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10113
February 5th, 2004 14:00
Dumb as a brick ... need help with cable broadband and networking!!!
This is the set-up in our house ...
Old HP Pavilion in ground level living room
Old HP Pavilion in ground level bedroom
New Dell Dimension 4600 in basement level home office
We have cable in each of these rooms and want each computer to be connected to cable internet. Do we connect the living room to cable and use a router to wirelessly connect the other 2 computers to the internet, or get a modem for each computer and make a direct hard-wire connection to each? If the former, how do the 2 computers that are not directly connected to cable have to be altered ... NIC cards? What is required of the computer in the living room that would be connected directly ... NIC card, too?
If the latter, does each computer only need a cable modem and nothing else? No NIC card required? I have no idea what ethernet or NIC cards are currently installed on each computer, or even how to find out.
Networking the computers would be nice (the living room computer has sofware loaded onto it that would be somewhat nice to share, and also has the nicest printer of the 3 workstations), but is not really necessary, unless there is an advantage to that kind of set-up I am missing.
Please feel free to talk down to me on this matter ... the subject line above is dead serious ... I am clueless and confused about all of this. Also, with whatever recommnedation you make, please suggest specific products and where it is best to purchase them.
Thanks in advance!
Very anxious to lose the dial-up service we are tolerating now, I am
Bill
volcano11
2 Intern
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28K Posts
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February 5th, 2004 15:00
Having a cable modem for each computer is a very expensive way to do this, as you your cable provider would charge you for three seperate connections and you would have to purchase a cable modem for each computer. Don't even consider that possibility. The best way to go is to pick one computer that is centrally located to make the main connection. Make sure that the cable modem you get has an ethernet connection. USB-only cable modems will not work in the setup I am describing. Then get a wireless router. I recommend models from Linksys, like the WRT54G or BEFW11S4. You would connect the cable modem to the Internet or WAN port on the router through an ethernet cable. You then need an ethernet network card in the computer that will connect at this location and you would connect this ethernet card to one of the LAN ports on the router. The other computers would need either PCI wireless network cards or USB wireless network adapters, and would connect to the router through the wireless network. The router will allow computers to connect to the internet throught the cable modem and to connect to each other to share files and printers.
To see how this is done, visit the following sites:
www.linksys.com
www.practicallynetworked.com
www.homenethelp.com
Steve
Honest Bill
64 Posts
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February 5th, 2004 16:00
Steve,
Thanks for your help ... will check out the links and post back.
Question ... how do I check to see if any of my 3 computers already have ethernet (NIC) cards? Is an ethernet network card the same thing as a PCI wireless network card? If any of my computers already have cards, how do I know if they are compatible with the router I will be getting?
Thanks for bearing with me.
Bill
johnallg
2 Intern
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7.3K Posts
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February 5th, 2004 17:00
Honest Bill
64 Posts
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February 6th, 2004 13:00
John,
Thanks for your reply.
Device manager?
"You'd need Cat5 cable to reach the computers from where you spot the router." ... way over my head!
Remember, I'm a dummie about all of this.
Bill
johnallg
2 Intern
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7.3K Posts
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February 9th, 2004 00:00
Control Panel - System - Hardware tab - in the middle Device Manager. It is a listing of all the hardware found in your system by Windows and the driver info.
Cat5 and Cat5e is networking cable that is used to connect ethernet ports on equipment. You'd need cables long enough to reach from the router placement to any computer you want to connect without wireless. With a router, you get up to 253 computers.
www.homenethelp.com and www.practicallynetworked.com are two more good learning sites.