Dream Weaver

I have the following kit now, and think it may be time to build a wireless or wired home network to connect it all rather than buying loads of modems:

• ADSL connection
• Main PC with ADSL USB Modem
• Ipaq 2210
• PS2 With network adapter
• Xbox

What would be the best way to connect all of that as networking is something I've never managed to get on with.

I assume if I network everything I will also have to leave the PC on all the time.

Would it be cheaper to just buy a modem for the Ipaq, and another for the PS2/Xbox then hardwire them into the phoneline, using them individually?

Nixon

Firstly you need an ADSL router, it's basically a small pc with a modem which keep your internet connection live 24/7, something like this from ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=48551
You will need to install a network card in your PC and connect this to your router with CAT5 cable or patch cord.

Your PS2 network adapter will connect to the router aswell.

As for the Ipaq it may well have a wireless card in-built? if not you would need to source an upgrade card for it to give it wireless functionality to connect to the router.

Get a network adaptor for the Xbox, again connect this with CAT5 cable to the router.

Once up and running you can use all the devices at one time to browse different websites etc or just one at a time. Having the router will speed up your connection no end in my experience and save you having to connect every time you go on the PC.

Hope this helps

Dream Weaver

Cool thanks Nixon

So about £200 would get me a good wired network setup? I think wirless will be over budget.

Xbox has a built in network connection, so I should just need the router, a load of Cat5 and a PC network card, as well as a card for the Ipaq (dont really need that though)?

carl

If you want to do wireless, you need:

1) Wireless router/AP. You can site this next to the "main" PC and just connect (wired) into one of the LAN ports. Assuming your PC already has an Ethernet card, this is free! (Well, apart from the cost of the cable). If not, a PCI network card is about a tenner.

2) A wireless bridge for the PS2/Xbox. Assuming they're colocated, the best bet would be to get a cheap hub, connect the two together on a wired LAN and then connect the bridge to the same LAN. That way, you only have to buy one bridge.

3) A wireless CF card for your 2210. I think these come in at around 70 quid from www.totalpda.co.uk

Does your ADSL modem connect into the PC via an Ethernet port, or USB? If the former you could just get a wireless router, but if the latter you'll need a router with an inbuilt ADSL modem.

If you don't need whizzy 802.11g (54Mbps) you could get (1) for about 50 quid, (2) for about the same and (3) for about 70 quid. I don't know how much the ADSL wireless routers are, but I reckon you could still do it for around 200 quid.

Please stick to reputable network equipment manufacturers: Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, 3Com, Buffalo, etc. Not Belkin

carl

I've done a bit of pricing up for you on www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk. I've stuck to the same manufacturer throughout as (a) it's easier to set up and (b) D-Link 11Mbps stuff does 22Mbps when it's talking to other D-Link kit.

ADSL router: D-Link DSL-G604T £85.95 (This is 54Mbps but there's no price for the 11Mbps version at the moment -- guess it would be cheaper)
Bridge: D-Link DWL-810+ £52.26
Ethernet PCI card (for the PC): D-Link DFE-528TX £7.21
Hub (for the X-box and PS2): D-Link DES-1005D £16.94
CF card (for the Ipaq): D-Link DCF-660W £41.16
Ethernet cables to suit -- probably 4x1m (PC to router, X-box to hub, PS-2 to hub, hub to bridge).

I reckon that comes to £203.52. Probably cheaper if you get the 11Mbps router.

Nixon

Yes go hard wired if you can, wireless is somewhat poor in comparison! if you need some CAT5 cable nocking up I can get you some sorted if you have length etc otherwise PC World will raid your butt for the pleasure

Dream Weaver

Cheers carl. Any ideas on equipment and cost for a hard wired network?

We are decorating the lounge at the mo, so routing cables up under the stairs is no problem.

carl

Go wireless. Don't **** around with running Cat 5 around the house. You can guarantee you'll end up with the RJ45 sockets in places you don't want them (you might want them there now but what about when the missus decides to move everything round?)
Wireless is just so much more flexible.
OK, it's not as fast as 100Mbps Ethernet, but if you're just sharing an internet connexion then it doesn't matter. For sure, if you want to do DVD streaming across the network then wired would be a better solution...

TCMY95

I have recently wired my entire house with cat5...(helps if your decorating also cos you can sink the wires into the walls..nice and neet). I would maybe have a mix of the 2..As you have mentioned Xbox on there I would presume that you want to stick a wire up its jacksi and if you are doing that then I would also pressume that you will be running something like evo X on it so you will be transfering large amouts of files 2 and fro.( I really wouldn't like to be trasfering 2+ gig about on a regular basis at 11mbs).

There is another option for the wireless which is fairly new..cant remember the exact name something 802 G this runs at 108mb which is a vast improvement on 11..

Hope yoo get it sorted...

Oh and 305meters of cat 5 is around £17 on the roll..double sockets about £10 each you will need a switch and a router though which ever route you take.

TCMY95

Carl

I knwo what you are saying about wireless...it is very convenient..but I only us it for my laptop. Mind you my missis hasn't started moving stuff about yet,,

TCMY95

Oh and dreamweaver if you want to make use of your USB modem and have a old pc knocking about say a p200 then you can download Smoothwall...will turn your old p200 (door stopper) into a router.

carl

Wireless only for me. We have three desktops, two laptops, a PDA and a PS2 in our house, all connected over a 11Mbps (actually 22Mbps) wireless LAN. If it starts getting slow, I'll just upgrade the lot to 54Mbps. As you say, some vendors can now do 108Mbps, which (taking into account the overheads) isn't that dissimilar to 100Mbps Ethernet.

