spec me a home network

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Soldato
Joined
21 Nov 2004
Posts
13,557
Location
Wishaw
Well decided that the idea of networking most of the things in the house would be a good idea and quite handy heres what I have

Study where the Cable modem is situated (point of origin for interweb connection)

one old compaq lappy running linux used only for surfing the web whilst gaming
Main rig( modern c2d setup)


Living room(within wifi range of the study)

Media pc (old p4 system(used for watching films dvds etc
Lappy (modern dual core) with built in wifi



Bedroom

Media PC old p4 used as above for watching dvds/films etc

occasional laptop use(yes i want to surf ocuk in bed :) (expect a load of spec me some love moves type threads lol



what i want is to be able to connect all these systems together and do some form of centralised storage for video files mp3's etc etc

I dont mind running cable round the house(redecorating next year) and i guess i'm just looking for advice on what would be the best hardware to get.

cheers guys :)
 
aah usual me not making things clear :)

wifeless would only be the lappy in the bedroom and the living room
signal from a wifi connection wont go from one to the other so cant have a wifi doodah in one to cover both

can i throw a 8 port dsl router box thing somehwere then connect a wifi box off it or does wifi have to come off of the first router connected to the modem(and can i have more than one :)
 
If the router is not a wireless one then what you need is called a wireless access point. It'd probably be cheaper to get a separate DSL modem and a good wireless router like the Linksys WRT54GL.

Interwebs -> DSL Modem -> Wireless router -> Wired and wireless clients

If you need more Ethernet ports in a particular area you can get a cheapo 4 or 8 port hub. The router will take care of assigning IP addresses so the hub will merely facilitate connecting more devices to the network.
 
so i guess i can do this :)

DSL Modem> 8 port hub > wireless access point x2 in the 2 rooms i need :)
 
You need a router in there somewhere. the router takes care of passing traffic between the local network and the wide area network (the Internet). It'll also run DHCP to assign IP addresses to the various clients. Stand alone wireless access points are typically aimed at businesses and schools so they tend to be expensive.

This would be better IMO
DSL Modem -> Wireless Router -> 8 port hub
 
Hmm almost seems a bit excessive having 1 wifi ap per laptop. If you are already running ethernet cable around would a switch in the bedroom (or lounge) not be a better idea so you can just wire in the laptop when you want to use it?
Alternatively maybe a pre N type ap or router, the range on the ones I have used is absolutely staggering :)
 
BillytheImpaler said:
What was the best one in your experience? The older WRT54GSes with 32 MiB RAM running DD-WRT took the cake for me in the 802.11G range. What's the best in pre-N?
Click to expand...

Well I only ever briefly test one, it was a good few years back & was a belkin model.
With the existing g ap I could get to the front door of our office. With this belkin I could get out the door & halfway between our 2 building, a distance of over 200 metres, impressed the hell out of me at the time.
 
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