On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 11:23:11AM -0400, Rush wrote:
>
> I need to connect computers in two different rooms to the cable modem
> and I have lots of questions. I already have an ethernet in each room
> connecting all the computers in it. I figure I can use wireless,
> powerline or wired ethernet to link them up.
Assuming you have two networks, one in each room, and a hub
for each network-
String an ethernet cable between the rooms, and plug one hub
into the bridge port on the other hub.
This is by far your cheapest and fastest solution.
> 1. I can't find a simple wireless link. I just want a wireless link
> between the two nets. Everything I've found is designed so that each
> computer in the other room needs to have it's own wireless card. That's
No, you need a transmitter and a receiver. You can have a receiver
act as a router between the wired and wireless networks.
I'd only bother with wireless if you really need wireless, like
you want to be able to take a laptop out on the porch or something
similar. If you have your computers already wired together, just use that.
> expensive and unnecessary in my setup. Does anyone make a simple,
> inexpensive wireless link that will connect two ethernets a short
> distance apart? It would be even better if one end was a router to
> distribute the cable modem signal since I also need to buy a router.
Get a Linksys WRT54G (or one of that ilk)
for the router. It's simple, secure, and works.
And it's modifiable!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G
> 2. Powerline. Both rooms share a common wiring, so I'm looking at a the
> powerline ethernet option. Anyone want to share their findings on using
> the powerlines as ethernet? There isn't a whole lot of practical advice
> on the net that I can find.
>
> 3. Phone. Both rooms are also wired for phone with 6-pair wiring. How do
> I tell if it is the right kind of phone wire to support ethernet?
6-pair is unlikely to be Cat-5 cable. If the cable isn't twisted
pair it won't work.
My setup:
WRT54G is the router between the radio and my internal network.
On the other side of the WRT54G there's three 10/100 hubs. Two
are in my wife's office, a corner of which is the "machine room"
containing what was our mail and web server until we recently decided to
have that stuff hosted.
There's a cable between that and my office, which has another hub
that my computers plug into.
There's an apple 802.11g wireless hub on the network, it is
the wireless server for the laptops.
All the wires are Cat V cable.
Eric
|