ScoobyDoo555

DW,

I've done the same thing in my place, but am running -

Main PC
XBox
Apple G4
Apple PowerBook (use this for internet whilst the PC's in use)

I've gone for a wired solution. Why? Because it's cheap, faster (IMHO) and we have no intention of moving furniture around etc. I've run CAT5 cable around the lounge behind the Scotia of laminate floor Nice and neat
I've gone wired because I'm also transferring very large audio files around the "network". But also have the option (for the Summer) of streaming media from any computer, into the studio to play through the monitors (BBQs/parties etc) This also applies the other way - any studio work can be streamed to the XBox/PC and through the home cinema setup Handy when I'm doing surround-sound stuff

The Powerbook is in the lounge with the PC & XBox, and the G4's in the studio (just done a small cable run to a different room

I've used an Origo 4-port ADSL router. Got it from Ebuyer for about £40 IIRC. It was plug and play

Very easy - I'm a total networking Numptie, yet I've installed all of this, wired my own CAT5 cables, and have learnt SO much about IP, subnet masks and the other network jargon.

It's great

Hope this helps

Dan

Dream Weaver

Head spinning stuff

I will go wired for now as we are only staying here for a year, so not too arsed about where the wires go

So to summarise, to connect Xbox/PS2 and PC to Broadband (not arsed about Ipaq yet) I need:

1. ADSL modem/router/firewall all-in-one jobbie
2. Shed loads of Cat5
3. Network card for PC

Then it goes:

Phone line --> Router --> PC/Xbox/PS2

That about right?

Dream Weaver

PS is this router any good?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=59013

ScoobyDoo555

Looks pretty good, but it's wireless. From your previous post, you say that you're going for a wired setup......

have a look at this one. EBUYER

Only £35 and does everything you want. I've got one and I can't fault it. But don't take my word for it, read the customer reviews

Hope this helps

Dan


edited to add that your assumption with the connection process is right

Dream Weaver

Dan, certainly looks good from the reviews. Only thing that bothers me is the lack of a firewall, I really wanted to get away from Sygate/Zonealarm and have a firewall in the router.

How have you overcome that?

Also how expandable is it in the future, for when I do go wireless etc?

ScoobyDoo555

It comes with a NAT, so my IT dept said it is firewalled I was under the impression that you don't need to run a 3rd pty firewall with NAT running.

I've also setup the entire system with static IPs so reducing the risk.

regarding expandability, umm, for £35 I haven't really thought about it TBH


Hope this helps

Dan

Dream Weaver

There seems to be a firewall firmware update for it.

So thats the router sorted, what network card do I need?

This one - http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=31095

Thats £45 together, gonna be a cheap setup

Fatman

DW: being behind NAT will certainly help, but IMHO this isn't sufficient. I would (and did when I had broadband) retain a software firewall in addition to the router. It allows you to keep an eye on which applications are trying to connect to the LAN or internet, and to permit/deny those connections.

Dream Weaver

Right, nearly ready to order everything then, tell me if this lots correct - sorry for the questions, i'm a newbie to networking :P

1. Router - Router here

2. Ethernet card for PC - Card here

3. 1 x Patch cable from PC to router.
4. 1 x Patch cable router to PS2
5. 1 x patch cable router to Xbox

The router is upstairs, PS2 and Xbox downstairs, so does that mean I have to run 2 patch cables from the router down to the consoles, or do I run 1 cable, then buy a further mini hub to sit near the consoles?

Thanks to all for your help so far.

ScoobyDoo555

You can buy a hub for downstairs, but personally, I'd run two cables to your consoles.

Bear in mind that the connections for the PS2 and XBox mean that you can use them both at the same time eg, XBox Live and PS2

If you don't want this option, just send one cable down from the router to the the consoles - you'll just have to plug in the respective console when you want to use it

Hope this helps

Dan

Dream Weaver

OK, just ordered the Ebuyer router, network card and 4 lots of 15m Cat5e RJ45 patch cable.

Should arrive end of the week, so expect plenty of "damn it wont work" posts at the weekend

Dream Weaver

Cool, networking kit just arrived after 2 days, well done Ebuyer

Before I start routing cables through floorboards, can anyone confirm that my schema is correct:

gregh

looks ok to me, it's not rocket science!! If you worried, plug 'em all in and check they work before you hide the cables! Worth doing anyhow incase you've got a dud cable.

Dream Weaver

Good thinking Greg, will give it a whirl at the weekend.

Dream Weaver

Aagh, bloody PC's

OK, router is now setup and working, but I have had to connect it to the PC via USB, as it didnt seem to like the new network card I added, and bth the card didnt have a Windows XP driver, so not sure if its suitable.

So I have the router into the phone line, then connected via USB to the PC - any disadvantages to that? Everything seems to work.

ozzy

The network card should have a std chipset (realtek, for example) so you could probably get some drivers off the net.

There's no really big issues having the PC connected via USB. USB has a shorter range than an RJ45 cable, but the bandwidth is enough to cope with broadband.

Stefan

Dream Weaver

Card is a SiS900. Win XP recognises it and installs the drivers, and it is recognised in device manager as well.

But when I try to connect, even to the local IP address where the server config sits it wont do anything. USB all works fine (but is only 10mbps opposed to 100).

May try another PCi slot.

ozzy

OK, so XP sees the hardware OK (well apparently). Have you assigned it an IP address, mask & gateway? Can you ping other IP addresses?

IIRC, USB 2.0 has a theoretical bandwidth of 480Mbps. 1.1 was 12Mbps IIRC. Never actually tested anything to see what the actual bandwidth is.

Stefan