• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Fastest Pc to PC connection: Fire wire?

C

contrapasta

Member
Just wondering what is fastest possible (in megs/s and in response time, lag, real world) setup between two computers?
I currently don't have a second nic for the 2nd PC or have a hub, just wondering if it was better to set a direct connection via fire wire (this is possible right?) Which uses resources (cpu cycles) better, traditional nics/hubs or direct firewire connections?

I eventually kinda want to have 3 pc's hooked up, and have internet sharing, but for nowI just want to share HD files really fast. Thanks!
 
I still say that you should use a 100Mbps Ethernet connection between the two.

You can get 2 10/100 nics and a crossover cable for basically nothing. All the support for transferring the files is built into the OS.

Also, when you want to go to 3 computers sharing, you will be able to reuse everything you bought... just get a Cable/DSL router or 10/100 Hub/Switch and you can have them all networked together.
 
Well the "upfront" cost of getting the firewire setup is not that much more than the traditional method since I would have to get a hub right away ( I'm using my dorms ethernet connection... do I need a "switch" or do I need a "cable/dsl router"??) as well as two more patch cables and of course a 2nd nic... I was planning to get a firewire card anyways (though admittly it doesn't look like I'm going to buy that DV cam anytime soon)

So really I'm just choosing based on pure speed (I'm going to be sacrificing one my 40 HD's for the second PC, ideally I want it to feel like 'it' never left..) I'm going to serving up some pretty large gig + sized movie files so raw speed and cpu utilization are issues.

I guess I'm pressing the firewire issue pretty hard since its a newer technology, and I figure it might be better than a regular network interface.

So what do you guys think?
 
Firewire is capable of 400 Mbps... something faster would be a Gigabit connection, which (obviously) can carry up to 1 Gbps.

P.S. I want to mention that if you just want to "share your hard drives real fast", a regular 100 Mbps connection will be more than plenty, because hard drives have a physical limit to how much they can transmit per second... my hard drive can transmit only up to about 8 MB per second, which is about 60 Mbps.
I don't think that spending A LOT of money on Gigabit connections will provide anything better than a cheap 100 Mbps connection.
 


<< I guess I'm pressing the firewire issue pretty hard since its a newer technology, and I figure it might be better than a regular network interface. >>

With USB 2.0 and Firewire 2.0 (or IEEE 1394b or whatever it's being called this week) both promising HUGE leaps in performance over the existing standards, I'd say wait to get any Firewire card. Maybe until the new stuff starts showing up, but at a minimum until the prices on existing Firewire adapters drops.

For stability, a newer technology is RARELY better than current standards. In this case, I think you're better off going with Fast Ethernet. Especially if you want to do anything more than just file-sharing (which is about all direct connects are good for, honestly).
 
If you want to share your college's internet connection then you are going to need to buy a router or setup one computer as an Internet Connection Sharing server. I would recommend getting a router as they can be found for about 50 bucks or so... check the hot deals forum.

If you just want to network the computers together and don't care about all of them getting internet access, then you only need a switch.
 
when I was at college, I had 3 machines all running off of the campus network without a router / connection share-er. I just plugged a switch into my wall-jack and hooked into the switch. The campus ran DHCP all over to make things simple for retard students -- I just abused it really well 🙂 Try that out, if it doesn't work then get a cheap-o router or use win2k's ICS.

$.02
randal
 


<< when I was at college, I had 3 machines all running off of the campus network without a router / connection share-er. I just plugged a switch into my wall-jack and hooked into the switch. The campus ran DHCP all over to make things simple for retard students >>

My buddy works in central networking for the big U here in town. He was actually in charge of architecting the entire dorm network project.

He anticipated that kind of thing, so all possible DHCP clients are first verified by the DHCP servers using certain info (MAC address, plus other settings). That precludes folks from using routers, or other machines unless they swap the NIC.

So, keep in mind that YMMV in a BIG way depending on the infrastructure at your dorm.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top