The house:
- ADSL connection, supposedly 1Mb off-peak and 512kb during office hours, but is at 2.2Mb 24/7 for the moment for some reason...shhhh ;)
- 4 users, at least 1 heavy downloader/gamer, possibly 2, and 2 probably light users.
Currently available equipment:
- Modem: basic single-user-type USB modem
- My PC: athlon xp2400, 512 pc2700, 100Mb ethernet onboard
- Spare PC1: 1GHz Athlon, 256Mb pc2100, 40Gb hdd, 100Mb ethernet onboard
- Spare PC2: 333MHz Celeron, 192Mb pc100, 4Gb&3Gb hdds, 10Mb or 100Mb NIC
- NIC: At least 1 spare, either 100 or 10 Mb card, can't remember atm.
- Hub: old basic 8-port (plus upstream, serial, and bnc connections) 10baseT hub
There are a few possibilities I can think of...
1) The simplest is to buy a nice modem/router/switch/firewall like the netgear DG834 and plug everyone into that.
2) Alternatively I could put linux onto one of the spare pcs and use that with my old hub. instead (cheaper, but noisier, messier, and takes up more space, plus I'd have a stupid hub instead of a controllable switch) Smoothwall is good I hear :) (http://www.smoothwall.org)
3) finally I could set up my own pc as the server/firewall/router to minimise pings for gaming, as I used to notice about 20-30ms extra on my pings when the 333mhz pc was my server, though it was running XP at the time to do it![/list]What should I do. hmmm...
p.s. I'm also quite keen to sell the spare pc's to reclaim some space, so the single-piece-of-electronics solution is the most appealing atm apart from the £60+ price tag :dummy:
I would go with 1). I have our network set up like that and it is easily managed. 2 PC and 2 Mac.
Installed a DG834 a few weeks back and they are so sweet to set up and it runs really well monkey.Built in firewall is very good,full stealth reported by grc.com.I use netgears WGT624 which uses same firewall and me and daughter can both play cs at the same time with pings of 20-30 on dMw cz server. :)
NB NTL 600K broadband
I have an Origo 4 port router/modem in the lounge. Girlfriends PC connects directly into the switch, my PC is linked via a wireless NIC and wireless access point plugged into the switch down stairs.
Works perfectly at the moment, also means I can wander round using my laptop too :)
#1 also.
Netgear FSV318 upstairs behind the dsl modem, Netgear WAP attached to that. Dell 24Port switch downstairs w/the linux server and work bench.
I need pc's to fill the ports :lol:
I'm running a netgear RP614 (http://www.netgear.co.uk/html/prod_routers_bband.htm#rp614) It has two pcs connected upstairs and one downstairs and handles the traffic admirably. I have a 1.75mb connection and my house mate is a heavy downloader.
QuoteOriginally posted by Gh0st Face Killah@Jul 29 2004, 07:07 AM
I'm running a netgear RP614 (http://www.netgear.co.uk/html/prod_routers_bband.htm#rp614) It has two pcs connected upstairs and one downstairs and handles the traffic admirably. I have a 1.75mb connection and my house mate is a heavy downloader.
the RP614 doesn't include an ADSL modem though right?
At the moment I am looking at two modem/router/switch products...
the first is a £35 ebuyer special (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1232085472&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=48449) which seems to have gotten pretty decent reviews. Or is this also modem-less. These damn things have confusing nomenclature <_<
The swanky netgear option (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1232114913&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=52754) costs £25 more at £60 but does sound like the easier option. Wonder if I can talk my housemates into footing part of the bill for it...
I don't suppose anyone here has used the ebuyer one, but as it's 40% or so cheaper I am very very tempted! Now tell me why I am right to think about the cheapo one or why I would be a fool :rolleyes: