Hi all,
I've decided I want to set a home network. I've searched around and found many different ways.
All I want is straight info on how to do it... and I know this is the place to get it.

I have three boxes to use.

p-4 2.6 with xp home
laptop 2.4 with xp home
p-III 900 with xp pro
All are 100% up to date with software s/p2 etc.
All have ethernet cards
I'm stuck with dial-up and want to be able to have all three on line if needed.
I want to be able to communicate between all three boxes.
The kids want to be able to play games against each other on the network
I want to use a wired set-up not wireless


I just need to know what hardware I need to accomplish this. Everything I read gives 5 different possibilities with many hardware configurations. I ask at local pc stores and it sounds they read the same info.


There has to be a simple enough generic straight forward way to do this.

If there is not I can take it ..

Thanks,
Bob

If you are state side (US) run down to Walmart and pickup a Linksys NR041-WM router. It running about $40 without tax. You will need a NIC adapter for each computer. I recommend going to ebay and doing a search for the 3Com 3C905b-tx NIC. They go for $5 to $10 used, bullet proof, and have been around forever. One Cat5 patch cable, not a crossover cable, for each computer. If you want to network your printer you will need a print server. Used they go for $20 to $50. I prefer and use the HP EX Plus3. It will handle three parrel printers and is well supported. HP make asingle port verison also. When looking make sure it is DHCP compatible and not Token Ring.
Turn everything off and plug it together. Turn the router on first and then each computer on about 1 minute apart. The router by default will be set to DHCP, which will automaticly assign a LAN IP address to each computer as it appears on the LAN. You will have to turn on sharing for the printers and the folders you wish to share. The easiest way to set the folder is to go to my computer, right click on the folder select shaing and set premission.
You can get a router that allows you to share a dialup but I find them exbleepive and hard to setup. Maybe someone on the forum could speak to that. Just keep your modems set like they are.
Make sure each computer has a unqine name, and a common (same) workgroup. If one is a work computer I would use the work, workgroup name so you don't have to change back and forth.
If you go HSI DSL/cable all you have to do is plug in the modem to the router and run the Network Wizard on each computer and you are online.

Thanks acklan for the straight forword info ... very much appreciated

Bob

Glad to help. Did it work for you or have you had a chance to install?

No not yet.. but when I do I'll post back.

Bob

If you don't have to hide wire or make long stretches it should that less than an hour to assemble. More like 30 mins.

Acklan's setup is perfect for DSL/Cable connected LANs but with dial-up I'm not sure. Unless you have multiple accounts with an ISP you can only have one computer dialed up at a time, therefore you need to share that dial-up connection using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) which is included in Windows XP. However the way that works it wants to take over the DHCP function - so you need to turn that off in the router. In fact the router will just be working as a hub/switch in this case.
Choose the PC which is going to do the dial-up and use the network wizard and it will set it all up for you - select the 'share this connection with other computers' option that will appear. Then you run the wizard on all the other PC's but select the 'connect to the internet through another computer' option (sorry if the names are not accurate, working from memory here ).
Make sure you have a firewall active on the dial-up PC - you may have to tweak it a bit to get the network running properly.

Regarding the gaming across the LAN if you add/enable the IPX protocol you should find the games all communicate without any other changes needed. But then it has been some time since I did this.....

hth

Since Rimmer was pondering the question I thought I would provide links. I don't see where it is very benefical because of the 56kbs (or much less) bandwigth issue. But here it is...


http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_techspe...asterid=1739273
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod...em+router/skd=1
http://www.bytewizecomputers.com/products/7/2/53/2890
http://search.ebay.com/NetGear-RM356-56K-R...PageNameZRC0021

Be careful if you decide to purchase one of these types of routers. Some that you will look at will be ISDN routers. The will list support for 56k or 64k. These will not work with POTS.

Rimmer I have a question for you. In the Network Connection Wizard when it asks if you connect through another computer, is that dsl\cable only or will it work with dialup? If it will works with dialup could you put a cheap computer to act as a router or gateway?

Just one more possibility.

It works with dial up provided you have ICS running on the PC which is internet connected. Yes I've read about people running Linux on an old PC and installing various modules to turn it into a router/proxy-server/email-server but that's beyond me. I believe that's basically what ICS does - installs a routing/gateway function in Windows.

I was just pointing out the dial-up constraint added a few complications.

IMHO. I would go with a DSL/Cable type router. My favorite is the Linksys NR041. Just hookup all the computers, like i'm sure they are now, to the POTS, and take turns. When you do get DSL or Cable you just plug in your WAN and you are complete.

I always do. =)

Cool....

Just so you did not think I forgot .. I gave up on the dial up deal and went cable ... now I have a little problem with that set-up but .... that's another posting[i][u].

Thanks for the advice
Bob[color=#3333FF]

Having cable puts you in the mood to put up with alot of problems, no? What speed did you get? I have Cox HSI cable 4mb\768kb.