Hi Guys....
I'm going to sound like a complete novice, but that because I am.
Ok.. so here is what I would like to do.
Essentially, I would like to be able to have my router upstairs (bedroom), but have a hard wire connection down to my living room and my dining room. (prefer hard wired as house in under renovation, and hence have a good chance to get it wired, instead of relying on wifi)
Now... (here is the novice bit), I know that one can connect an external hard drive to a computer upstairs, and share the content with the rest of the house (i.e. music, video, documents, etc...), but is there a router or a device that would allow me to connect an external hard drive directly to the router, so that I wouldn't need to keep the computer upstairs on in order to share content?
Now, people have said it can be done. NAS was mentioned, but hey,... we are talking big money!
I also heard that Belkin did a usb hub, but... on reading the comments, its suggested that the through put is very slow, and that HD movies would struggle. Others have suggested using 'power plugs', but I have heard that they cause interference, and that you it take up the socket, preventing you from using an extension cable. As a final solution, I would consider wifi... however my issues are security... and obviously strong enough of a signal to transmit HD movies.
So... what are my options? I haven't got money to burn, but at the same time, I want something that does the job.
Another side question, one way of doing the networking from upstairs is to bring 2 cables from the router upstairs, downstairs, so that both my living room and dining room have a connection. But someone suggested, bring one cable, and split it downstairs with a HUB. Now is that a good idea? Are there any disadvantages, i.e. weaker signal, etc...?
Now my final final question. (Now... all the techies... please try not to laff!). Ultimatley, I want to to have a media centre, where I can play all my catalogued mp3 files. For this, I love the Windows Media Centre interface. However, is the quality of the mp3 poorer when it is streamed over say, a wifi connection, or is it better to have the hard drive connected directly to the equipment thats going to play the mp3/music???
Thanks in advance for the answers!
I'm going to sound like a complete novice, but that because I am.
Ok.. so here is what I would like to do.
Essentially, I would like to be able to have my router upstairs (bedroom), but have a hard wire connection down to my living room and my dining room. (prefer hard wired as house in under renovation, and hence have a good chance to get it wired, instead of relying on wifi)
Now... (here is the novice bit), I know that one can connect an external hard drive to a computer upstairs, and share the content with the rest of the house (i.e. music, video, documents, etc...), but is there a router or a device that would allow me to connect an external hard drive directly to the router, so that I wouldn't need to keep the computer upstairs on in order to share content?
Now, people have said it can be done. NAS was mentioned, but hey,... we are talking big money!
I also heard that Belkin did a usb hub, but... on reading the comments, its suggested that the through put is very slow, and that HD movies would struggle. Others have suggested using 'power plugs', but I have heard that they cause interference, and that you it take up the socket, preventing you from using an extension cable. As a final solution, I would consider wifi... however my issues are security... and obviously strong enough of a signal to transmit HD movies.
So... what are my options? I haven't got money to burn, but at the same time, I want something that does the job.
Another side question, one way of doing the networking from upstairs is to bring 2 cables from the router upstairs, downstairs, so that both my living room and dining room have a connection. But someone suggested, bring one cable, and split it downstairs with a HUB. Now is that a good idea? Are there any disadvantages, i.e. weaker signal, etc...?
Now my final final question. (Now... all the techies... please try not to laff!). Ultimatley, I want to to have a media centre, where I can play all my catalogued mp3 files. For this, I love the Windows Media Centre interface. However, is the quality of the mp3 poorer when it is streamed over say, a wifi connection, or is it better to have the hard drive connected directly to the equipment thats going to play the mp3/music???
Thanks in advance for the answers!