Broadband and the house hare

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I've just moved into a new houseshare, and I'm sans internet. Now, I want to get broadband in, and share it withe the rest of the house. I'll be using it most of the time, but that way, four people chip in with the cost!

The connection has to go to four different rooms, and everybody might be using the net at the same time.

Is this possible? Do I use a router? What IS a router? DO I need another machine to act like a little server? How do these things work?

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Does your hare know how to configure a router?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 10:59 (twenty-two years ago)

There are plenty of 4 port ADSL modem/routers on the market. Plusnet and bulldog have the best deals at the moment.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

just get wireless!

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

wireless is expensive and slow sompared to wires

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Slow? Surely the bottleneck is with current ADSL bandwidth, not the wireless protocol? For file transfers, I guess.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Well yes, you are quite correct. However you can get wireless to be the bottleneck depending on what the walls in your house are made out of and how many there are between transmitter and reciever.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

It's lazy not to lay bproper ethernet anyway.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

If there are four of you, a router will cost you about 20 quid each. I bought a wireless network card recently too; I think it was about 20 quid.

To answer your question, a router is a device that connects to the internet, the broadband connection in your case and then routes the traffic to and from the machines in your house. The alternative is to plug the internet into a single computer and connect all your other machines by proxy to the internet through that machine. One downside of this is that you'll need this machine on all the time that the others need to connect. So the router acts in place of another server.

802.11g wireless, 55Mbps in theory, ought not to in practice reduce to less than the 0.5 Mbps of the majority of broadband connections; unless your walls are made of lead. If they are, are you hiding kryptonite from Superman?

― Keith Watson (kmw), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

802.11g wireless, 55Mbps in theory, ought not to in practice reduce to less than the 0.5 Mbps of the majority of broadband connections; unless your walls are made of lead.

Thick old plaster walls seem to have a negative effect on signal strength as well.

The result of walls or other interference is not really decreased speed... it's just a shitty connection that sometimes drops the wireless connection altogether.

However, Keith is otm about wireless speed... Provided nothing like a wall is messing with the connection, it's gonna be plenty fast to keep up with the choked off speeds coming out of cable modems and dsl routers.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Right, so I (or my hare, depending on the lettuce situation) can get a router, plug the broadband into it, and then run off four leads to the four different computers? And that's it?

I guess we all need some kinda card in our computer (3 pcs and an iBook) to plug these leads into - what kinda cards? And what kinda leads, come to that?

(I do apologise for my igorance on this matter - answering dumb questions is kinda what ILE is for, after all)

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 17 June 2004 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Most modern PCs have network cards built in, they are usually integrated onto the motherboard.

However if you have a crappy Packard Bell from 4 years ago or something then it might not. The iBook will have one built in.

For the PCs you can buy and fit PCI network cards if they don't have them or onboard ones.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=566885551&action=c2hvd3N1YmNhdGVnb3J5X3BhZ2U=&subcat_uid=5

The Netgear one will do fine.

Guide to fitting PCI card:

http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-pci-card.htm

You could also get USB one they are easier to fit but are more expensive and not quite as solid as PCI cards, they also use slightly more resources.

You need CAT5/5e patch leads to connect them to the switch/router

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/kl.asp?bn=10188

Get the lengths you need, remembering you want a bit of slack and you may have to run around walls etc.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 17 June 2004 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Nice one people. Just one more thing . . . < / columbo>

If I do this thing wirless-ly, then I don't need any leads all over the shop, but what do I need to put in the PC? Is it just like a wireless network card, or what? And what weould my iBook'd friend need to get onto the connection?

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 18 June 2004 06:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes just get PCI wireless cards for the PCs.

And for the Mac an Airport Card if it doesnt have wireless built in (depends on the model of iBook you have)

Make sure you get equipment that runs the same standard.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 18 June 2004 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Quality, nice one. Cheers mate. I'll keep you updated with the progress or otherwise!

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 18 June 2004 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

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Broadband and the house hare - advice please