Uni house - Network and ISP Suggestions please!

Andelusion

Andelusion

Andelusion

Soldato
Joined
1 Oct 2003
Posts
14,341
Location
Huddersfield
Hey guys, i'm moving in with a couple of my friends into a 7 bedroom house (In Leeds) in July/August, we all want the internet and are just planning how we're going to be able to connect everything up.

At the moment there's only 3 of us who've signed the contract (house), and we all definately want internet. Whether the other 4 people who the landlady is yet to find want the internet or not, we do not know.

There's 1 groundfloor bedroom, 3 on the first floor and 4 on the top. I'm not sure where the connection point is, although I think it's on the ground floor.

The house has cable and we're probably going to go with NTL, unless anyone has any other ideas for good packages? We want as fast a speed as possible with as little download caps (if this is even possible? :()

We'd like wired, not wireless please :)

2 of us will want 2 connections minimum (myself and one of my chums will want to connect a PC and Xbox/Wii probably).

I currently have 1 router (Netgear DG834).

We basically want a solution that will work for the time being on the offchance when we move in there's still only 3 of us, so when others arrive we won't have to buy anything else.

So is there a relatively cheap way to get us all connected up? lol Bit of a long post, hope someone can help! Thanks.
 
Unless there's some LLUer arround, and you're on top of the exchange, NTL's probably as fast as you'll get.
 
What you'll probably want to do if you want that many connections is plug your ntl provided modem straight into an auto-sensing switch, perhaps a 16 port one and then plug all your network cables into there. Someone might have to clarify this but I think it should work.

Then you will have:

ntl wire -> modem -> switch -> everyone's PC's etc

A few pieces of advice, I'm not sure on the details of your house but in my student house we just have 3 x 30m (Cat 5e) cables running upstairs as they can be had from the right place for under 7 quid which is pretty good value and should give you quite a lot of slack if you need it.

Also, put your order in to order ntl early, in student areas the sheer number of ntl installations can result in two week plus waiting times near the start of term.

Hope that helps you out.

aaazza
 
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That wont work, ntl will only give you 1 IP, you will need a NAT router before pushing it into a switch. Fwiw, it would be much easier to just use wireless, I don't see why you wouldn't want to?
 
Wireless would be easier but is far too slow, unless all the people using it are just browsing the web.

As above stated, you need to plug the ntl modem into a router first, then into a switch. It might be worth having a switch (e.g. 5 port) on each floor, as you'll only need to run one cat5e then. See if you can run external cat5e down the side of the house, as that could make things a lot easier too.
 
You'll want some sort of cable router and 1 or 2 switches depending how many ports you're going to need.

The NTL Modem will connect to the cable router.
Then run a network cable from the ethernet ports on the cable router to each of the switches.
Run network cables from the switches to all of the pc's / xbox's you're wanting to connect up.

Jim :)
 
( disclaimer - i know nothing about networking, just asking if it will work or not )

hello, i have a cheap linksys router Same as this one it says you can daisy chain them to get more ports.... so if you got two would this work for upto 8 pc's i assume it would, these are less than £23 each so this would seem like a nice cheap solution ?
 
Yes you can daisy chain them (you would just leave the WAN port on the 2nd router unused). You would have 6 usable ports if you did it this way. As you'd need a cable to join the 2 routers together (thus taking up a port for each).

Jim
 
stigggeh said:
( disclaimer - i know nothing about networking, just asking if it will work or not )

hello, i have a cheap linksys router Same as this one it says you can daisy chain them to get more ports.... so if you got two would this work for upto 8 pc's i assume it would, these are less than £23 each so this would seem like a nice cheap solution ?
Click to expand...

As has already been said, yes, you can daisy chain them but make sure that only one device on the network is running DHCP or you'll have all sorts of fun.
 
stigggeh said:
( disclaimer - i know nothing about networking, just asking if it will work or not )

hello, i have a cheap linksys router Same as this one it says you can daisy chain them to get more ports.... so if you got two would this work for upto 8 pc's i assume it would, these are less than £23 each so this would seem like a nice cheap solution ?
Click to expand...

As already mentioned, yes you can do that but why bother - it's far easier, more logical and cheaper to just buy a switch. You can get a 5 port switch for around a tenner if you look in the right places which would not only be cheaper, but would also give you one more usable port.
 
Not so much a bad idea - after all, you may need two routers in the future :) It's just that a switch is more suited for that job.
 
JonRohan said:
You living in headingley?
Click to expand...

Yeah right next to the stadium :)

Thanks for the tips guys, I think the cable router and a switch on each floor would be great.

Can anyone recommend a good cable router and switch? I have no idea what to look for really. I think if we had a switch on the first floor (3 rooms, 5 ports needed minimum) and another on the 2nd floor (4 rooms, although have no idea if each person will want more than one port each) that'd be alright for everyone.
 
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Go for modem

-> ADSL Router ->

1GBit Switch (8port+)->

Computers

The router, aslong as it's a good one, mb a Cisco or so, will sort the switch for you. Make sure the switch has a good backbone.
 
Well if your certain your going down the cable route then I would suggest getting the Linksys WRT54GS (recently purchased this and fantastic router. Can be had for as little as £40) then go with any bog standard switch with 8 ports that should give you plenty of connectivity.
 
ErNciLator said:
Go for modem

-> ADSL Router ->

1GBit Switch (8port+)->

Computers

The router, aslong as it's a good one, mb a Cisco or so, will sort the switch for you. Make sure the switch has a good backbone.
Click to expand...

ADSL router with an ntl cable modem? I don't think so.
 
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