you can get a router that has wireless built in as well as the wired ports. For $100 you can get the newer 54Mbps 54G wireless in addition to the 802.11b compatibility.

To go wireless, you will have to add a wireless card to each computer that you dont run a wire to. If you have a wireless router you can still choose to run a wire to the desktop computers (and I advise it). If you decide to install wireless cards in them they are $25 and up depending on whether they are 802.11b or 54G. For laptops, which use a different kind of card (hot swappable PCMCIA they are more.

With a router, all computers share the bandwidth of the single Internet connection. Generally this is unnoticeable when browsing, but if a couple of you are transferring files then it will slow the response somewhat. It is still a cool arrangement.

You still pay for only one connection at the house.

The other option is to pay the cable company monthly for a "family plan" which enabled you to use the connection for up to 5 users. Where this is different is that you get 5 ip addresses and can just plug the cable modem into a network hub with the other computers. This costs money every month, but the cable company does turn up the speed of your connection higher than it currently is.

a NIC is a "Network Interface Card". You need to see if your machines already have them. Most machines that came out in the last year included them standard. if not you will need to get them.....$30 per card. (this is if you go with the "wired route". If you go wireless you need to buy wireless cards.....$50.)

I also have the wireless LAN router in my house. It also has ports on the back where you can also have wired connections and also share a single printer. I have it sitting next to my PC with a hard wire connection. And my laptop has the wireless card to connect.

One problem you may have is that the wireless signal may not "reach" up three floors. I ended up putting the router on the middle floor, so the signal only had to span 1 floor in either direction.

And yes....all can access the net at the same time.

Any recommendations on "which" harware is best? All the computers have a T10/100 card in them, so only mine (upstairs) would likely need the wireless card.

In browsing, I noticed most of the wireless stuff runs 2.4 GHz, the same as our old cordless phone which had a lot of interference, mostly from when the mircowave was running. Our new cordless is either 5MHz or 8MHZ (don't remember which) and has a much clearer signal.

Thanks - Greg

I've used several linksys 2.4's...they work great, stuff is pretty cheap now too.....I agree with the others, wireless is the way to go.

Mine is a Belkin (on sale that week) but several of the guys that I work with (we're all Network Administrators) bought the LinkSys equipment and are equally happy with it. I would suggest going with the 54Mbps stuff (higher freq) for the price difference. One thing to remember, you will probably never exceed 4Mbps while browsing/downloading from the Internet. But if you ever want to transfer files (etc.) between your computers the higher speed stuff would (obviously) be faster.

Chris

Use LINKSYS. They have the best tech service and the best product. They also seem to be totally up to date with their firmware. The Linksys also has a REAL easy to fallow set of directions for set up. Belkins tech people suck. I purchased some of their print server stuff and I am about ready to toss it.

As far as wireless or hard wired goes. Hard wired is faster then wireless, however wireless is real nice because it allowes you freedom. However depending on the construction of your house you may or may not have good coverage. My house I can not go more then about 15 feet from my base before I drop. I tried the one from my parrents house that allows me to go about 300 yards from it thinking I had a bad one but got the same results...... Go with a G-Router they are faster.

Yes you can have more then one computer on the network at once. You can hard wire as many drops as you want. I believe that the cap on wireless is 16 or 17 computers. Should be plenty for a personal aplication.

I use the Linksys wireless too but I have found it work best when placed in the most central part of the house you can find. I have had signal loss problems when I was using a laptop for tuning my car in the driveway.

Roby

Anone try D-link? There spec sheet looks good, but of course you can write anything that you like.

Thanks for all the inputs - Greg

If you have AOL you need to use different screen names if you all want to be on the computer at the same time. Then you all can be on the same website or be on different websites at the same time..

Thankfully I'm not subjected to AOL :D

-Greg

True. It will be like you are the only one on the internet and will in no way effect any other user. You will also be able to download at maximum speed even if you have 5 people downloading at the same time and will not slow at all. The only time you would notice a slowdown would be if you were all transferring files from computer to computer or transferring files from a wired computer to a wireless computer. (it will kick it down to under 10MBps). But bottom line if you can receive a good signal in all areas you will be very happy with it.

Roby

Jon (and everybody else using Linksys that has a range issue),

If you have the Linksys, I have a hack to turn up the power on the wireless transceiver. I turned mine up and reached the farthest corners of my house (but I backed it down a notch cause they supposedly run too hot wide open). Factory output is 28mW. Max is 84mW. Mine is set to 64mW. Doesn't mean you can go three times as far, but it did rather dramatically improve the signal strength (measured at the compters in dB) and gave considerably more coverage.

Regardless of whether you normally use AOL or not, the connection will be thru the NETWORK IP connection, which will be the cable modem and provided by the router to the network. You can browse without being logged into ANYBODY's service as long as the router is properly connected. If you want to log onto and use the AOL service, then yes you will need to log onto it using a username that is not currently already logged in somewhere else.

mcollinstn, what's the hack that that you did?

Chris

You gotta flash a "custom" version of the firmware to it that includes the ability for you to issue "direct commands" to the operating parameters.

Then you simply run the administrative window and issue the proper command to reset the output power.

I have the firmware version on my computer, but I honestly don't recall which link I found it at. There are now about a zillion different firmware hacks out there.

Here's where I found all the stuff.
(note: I am using a wrt54g, if you are using a different linksys item, there is a hack for it but the firmware and commands are different).
http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/LinksysWrt54g



Mine's filename is: wrt54g-1.42.2-webconsole.bin

Then after logging into the router's shell (like you would do to configure it), you go to the Administration tab. Go to the Firmware Upgrade tab. Browse out your modified firmware file and flash it to the unit.

After reset and restart, go back to the router shell.
Go to the Administration tab.
Go to the Diagnostics tab.
Click the Console button to go into Debug mode (this is new from the modded firmware).
In the command box type:

/usr/sbin/wl -i eth2 txpwr 84

Click the PING button
Close the shell program connection.

(the 84 can be anything from 1 to 84. 28 is factory. mine is set to 64)

You are finished.

You can acess your router config by using this link incase you forgot or lost your book.

http://192.168.1.1/

Roby

Network is up
 

Got the network/router installed and all the computer are connected. My newlaptop runs wireless and gets a ful strength signal 3 floors up from the router (Linksys 54G).

Thanks to all for the inputs.

-Greg