paul w

I have just been surfing and found some answers but still need to know a bit more.

Need to get 2 computers on my adsl modem, for a fiver i can put a card in 2nd pc get a crossover cable,connect the 2 together and away i go,will it slow down the download speed if both are online at same time??

or

Get a router,is a modem router a modem as well,i cant seem to find just a adsl router on its own whereas you can get a dsl router on its own,will a dsl router work with adsl as they are a lot cheaper and the 2nd pc will only be sharing once a week.

Any input appreciated as its all new to me.

Cheers

AndyMoody

iTrader: (2)

I used to use a crossover cable which didn't seem to affect the speed but it was a pain to set up. Might just of been my system? The biggest pain was that the main PC has to be switched on and connected to the internet before the second one can connect and surf. If the kids came in and wanted to surf on the second PC and I was still at work or something they had to wait as I wasn't prepared to leave it constantly on.

I bought a Netgear DG834G and have never looked back, only regret was not doing it sooner. Now the router/modem is left permanantly switched on and any PC can be switched on and surf independantly of what the others are doing. I've now got 3 PC's running plus a PS2 occasionally in the kids rooms. You'll still need the network cards in each PC whichever way you go. If you go router/modem way then you'll need straight cable and not crossover ones.

Andy.

Lord Bass

Depends what you are doing on both machines as to if it will effect the speed. If its just general surfing it should'nt be noticable depending on you broadband speed, but if you are downloading the bandwidth will be effected between the two. If you don't mine leaving the computer on that has the modem connected to use the internet on the shared machine u don't need a router. Otherwise you will need an ADSL router with built in modem.

paul w

Thanks for replies

Seen on another thread someone mention 2 cards in each computer when using crossover cable,is this correct and also do you know if the router option gives full bandwith downloads on each computer.

Cheers

mike1210

you can get full bandwidth on all computers connected to the router, only one network card per computer is needed when using crossover....... well unless the net connection is via ethernet

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Crossover cables are for one purpose only: to connect two computer directly to each other (i.e. no router/switch/hub). If you have that set up, then you would need a second network card in one machine ONLY if you planned to connect that machine to another computer without using a router/switch/hub, or else you DID want to use a router, but only connect to one machine - which is a silly way of doing things.

If you use a modem/router then all machines need one network card each, plus a normal network cable (Cat5E or Cat6) to connect that machine to the router. Unless you go wireless, in which case it's one wireless network card per computer and no wires - although I'd advise direct wiring for one machine for at least long enough to set up the router.

Best way to connect up by far is the ADSL router/modem option.

Your ADSL link has a set bandwidth (1MB or whatever), which is shared between machines. If only one person is surfing then they get 1MB. If two are then that 1mB is shared. If all they are going is surfing, most of the time the link is doing nothin and so it might look like just alittle slowdown. But if both are downloading 250MB of pr0n then each will get half the bandwidth: 512KB. If you had four machines all downloading goatpr0n then it's 256KB each, etc.