Broadband Modems

[jomotheman]

I ahve 4 machines in my house 1 downstairs 3 upstairs (Teenage Children) my machine has a broadband modem for my internet use, but the machines upstairs don't

If I buy an extra 3 broadband modems will they work all together? also can I just use just one internet account?

I don't want to go to cableing if it's possible, or is there an alternative, all I want to do is have the other machines connected to the internet at broadband speed.

Any help or suggestions, or if anyone has tried this would be glad of your advice.

Thanks in anticipation

 

[flyby2001]

just network em

i'm not really that clued up on adsl and how it works (althought i too have it installed)but your simplest way of sharing the adsl line is to network your pcs together....all you need is a network hub (4 port min) and mybe an old p1 133 as a server or though i'm sure there are many ways of doing this and hopefully the brains in the fourm can help you..if you search on my user name flyby2001 i have already posted a simular question and there are many replys so please use the search button and ....


good luck


flyby2001.......out

 

[VIPER_1069]

im networked 2 puters and broadband adsl ! sharing 1 connection !

you can network you can buy networking kits for as many systems as you need !!!

you need 1 network interface card per computer and a networking HUB to connect them all together ! you should be able to get away with just one machine acting as server to all the other machines 1 just the 1 broadband connection with the speed shared ! 512k download is the usual sort of speed for adsl broadband which should if used for fairly moderate internet usage be ample for 4 or more machines!

setting it up is a fair task tho in itself depending on a) your personal knowledge of puters an how to install cards and software
and b) the operating system you have on each !

its far easier to install networking on machines with WIN ME or later such as XP as there more set out for networkign capabilitys and have an easy setup wizard !!

i have win 98 se and that took me ages to figure out !!

so i bought a book on it there are a fair few good books out there that will teach you how to do this !

a suggestion here is that if you have a friendly puter store someone there may be able to advice you more than myself on setup etc and they also may stock complete kits for more than 2 puters a lot do nowadays as its more often that people have 1 or more machines wishing to share 1 connection to the internet ! and these packages often have simple setup software that does all the hard work for you!! all you have to do is fit the cards and cables !!!

you may wish to use the fastest machine with the most ram to be the server as the faster machine is able to feed the data to the others more smoothly and cope with dishing out the data flow to all the machines a slow server may cause probs and crash under the strain! people may say otherwise here but i got this advice from my dealer who i get ll my advice from ! and he aint been wrong so far lol

perhaps more people here can add more to this post !!!

 

[stevarzo]

I don't think you can use multiple modems. As I read your post you want to avoid running cables. So the best solution would seem to be a wireless system: an 802.11b wireless router/switch with receivers at each kid's computer. You plug the router into the modem and a ethernet cable from the router to your computer. Then you use wireless receiving points for each of your kids.

You could also use a phoneline network if there are phone jacks in each room but it probably won't save you money. There are also powerline networks but I do not know how well they work.

You might check out practicallynetworked.com.

Best,

 

[Shadey]

just a couple of notes

1. linking up four computers with a wireless lan is expensive. if u got the money to spend go for it.

2. besides a wireless lan can be slower than a cabled lan (wireless lan speeds max at 20-30mbps *i think*, cabled lan depends on network card go upto 100mbps), and less secure.

3. u only need 1 modem and 1 internet connection once you have a network setup.

4. you will not get the same broadband speed across all four computers the bandwidth will be divided between each computer.

5. you should use a switch instead of a hub - they are roughly the same price - and a switch is better

6. if u have a usb modem - well u need ICS - so one comp has to be on for other comps to use internet. better if u have a ethernet modem.

 

[VIPER_1069]

one thing noted shadey i hear with radio wave lans that if your dearly beloved uses a hair drier in the company of yer networking then it fritzes the signal because of the crap that is given off by the unscreened spurious emissions of static by the hair drier lol doh ! so i agree with yer the expense for firewire /radio wave lan is over the odds and isnt reliable anyhow too many probabilitys that aint worth the loss of data in radio waves ! as they are easily absorbed by metal radiators and messed with with mobile fone signals and other airborn traffic


note i also mentioned the shared network speed of dsl (had shared on dialup 56k and that kills the speed bad enough lol but adsl there is plenty to mess with !!!

so 2 of us cannot be wrong as far as shared speed goes lol

 

[Shadey]

viper - erh sorry for jumping on ya wagon so to speak - i only scan read your post sorry for double mentiong your discussion points.

 

[stevarzo]

I agree with Shadey that wireless is more expensive than a cabled system but jomotheman said he wanted to avoid cabling. As to bandwidth splitting, I have a telephone line network (intel) and I cannot observe any degradation in speed, even with my teenage son downloading music.

If you are willing (and able) to run Cat 5 cable, a router/switch with cat 5 cable and nics (if they're not built in) is definitely the way to go.

 

[woody]

I agree with the above post.That is the system I am using.The wiring can be a bit of a prob...but I just run under floors(where possible).I also staple the wiring along baseboards,so it can be removed.

 

[VIPER_1069]

wasent a ear bashing there shadey lol its fine that ya came to the same conclusion as me

@stevarzo no matter what you run modem 56k or adsl 512k or T1 T2 T3 or other bandwith is shared between systems you will notice it more when there are bigger files being thrown around it slows the other machine down the speed is always split down the middle if you have 6k a second on yer own machine then 2 linked will be split to 3k or less depending on the work load of both machines! you notice it more if one is being used for online gaming where ping rate or fast connection to a server is needed for vital kill time otherwise ya get yer head shot off in a game of quake/unreal (insert fav game name here lol) normal surfing shud be fine for 2 machines on modem i had it like that for long enuff but any more its gunna show bigstyle adsl sorts this out and you hardly notice !