Cable sharing

[Sweeper]

I am new to Networking, so here it goes.
I had Road Runner installed about 3 weeks ago. Right now I have a US Robotics External Modem (the cable company provided) that is hooked up to my Realteck 10/100 NIC. The modem has both a connection for an NIC and a USB. Right now the USB isn't being used. I have another computer I would like to have hooked up to the internet as well. How do I do it? Simple instructions would REALLY be helpfull. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif I am a NEWBIE to networking.

Thanks,
Sweeper

[GroundZero3]

Don't use usb. its slow. The best thing to get is like a linksys cable router and you will need cat 5 network cables. this way with the router you will not need to buy an extra ip address. Its easy to set up

Jason

[Tekkitan]

GroundZero is right, but I just got the SMC 4 port broadband router and I think it works perfectly. Even has an intergrated firewall, NAT, and print server. SMC Barricade 4-port 10/100Mbps Broadband Router

[Sweeper]

So, how much am I looking at "pricewise"?????
Since there will only be 2 PC's I want to keep this as cheap as possible.....

Thanks,
Sweeper

[LordLocksley]

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=20&grid=5
http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&QUERY=BEFSR41+&ht=1&ebaytag1=ebayreg&ebaytag1code=&CATEGORY0=160&SRCHDESC=y&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

[auatech]

less than $150 depending on if you can get on locally or not.

[GroundZero3]

You must also include the price for cat 5 cable. Do not go to a mom and pop store. They will charge you labor fees if you get a specific amount of cable. try comp usa they have it cheap in certain lenghts.

Jason

[bluepotato]

If you REALLY want to keep it cheap, you can use peer-to-peer networking.

I won't go into the details, but I can point you to a good site where you will have step-by-step how-to's.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com

They explain the different options, hardware and software involved too.

[Sweeper]

Some of that seems complicated. Looking for an easy way to run the cable into the modem, out into a splitter (what ever) and into 2 pc's.

Sweeper

PS went to a local pc store and they don't even have a anything for that. They would have to order what they said I needed and since I am new to this, it's all greek to me. I was looking at about $150.00 bucks. Not what I want to spend to hook up only 2 pc's.

[knucklebusted]

There's a right way to do this and every other way.

First, you can't "split" the connection coming out of the cable modem.

The simplest and least secure way to do this is to get a cheap hub, $30. Plug the modem and both PC's into it and have your ISP give you an additional IP address. That's probably about $5 a month extra. Add the 2 addtional cables and you are out $40 initial costs and an extra $5 a month. You will get hacked.

The secure/preferred way is to get a router/firewall such as the Linksys (mine) or the SMC. Both are about $100 (less online) and models of each include a switch for connecting up to 4 devices. Trust me, you will add more devices no matter what you say today!

The kludge way to do it is to put a second card in the first PC and run some sort of sharing software. I think Win2k has it built in or you can download something like Sygate or Wingate and trial them. No hub involved and some measure of security but your second PC hinges on the first PC being online and there will be performance hit on the routing PC.

Bottom line: If it is worth doing, it is worth spending a $100 on it.