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Connecting a bunch of computers to wired ethernet

Forum CPU & Components : Other Components - Connecting a bunch of computers to wired ethernet

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JMecc   02-08-2008 at 04:12:48 PM

What's the best way to connect ~10PC's via ethernet in a house?

Right now I have a wireless router with 4 ethernet ports so I plug 4 PC's into the ports and use wireless for my sister's computer but wireless is not great for reliability. I could perhaps get a 5-port router but I want to have many available for when I fix people's computers and I don't think I can get a 10-20 port router. Can I just hook up a router port to a 16-port ethernet switch and plug all of the computers into that switch? Will each computer have its own local address (like 192.168.0.1XX like on a router) and still have internet access? Would this system be slow even if only a few PC's at a time are on the internet? Is there a better way you'd suggest?

Thanks,
Jo

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evongugg   02-08-2008 at 04:26:15 PM
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You can buy a switch ( suggesting 8-port or bigger), plug it into the router and connect your computers to the router and the switch.

------------------------------ Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle
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evongugg   02-08-2008 at 04:28:21 PM
- 0 +

You can configure DHCP for all computers or a fixed address in the router.
The more traffic you have on the internet, the slower it will be as it is sharing one account.

------------------------------ Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle
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grieve   02-08-2008 at 04:49:34 PM
- 0 +

Your best bet as Evongugg suggested is to purchase a switch.

You can get a 20 port switch for under 100 bucks, it makes life real easy…unpack, plug router into it…away you go.

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JMecc   02-10-2008 at 04:50:51 AM
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Thanks all! So if a switch can address many local computers, what's the difference between it and a router?

Jo

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evongugg   02-11-2008 at 01:46:25 PM
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http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_diffe [...] outer.html

------------------------------ Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle
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drumr1829   02-11-2008 at 02:18:33 PM
- 0 +

I just ran into this at my house. I have a buffalo wireless router in the basement and a linksys router upstairs. If you're not going to use a switch, you'll need to disable DHCP on the other (more or less, router's give out DHCP/IP addresses and you don't want two of them trying to do this at the same time, it wont work). The buffalo is connected to the cable modem and handles DHCP. For me the default IP is 192.168.1.1, go to this and disable DHCP. Then connect a cat5 to the LAN port of the other router and you should be good to go.

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JMecc   02-14-2008 at 06:24:39 AM
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I borrowed a switch from a friend and hooked it up to the output of my router & plugged computers into the switch. The comps get internet but seem to have no way of addressing each other (i.e. when I want to ssh to my server I know it is statically 192.168.0.170). Is there a way to do this; i.e. to mimic a 16-port router by using 2 inexpensive available components?

Thanks,
Jo

Reply to JMecc
zenmaster   02-14-2008 at 06:48:07 AM
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If they can get to the internet, they can get to each other.
The switch is all you need.
Maybe the PCs have firewalls or something else up.

------------------------------ If its good in theory but not in practice,
its not good theory.
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johnnyq1233   02-14-2008 at 07:16:07 AM
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you have to run the set up a home network utility in my network places so windows can create the environment for your network.
Make sure all the computers are on the same workgroup. default is "MSHOME" or if you creat a new one all should be the same for simplicities sake.
After a few screens you'll be asked to turn on file and printer sharing. This is what allows you to share files and printers in your network.
At the end you'll get several options. Select "just finish the wizard..."and click next or finish.
You need to do this to all the computers you wish to share files with... there's more but first get this done.

------------------------------ Intel C2D E8400 @3.0GHZ, Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard, 4GB OCZ vista platinum DDR2-1066 , Seagate320GBsataII 16MB HDD, BFG GTS250oc 512 GDDR3...3Dvision glasses and samsung 120HZ screen.
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