Network....OF DOOM!

Post by **Joose** » April 18th, 2006, 18:13

Right, little networking question.

the current setup in the house is as follows: router downstairs (by the only phone line in the house), used for wireless connection to laptops. One Big Fucking Wire™ going from the bottom floor, up three flights of stairs, to my computer in my bedroom. All good so far.

There is cock all wirless signal in my room, so the miss's cant use her laptop for teh interwebs up here. I was loath to run *another* Big Fucking Wire™ all the way up the stairs just for the odd times she want to use the laptop up here. However, we do quite often play network games on my computer and her laptop, via a second NIC in my machine and a short crossover cable to her laptop.

Now, the problem is this: is there any way to get the interwebs to jump across the two networks, so she can browse them from her laptop. Preferably a free way of doing this.

Post by **Dog Pants** » April 18th, 2006, 18:19

A bridge should do it, shouldn't it? (Do this in network properties, assuming both machines are on WinXP).

More networky people than me feel free to correct me.

Post by **deject** » April 18th, 2006, 18:37

IMO, a good solution would be to buy say a 4-port switch, two tiny cat-5 cables, and another Wi-Fi access point. Big fuckoff cable goes to the switch, hook your PC to the switch, and also hook up new access point to the switch. This way, only one cable goes upstairs, and you'll have wi-fi upstairs.

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » April 18th, 2006, 20:05

Are you going to the LAN party? If so, I could sort you out with a switch.
They are 24 port 100MB ones, and they are a bit noisy, so it might be worth buying a decent smaller one like mentioned above.

Let me know either way

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » April 18th, 2006, 20:11

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:Are you going to the LAN party? If so, I could sort you out with a switch.
They are 24 port 100MB ones, and they are a bit noisy, so it might be worth buying a decent smaller one like mentioned above.

Let me know either way

if you have more than one, i'll take one

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » April 18th, 2006, 20:32

Someone at work bought a couple of pocket gigabit switches, 4 ports and about the size of large matchboxes. They could even be powered off USB if needed or a regular power supply. Unfortunately I couldn't tell you what they are called, where to get them or how much.

Post by **Joose** » April 19th, 2006, 13:55

I cant believe I didnt think of that myself. I feel like a bit of a pillock now.

Thanks anyway

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » April 28th, 2006, 11:46

I'm moving house in a month or so, and will be getting a new internet connection which needs to be shared between 2 computers, my PC and the missus' old iMac. Whats the cheapest and easiest way of doing this? How do these gigawotsit switches work, and are they expensive?

Emphasis on 'cheapest' too. If its going to be too much of a pain, then I'll 'accidentally' pour a cup of tea into the mac or something to break it so I get the line all to myself

Post by **Joose** » April 28th, 2006, 11:57

Simplest answer: get an ADSL router.

You plug phone line into router, all the computers into router, do some dead simple setting up (usually via some web-paged based interface dealy) and joy happens.

You could, I suppose, save a few pennies by just networking the computers and using some kind of internet sharing, but I suspect this may cause more complications than its worth, not save you a whole lot of money, and would mean that the computer that is actually connected to the internet has to stay on for the others to use teh interwebs.

so yeah, get a router.

Post by **ProfHawking** » April 28th, 2006, 12:37

Joose wrote:Simplest answer: get an ADSL router.

You plug phone line into router, all the computers into router, do some dead simple setting up (usually via some web-paged based interface dealy) and joy happens.

You could, I suppose, save a few pennies by just networking the computers and using some kind of internet sharing, but I suspect this may cause more complications than its worth, not save you a whole lot of money, and would mean that the computer that is actually connected to the internet has to stay on for the others to use teh interwebs.

so yeah, get a router.

THIS! you may be a penny pinching pikey but a router is worth flashing the cash for. Will save hassle, and lets you all use the internet independantly of which computer is turned on etc, sorts out IP addresses, and other useful things. Cheapos can be had for £30 or less i think, but i'd pay about £50 for a good one or £60 for a wifi one