Network Trouble

CartmanTwoBe

<div class="IPBDescription">For a network newbie :(</div> Hey Guys.

I'm in a spot of bother right now. I'm having a new computer here in the next week or two and i want it to be in this room along with my old one, but i want my old PC in the room too for file storage and stuff.

So what should i do if i swap my old PC with my new PC, and have both of these PCs still hooked up to the net.

It may seem confusing, but <a href='http://www.blackmage.org/fft/Members/cartman2b/lolnetwork.JPG' target='_blank'>heres</a> a picture of the setup i'd like. I don't want the old PC hooked to the hub, but rather have the new PC act "like" a hub in the way that it can still have internet access and transfer data.

Thanks for your help.. if you need any more information that you need, please reply.

Carty.

NEO_Phyte

its possible, but just having it in the hub would be easier.

if you insist on not having the old one in the hub, you will need a crossover cable for a straight connection between the computers, and you will need to play with internet connection sharing on one its connected to.

im sure someone else can go into further detail

Sandstorm

I suggest you purchase a Hub for your room, for around $30 or $40 USD. There's one port on the Hub that can function in both a normal mode and a TX mode. Activate the TX mode, usually through a switch on the back of the Hub, then plug in the Ethernet cable from your brother's room to the TX port on your Hub. If your Hub is on, in TX mode, and properly connected, the port should light up, signaling that your Hub will forward any traffic it gets to your brother's room. Now, plug in any computers in your room to your Hub, and they'll all have access to the Internet.

Narfwak

If you have an extra NIC in the new 'puter, you could use a crossover cable and Internet Connection Sharing to link the other computer to the network. That's really, really ghetto, though. I think you should just get a hub or switch for your room to hook into the main hub.

CartmanTwoBe

So you suggest having a 2nd hub in my room.. does that require any special configuration or will it just hook onto the configuration of the one in my brothers room?

Cold_NiTe

Would a router be pretty efficient though? Or do you not want your second computer showing up on the network somehow.

You <i>could</i> get a two-way CAT5 cable, and plug your 1st and 2nd computers directly into each other. Then it should have internet, and you don't have to buy another hub.

CartmanTwoBe

I'd like it on the network, but i'd rather not have another network wire rolling out my room into the hub. There already is a long, blue on right now and well.. i'm hoping the way of adding another network card into my new PC should make it more efficient.

Cold_NiTe

See but if you just bought a nice $10 - $20 router, you could plug all 4 in and it would be fine. You don't have to get those crazy expensive ones.

Talesin

Just get a cheap hub and plug the cable from your brother's room into it, then two more cables, each into your computers. It's about $20.

And I was trying for the longest time to figure out what the holy hell Sandstorm was talking about... he means an uplink or crossover port. SOME hubs have a switchable port, where a button puts it into crossover mode (allowing you to hook it to another hub/switch/device which is expecting an end-point device on the other side of the cable) or standard mode (if you just have a lot of machines, and don't need to daisy-chain hubs).

Adding a second NIC will not help your new machine run more efficiently. In fact, it will just generate a large pain in the posterior most of the time; the providing machine will have to be on at all times that the client machine wants to access the outside world, and the connection forwarding will be a minor, yet still present drain on system resources. ICS outright sucks, honestly. And from what I'm seeing, you'll be going through TWO layers of it, unless you manage to set up bridging mode, which I'm not sure a stock Windows box can use.


Short version. Spend $20 on a cheapass hub and a couple of short cables. It'll be a LOT less headache in the long run.

CartmanTwoBe

Sounds like the best option..

Thanks guys :>

Spacer

Why would you want your modem to connect to your dad's computer first? Then you'd have to have your dad's computer on whenever you wanted the internet...

CartmanTwoBe

His PC is turned on 24/7 anyway, and the only phone socket is next to that desk.