Home Networking?

[125 rider]

Time to ditch the crappy high speed AOL and get ATT cable internet. The cable connection will be shared between 2 computers. My question is what additional equipment am i going to need to be able to share a connection between 2 computers in 2 different rooms besides the cable modem? And how hard is it to set up?

 

[kingriz1]

Depends on how you want to do it. I use a router and a cheap hub. About 130 bucks. Get the lynksys one(not spelled right).

Its fairly easy to do.

You can either share one ip or pay the 5 bucks for the other one and then they will help you set it up. They is AT&T

 

[Rockey5000]

My friend uses a router and a link sys also. He pays 5 extra for the other IP address. Get small hub if you can, I think the connection will be faster because it won't be split up 8 times, but im not positive on that one. Good luck.

 

[yzeater]

Will you be able to run hard wires? If not, you'll need wireless. We've got a SMC baricade wireless router ($200) that hooks up to the cable modem and it works anywhere in the house. The wireless cards are about 50-100 bucks a piece.

 

[125 rider]

Originally posted by yzeater
Will you be able to run hard wires?

Well the 2 computers are about 20 feet away from each other in seperate rooms.

 

[Rockey5000]

Do you have the skill to wire it yourself? Will you pay someone? If not you need wireless, unless you want to use HPNA which uses the phone jack wiring already in your house.

 

[125 rider]

Yes once i know what the plan is i should be able to set everything up i've just never had to go down the networking road before.

 

[FritoBandito]

You can network 2 computers for a lot cheaper than what these guys are telling you. Get 2 internal network cards, they are about $20 each. And then a cheap network hub, also about $20. Run your cable modem to your main computer, USB is the easiest way. Then run your computers network cards to the hub and set up internet connection sharing on the main computer and you can share the connection. That is an easy way to do it, but there are many other options if you need to do it differently. I would like to try a wireless setup now that the prices are coming down. I see them on E-Bay for very low prices.

 

[Danman]

I am still using windows 98 so I don't have the internet sharing built in. I'm running a sygate 3.1 nat software program. I have the two NIC cards in the same machine as the Bandito. I run the cable. It was the cheapest option for me. If you have the money the wireless is the "no fuss" way to go.

 

[Jeff Gilbert]

I'm using a Linksys Either Fast Cable Router and a NIC in each PC. I hard wired the rooms in my house that have computers (3) and all share the same cable modem. The cost was reasonable and everything was practicaly "plug & play using win 98