still_life

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Hello.

Mk; i've got 3 computers in my bedroom (1 gaming, 1 file server, one general use) and a wireless router downstairs. What would be the best way of connecting them all up? I would like a wired connection for the computers upstairs, so what do i need to connect them all together and to my router?

Thanks.
 

wingsofzion

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Ok basically i understand that you have 3 PC's, all upstairs in one room and a wireless router downstairs. Basically to connect them all up y ou need to network them together. This is my advice:

Getting the Computers Internet Ready:

For the 3 Upstairs:
-If they are all in the same room i'd get a 4 port Wireless Router (if your current wireless router is 4 port move it upstairs).
-Connect your broadband modem to the router, then connect the router via cables to all 3 PC's upstairs. Here all 3 PC's upstairs are getting thier connection from the router directly.

For the One Downstairs:
-Create a secured wireless connection on the wireless router (by default on some routers it should automatically be broadcasting one)
-In your router's settings name your connection something you'd recognize (by default the name is always the name of the actually router's model number or something generic)
-Install a wireless network adapter card into the PC downstairs.
-When the PC downstairs ask what network you want to connect to (the card's software should show you a list of open wireless connection near you) find your wireless connection you created with the router upstairs and connect to it.

Now your 3 PC's upstairs are connected to the internet wired via the router and the PC downstairs is connected wirelessly to the router upstairs via the wireless network adapter card. And now onto....

Networking Them All Together.

Easy way to do this is basically create a network in Windows XP. To do this go to...
-Choose one computer (preferbly one that is connected to the router via a wire) and go to Control Panel and select "Network Connections". This takes you to a folder showing you all your current internet connections and so forth.
-Look at the left corner in a window panel called "Network Task". Below you will see a option to "Set up a home or small office network". Select them and go through the wizard.
-In the last window it will ask you to name your network which will be called a "workgroup". Be very carefull here and name the workgroup something you'd recognize. The default name for the workgroup is "MSHOME". Name it something like "MyNetwork" or something that stands out.
-The wizard will conclude and start setting up your network. Now it may ask you for your windows XP CD in order to get files from the CD it needs to complete the network so make sure you have that disc on hand when it ask. Once it's done reboot the machine.

Now for the remaining PC's...
-Go to Control Panel and select "System".
-Click on the "Computer Name" tab and select "Change" button on the very bottom.
-You'll be brought to a screen where it shows y our computer name and at the very bottom in the panel called "Member Of" make sure "workgroup" is selected and in the "workgroup" field type in the name of the workgroup you created when you went through the "create a small house/office network" wizard. Make sure the exact workgroup name is entered.
-The PC will ask you to reboot. When your all up go to "Control Panel" and select "Network Connections". Here you will see more files and folders because now it is displaying shared folders not only on your PC but those that are on the other PC.
-Repeat this step for all your PC's and you basically have now created a small house network that all your PC's are apart of.

Hope this helps. I'll keep a track this thread in case you have any questions.
 

lifewire

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Great thanks alot man. I live with 4 other people using 4 computers in separate rooms. As of 3 of us connects wirelessly to the router while one is connected via wired cable. I'll work on our network today using ur guide.
I have couple of questions...
What sort of benefits are there connecting the house in one network?

How do I make our connection speed better? The reason I ask is because I previously was a part of another wireless group of 5 people in different house and most of us including myself were doing some heavy DL and my gaming experience online was an acceptable (60-90ping)

But in this house if one is DLing, Its impossilbe to game ex: CounterSS ill get 150-350+ ping!

This is the same problem I had in the first house (5people) but he (host) make some changes somewhere in settings but i know he bought new router and improved the speed without upgrading internet package.

cheers m8
 

wingsofzion

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Great thanks alot man. I live with 4 other people using 4 computers in separate rooms. As of 3 of us connects wirelessly to the router while one is connected via wired cable. I'll work on our network today using ur guide.
I have couple of questions...
What sort of benefits are there connecting the house in one network?

How do I make our connection speed better? The reason I ask is because I previously was a part of another wireless group of 5 people in different house and most of us including myself were doing some heavy DL and my gaming experience online was an acceptable (60-90ping)

But in this house if one is DLing, Its impossilbe to game ex: CounterSS ill get 150-350+ ping!

This is the same problem I had in the first house (5people) but he (host) make some changes somewhere in settings but i know he bought new router and improved the speed without upgrading internet package.

cheers m8

Your internet speed on a wireless router is basically a shared connection. You have to understand that the router can do just so much. It only really broadcast a wireless signal for you to connect to. Now if more than 1 person connects to this same connection the bandwhich starts to get eaten up. Now if someone or all parties are downloading files and such it'll cause a strain in the bandwich and it'll j ust get worse and worse. There are some routers that have a feature called "speed booster" that is supposed to improve connection speed on the wireless connection but again there is so much it can do when more than one party is connected and eating up bandwhich. Maybe someone else can post some ideas on how to increase bandwhich with mutiple parties but from my experience the more people connected to your wireless connection the sucker it gets in terms of download/upload speeds and gaming.

Now in terms of benifits of creating a network it all depends on what you basically want to share. You can create a network with all the PC's and if lets say you want to send your friend a file, music, movie etc... you can simply drag it to a shared folder you created (or the default share folder located in "My Computer") and your friend can go on his machine, go to that folder and snag the file. You can basically control what you want to share and what you dont. You can even make your C drives shared as well, which i wouldnt recommend unless your in a trusting enviroment, and install programs via one PC onto another. There are alot of stuff you can do with a house network and it really all depends on what you want to do within that network.
 

lifewire

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Fantastic timing because we are in the process of putting together 2 builts and we can use the shared drive as way of installing programs and such. thanks a bunch! btw we are also looking into networking the xbox360 that would be interesting.
 

fishboi

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WingsOfZion,

I have prob with my home network. I'm using ZoneAlarm, and cannot get the other PC connected while ZA is enabled. I really have tried everything (adding the IP to the "safe zone" etc). Cant get it to budge.

Any ideas?

PS. The other PC is on the network and can use the internet etc, but ZA doesnt pick it up when I plug in the network cable (ie. "new network detected). Also, my P5W DH have 2 network jacks built in. I'm running the other PC through that.

Thanks!
 

extremefire

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You need to go to select Firewall from the ZoneAlarm window, and then select Zones. From there you will need to either enter the IP addresses of the other computers you are wanting to connect with, or just enter an IP range, that way any computer on your network in that range will be accessible.
 
I also had wireless network bandwidth issues, so I took a peek in my phone outlet - low and behold "cat 5" was there to save the day 8)

A trip to home depot and I purchased several dual-outlet covers, and some punch-block RJ11/RJ45 outlets to split the blue/orange pairs to the RJ11 and the green/brown pairs to the RJ45 and I get a nice 8 MBps feed to my server and all my upstairs clients (connected to a hub) - no more wireless traffic jams ever :)
 

fishboi

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I tried doing that in ZA, but no luck. It still would not allow access. Has anyone else had serious issues with that program?