Here goes! I have viewed just about all the posts on home networking and must admit that I am a little confused. My main desktop is a Dell Dimension 8250, 3.06 GHz. Wdsl antenna to Linksys WET11 wireless ethernet bridge to ethernet plug on desktop. My second computer is an HP Pavilion 511W 1.2 GHz. I need to network the computers which are on opposite sides of the house. I know nothing about networking except what I have read the last few days. On the following questions, do not use cost as a factor. I want to start with the best and then I will work down to what I can afford.
Question 1. What is the fastest, most dependable type of network setup for sharing wdsl, printer, scanner etc.?
Question 2. What is the best way to setup the system in Q#1.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
well in that case I agree with Stevenlewis. However wired gigabit would be overkill. Also there is wireless 100mb networking, but it is NOT cheap.
The up side to wireless is obvioulsy you do not need to re-wire you house (assuming you don't have cat-5/cat-6 cables running through your walls already.
If money were no object I would pick up a 100mb wireless hub and two 100mb wireless NICs. you should be in business. Just make sure that the specks on the hardware allow everying to reach - generally the higher the frequency the farther you can go from the hub.
Good Luck!
I don't have alot of info on them (I guess they are actually 108mb) but here is one by netgear: http://www.cdw.com/shop/pr
Like I said, Not Cheap. and it is a very new Technology.
AAh, but I read down further on that page and found
Static 108Mbps 802.11g available now. Dynamic version available via future firmware update. In order to achieve 108Mbps, requires client adapter that supports the same mode. NETGEAR's WAG311 PCI Card, WAG511 PC Card and WG511T PC Card all support 108Mbps 802.11g
and then further down
Data Transfer Rate 54 Mbps
Hmmm, I wonder which it is
Here's an explanation of 802.11g 'turbo' mode (and some test results).
http://www.extremetech.com
Even the best, most stable wireless connection doesn't hold a candle to fast ethernet, much less GIGe.
It depends on what you're doing, though. If you're just sharing an internet connection, the choke point is going to be your ISP connection - and wireless will be fine.. If you want to digitize your video collection and move those files across the lan, better have a low metabolism. With GIGe adapters under $50 now, and FastEthernet nearly free, if you're considering backup or other high bandwidth applications - get copper. WIreless is ok for casual use, even streaming audio, but it's not immume to interference, costs more per Mbit of bandwidth and isn't quite so secure.
chicagoan - thanks for the link! lots of good stuff in there
anaron - quickly without doing any research it sounds line one has a built in FireWall - and is probably more expencive - the other is simply an access point. like a normal Hub or Switch. Which is what you would need inside your house for a network. If you did want at FireWall you would place it between your network and the Internet.
Hi,
I am using a dLAN from Devolo to run my LAN through the house electric cables.
It gives me about a 14 Mbit LAN and converts any wall socket in my house to a network socket.
I have also impemented these boxes in one of our offices on a LAN with 5 PCs a Printer and a DSL router.
http://www.devolo.com
Hi
I would like to say that still with wireless technology having 100Mbs, gigabyte ethernet is much more faster, reliable, secure, and much more cheaper than wireless although cost was not an aspect in this question.
You can connect between the two computers directly via cable and set the printer on one computer to be shared, or u can connect through a switch better than a hub to avoid frame collision and to act as a repeater for the signal if distance is far between the computers and it is not recomended to connect cable for more than 150m without a repeator if you dont want your speed to drop to lower bandwidth rate (100Mbs or 10Mbs).
Also i would like to note that as far as i know the scanner cant be shared through the network and if there is a way to do that please let me know.
Thanks.
I have 3 computers 2 of them are running on Linux SuSE 9.0 Platform 3rd one is on XP platform.
I have five Static IP's. I have Two Registred Domain Names.
In the past I used NS1.granitecanyon.com & NS2.garanitecanyon.com for IP forwording.
I like to ELIMINATE NS1.granitecanyon.com & NS2.garanitecanyon.com and set up my own Linux server at home Forwording my domains.
I need some help in setting up my server on Linux Platform.
HELP
I've been running wireless since 2000 when Apple's Airport first came out (I now have a mixed PC/Mac wireless LAN, with some wired connections where the machines are close enough).
I'd like to reiterate Chicagoan's point that, for a home user, your wireless speed probably isn't that important unless you spend a lot of time copying big files between your different computers. If your main reason for networking your computers is to share your Internet connection, you are probably only getting 1.5 MBit or so from your DSL or Cable, which is 10 times slower than an 802.11b 10 Mbps connection. So, the extra speed of an 802.11g or (heaven forbid) Gigabit Ethernet is completely wasted.
A few other things to think about:
- with a wired connection, you're either running cables across the house (don't trip) or thru the walls or vents
- a wireless connection is affected by RF interference, such as cordless phones and microwaves
- 802.11b has greater range than 802.11g (or so I've been told). Remember, you probably won't be using the extra bandwidth 802.11g offers anyway, since your uplink is the bottleneck
- hardware is only part of the issue with setting up a home network. Treat yourself to a crash course in i.p. networking, and especially NAT
- do yourself a favor and turn off the DHCP in your access point. Wireless signals have a decent range, and a public wireless lan with a DHCP server is very easy to take a free ride on.
My small office has purchased a multi-function color printer/scanner/fax (Brother MFC-3820CB ~$200 USD) and it is all network shared. I can tell the scanner which machine to send the image to, etc. (although you do have to run a small applet on each potential target machine as a "listener"). A MFP isn't an ideal solution for all users, and I'm not usually a proponent of having all my eggs in one basket in case something breaks, but I guess I wanted to suggest that there are affordable "out of the box" network-ready scanning options out there.
One additional note: Not to be nitpicky, but in previous posts, the conversation appears to discuss the options between 802.11b or 802.11g. The real difference is between 802.11b (11Mbps) and 802.11a (54Mbps) as they are the incompatible standards. 802.11g has the ability to communicate at the higher speed using 802.11a's OFDM modulation scheme, and fall back to 802.11b compatibility. In other words, you can have a COMPATIBLE mixed 802.11g and 802.11b environment to maximize speeds where you need it, and costs where you don't. Just don't plan on having a LAN-party on the same night you intend to serve microwaved burritos while on the cordless phone! <g>
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: stevenlewisPosted on 2004-01-03 at 17:51:31ID: 10035875
>>What is the fastest, most dependable type of network setup for sharing wdsl, printer, scanner etc.?
a gigabit wired network is the fastes, most reliable (if you use cat6 cables)
next would be 100mbit wired (also known as fast ethernet)
next would be a wireless 11g network
then 10mbit ehternet wired