WOO HOO High Speed Internet Here I Come

silverado man · January 22, 2002

Finally was able talk the roomate into getting cable modem at home. Now all I have to do is go to best buy or buy a network hub off the internet so that I can network mine and my roommates computer together. All I have to do is gind a place to route the cable to his bedroom from the basement Ill be set.

95Yukon · January 22, 2002

Cable modems are fast, but you may want to consider a router as opposed to a hub. A lot of providers will only give you one IP address and charge for additional ones for additional connections to the internet. Also, with a network setup in-house, you probably have file and print sharing installed and enabled, which leaves a security hole for all the hackers who constantly ping your system, trying to get in. If you get a a 4 port Linksys or Netgear router, it acts as a firewall, since anyone pinging can only "see" that one item, which is not a PC. They can't see past it. It also acts as a DHCP server which doles out multiple IP addresses and allows you to add more computers to the network and get them all on the internet just using the one IP address the ISP provides. They also come in 8 port, but the 4 port is around $100 at Best Buy, and this will let you connect 4 pcs and share that one connection to the internet securely, regardless of how many resources you are sharing within your home network.

JonesNTN · January 23, 2002

I have the Linksys 4 port. Buy.com has for around 70 bucks. I have had no probs with mine and have had for 6 months. Easy setup and excellent security. Just remember to change the default password. ;)

NewbieZ71 · January 23, 2002

95Yukon speaks wisely.....spend the little extra now....your computer use, needs and equipment are NOT going to go backwards! Only greater in the future.......this will help out a bit when the time comes....our first computer at work (1986) had a 10mg hard drive. Coroporate gurus at at the time GUARANTEED that we would NEVER use up that space!!!!

chevy4x4trucks · January 23, 2002

Newbie has a good point about hard drive space. I use a lot w/ my DSL connection. I filled up an 80 gig hard drive in under a month downloading movies.

As for setting up the home network, I hooked mine up (well, for the first few computers) for 120 bucsks. That was for two 100 mbps network cards, a 25' cable, a 50' cable, 5' cable, and a 4 port hub. I think the hub ran me about 40 or 50 bucks. I bought a netgear 8 port switch now since I've added more computers. It was 80 bucks at best buy.

silverado man · January 23, 2002

i went out and bought a d-link hub last night. so what you guys are saying you want me to take this one back and get the router. what's the difference between the two. thanks for you input.

95Yukon · January 23, 2002

The hub offers no security. Its fine if you are interconnecting local pcs which aren't going to be on an internet connection, but the router also acts as a firewall. The hub may work, but as soon as you share resources between the home pcs, you're opening them up to everyone who's on the internet as well. (with minimal know-how) You could run Zone alarm software on each PC, but it disables file and print sharing on setup and recommends you keep it that way for security, which takes down your local connectivity to share files or print to anything but a local printer (connected directly to the pc) If you did use that, you'de quickly see how many times broadcast transmissions are sent out by hackers looking for holes to get in. I think I had 12 or 15 the first night I had my connection up on high speed. Also, if your ISP only gives you one IP address, you can only configure one pc to connect with it. If they give you two or more IP addresses for free, it still doesn't solve the security issue. I work for a very large company with all our branch offices going to DSL and/or cable, we recommend to all them that the easiest, cheapest, most secure way to share a connection is to go with the router. We ship out and configure a lot of them, and they work great. A hub is basically just a "dumb" box which connects pcs together, some will act as repeaters and amplify the signal if you have long runs of cable, while the router has internal "software" which distributes your connection to the pcs while protecting them from hacks. They act as a gateway so that anyone on the internet only sees the router, but nothing beyond it. It will assign IP addresses to as many pcs as you have plugged into it and distribute the connection to the internet to all the pcs by assigning an IP to each one, while you only have to pay for one account, or one IP address with your ISP. Easy to setup. just connect the incoming signal to the WAN port and the pcs to the rest. Then you open your browser, type in the IP address of the router, a configuration screen comes up (a lot of times you don't need to change anything) and thats it. The little book that comes with it is easy to understand for the setup. Theres a few configuration issues with a couple ISPs but thats rare and can be worked around if it comes up. (if the ISP is using PPPoe or if you plan to use VPN software, etc.) I could help you out with it either way.

silverado man · January 24, 2002

Cool I understand somewhat know Im still new at some of this nework stuff. I will be taking the hub back and getting the router. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

95Yukon · January 24, 2002

Cool, you should be able to plug it in and go. The in cable from the cable modem goes to the WAN port and the pcs hook up to the others. You can change that password in the setup utility, but since the internet cable in "mates" to the MAC address of the router once your online, the only one who could ever get into the router setup would have to be coming in from your side of the network.

96 Vortec · January 25, 2002

Say, uh Mikey, if I load up a spool of wirein the back of my truck, can I connect my puter to your house??????

ps. gonna be at Tanner's at 4 on Friday

silverado man · January 25, 2002

I dont mind you have to buy some tranformers to be able to let the data get that far. And ill have the extra port so that you can plug it right in. I wont be there tonight there is a happy hour at McCoy's from the BMCD group.