The Great Ancient Battle Between Hubs VS. Routers

[Kinmon]

I'm getting cable modem connection and i'll be sharing it with 4 other housemates. Rogers charges $44.95/month (which comes with one IP, i think) and for additional IP's, it's gonna cost an extra $9.95/month/IP...and that's gonna be around $80/month for cable high speed internet.

So, my questions are:

1) Do i need a Hub, or a router. What's the difference between those two and which one of them are better? Any recommendations for a good one, but at an affordable price?

2) We're students and we can't really afford to pay ~$80/month. I've heard about some fake IP software that can emulate fake ip's within a network. From there, all the computers are hooked up to one server and the server is connected to the cable modem...does that work? How would i do it?


Thanks in advance!

[BipolarBill]

Just get one of these and don't look back:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=353363/blsrt=1/ut=18a04c6a7a7d6b10/

If you already have a hub, get the 4-port one:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=220898/blsrt=1/ut=18a04c6a7a7d6b10/

A hub is just a splitter. A router turns one IP into up to 253 private IPs. You will all be fighting for the DMZ Host position! You'll know what I mean when you get it. ;)

Whatever you do, do not let them give you a USB modem!

[mike_ny1974]

definately buy a router. your router will be a DHCP server, so with 1 IP from rogers, you can split that into 253 hosts.
i use a D-Link model 704. it works well and you can usually get one for under 60 bucks. or try link sys.
good luck.

[Kinmon]

thanks for the help..but you said that a router splits it into 253 private ip's....will they be able to log into the net? Do i have to make a server for that to work?

thanks again

[BipolarBill]

Yes and no. Don't sweat it. We all use them here. ;)

[Kinmon]

forgot one question...what's wrong with a USB cable modem? Slower?

[BipolarBill]

Yes...and it uses way too many CPU cycles. Worst of all, you can't use it with the router because it must be connected to a 24/7 PC host in order to share it. Don't go there.

[Strat]

With a router, you connect it to the cbale modem then share from there. With a hub, you connect to a computer, then connect it to a hub and then the hub connects to all the other computers, yes this means that the compter connected to the cable modem and the hub must be on for all the other computers to have the internet. Uusally ths is not a problem, but your housemates will be pissed if the computer goes down and no-one has the internet.


With a router, you can connect with all PC's at anytime, none are dependant on another being on and working. I think that in your case, the router is probably the best option.

[ArtB]

A router is definately better for sharing a single IP from your provider. There is a big problem with a router though, if you want to use sone of the voice/video messenger services you will have a lot of trouble getting through the NAT firewall in most routers.

MSN Messenger, Intel Video Phone, and others are not NAT friendly. They require uPnP enabled routers. If you want to use these through the internet, you can use a hub and only have one machine hooked up to the internet, use on internet connectivity service for the others. You need 2 NICS in the one connecting to the internet, one in all the others.

There are some inexpensive routers with uPnP enabled. Linksys has one, I think that Siemens also has one.