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"Home Networking"

Firstly, thanks to you guys I have now got broadband and I am very happy. Thank you.

Next, my family want to connect this PC to the one downstairs which is much slower etc so that they can access the internet at the same time etc using the cable modem.

I have used a network before and know you can play multiplayer games and share printers etc but will I be able to access my ALL my folders and files which are on this PC from the one downstairs?

Also will this mean that I am sharing the hard drive downstairs so I will get more space up here as I can access their drive? Will the RAM for both PC's be combined so they both run faster?

What speeds can i expect if I am sharing internet connection with the PC downstairs (when i'm not downloading).

Thanks again,
MWA

the cheapest way to rig 5 pc's up to a network would be to use RG 58 cable (coax) and run it in a bus network terminated at each end, but the best way to do it would be to purchase a 10/100 ethernet hub and run them all at max 100 MBPS.

c.b.

Whats the cheapest way of getting more than 5 connections? i've seen 24 port laptops! but they're all £300+ so I don't think i'll be getting one of those this millenium.
Also I know it's not a BluePeter kind of thing, but how easy is it to make your own (if you can) don't know if you can use more than 2NICs in one pc can you?

Thanks for that - I'll tell my dad, and it should really be an incenitive to go out and buy this piece of kit. He wasn't keen on networking internet, but as you say it's easily feasible and quite easy to do, I'm sure he'll be all for it.

He wants it for data transfer - I just want it for LAN gaming :0)

Thanks again and keep up the good work mate! :)

I have recently messed around with a USB - USB network kit, AN SR product and found it very easy to install (winxp home ed) and performance wasnt bad playing half life, basically if you can get the network up and running then you have a good chance of internet connection sharing working, i have 2 pc on my network at the moment My beast with Win xp pro(got the cable connection on it) and the other one with winme and that simply detected a gateway to the internet connection.

c.b.

I tried connecting a few weeks back with a Parallel port (I think. Well, it was the printer port), and I just couldn't get networked gaming to work, which was VERY irritating. I went into Staples and they told us that we should get a USB connector, so then we can have a fast transfer, decent online gaming, but I don't remember him saying anything about internet sharing, so I was wondering: will a USB connector work for sharing the internet?

Cheers.

P.S - Sounds like you've got a pretty good setup MWA! :0)

You won't need a router for internet connection sharing if you use thin ethernet either you will need a hub though, for your network to run at max 100mbps, to set up internet connection sharing you can either find the wizard but i think that may only be on winme and higher or set it up manually by setting up you TCP/IP settings like this,
On your 1st computer use TCP/IP address 192.168.0.1 and one the second use 192.168.0.1 this should have the network up and running as long as you have the right protocals installed (TCP/IP a must IPX/SPX and netbui needed for gaming). to set up internet connection sharing you will have to set a gateway address on the second pc i use 255.255.255.0 this should allow you to connect to the internet through your other computer, i am sure there are other setting boxes to tick but not sure off of the top of my head which one's SOrry, Type ICS in the windows help.

C.b.

Furthermore, you don't need a router if you go for a coaxial BNC network. Saturates at around 8mbps in my experience, not bad for something that's about ten years old.

Suits me perfectly, but getting the hardware and cables can be a bit awkward these days. Luckily my father does amateur radio which requires coax anyway.

Broadband providers only put minimum specs on their stuff because:

1) They provide (superfluous) software on CD which will try and autoconfigure their wintel hardware. But anything that can do DHCP (or PPP over Ethernet) can deal with broadband.

2) So people don't come crying to them when the web doesn't seem any faster on their 16mhz 386 which is taking longer to render the pages than to download the content in the first place.

I'm using broadband on descent two PC's through a 486mhz, 8meg ram linux firewall and a NetGear router. Fast internet connection and file/printer sharing thoughout.

The 486 cost me a tenner from a local 2nd hand place. Stick two network cards in there, one from the cable modem and the other to the router. It normally runs Win95 but I use a boot disk to run a vanilla Linux. Connect the 2 other PCs into the router and thats it.

I'd say thats the best way to go. It was hassle getting Linux to assign the IP addresses basically because I don't know my way around Linux very well, but the rest was simple. Any probs, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do. I can direct you to the website where I got Linux from and I learnt quite a bit from the errors I made.

The PC downstairs is a P200 32mb RAM Windows 98.

I already have a Netgear modem thingy so everything should be fine. Will need to put at least some half decent specs on the downstairs PC.