Cheapest/best router for peer to peer?

[Jedibus]

I'd like to connect my two Win '98 pc's to each other and my single cable modem. I believe I need a router for this. I'm an extreme networking newbie so all advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[TBP]

the SMC Barricade will be a good choice.

 

[Jedibus]

Thanks TBP! I'll look online for prices.

 

[TBP]

www.outpost.com has the SMC Barricade for $114 with free overnight shipping. You will also get a $20 rebate. so the final will come down to $94.

 

[Jedibus]

How about if I forego the cable modem and just want to hook up the two pc's for file sharing? Would I then need a hub instead?

 

[dukenukem]

You only need a hub for connecting 3 or more devices. With just 2 devices use a crossover cat5 cable. Not only is this much cheaper, but the most inexpensive hubs only support 10Mbs even though you can get NICs for $15 that support 100Mbs. With a crossover the connection will run at full speed! Also note that a lot of 10/100 Hubs only support one speed for all ports, so every device will run at the speed of the slowest on the hub.

 

[sojin]

duke is right.

I think -

a simple network kit will serve you all needs:
assume you already got a NIC connecting one pc and the cable modem. Put one NIC into each of ur pc's, assign them bogus ip internally like the 192.xx.xx.xx. hook up the two new nic onto the hub. grab a free proxy software from tucows, and install it on the pc connects to the cable modem. set up the proxy might be a little hassle, but no pain no gain...

 

[Jedibus]

Cool, thanks for the tips guys

 

[Wik]

If you are using 98SE and are going to go with 2 NICS in one machine to share files to the other then you might as well use the built in ICS. You can install it from the windows setup menu