Installing SOHO network, could use some advice

[Hossenfeffer]

One of the director's I work for has been struggling along at 56k forever, spending way too much money on extra phone lines, redundant isp accounts, etc. Talked to them about going with broadband and networking all 5 (6 eventually) computers.

Weighing the pro's and con's of different set-ups.

The run-down:

-2 story house, here's a crude elevation looking from the back of the unit.
*---------*
| Office |
| /Bdrm |
*---------*-------*----------*
| Garge | Den | Office |
*---------*-------*----------*
-----Crawlspace------

W <--------------------> E

- Home Office with 2 machines upstairs (Office/Bdrm)
- 1 Laptop, 1 Desktop downstairs (Office, each machine in a different room)
- 1 Laptop (eventually 2) for the kids (technically upstairs, but I'm sure they want wireless)

They'll be having digital cable installed for the kids soon and are waffling between dsl/cable (both are available, to my knowledge). None of them will likely be sending any files of any great size any time soon, which leads me to pick cable for the greater downstream bandwidth to be shared.

That being said, the cable comes in through the garage (Garge). Their inital thought was to hook up the cable modem and router in the garage, run 2 lines straight up into the offices, then 2 lines through the crawlspace and up into the offices. (There is a hub in the home office upstairs so they "could" conceivably just have one line, I assume)

One option would be go with a Wireless AP/router in a semi-central location, run the cables from there (2 up, 2 through the crawlspace). Friend of mine said that if they're going wireless, just go all the way wireless. Willing to run the cables myself. They've basically said "Get what we need, either you buy it and we'll repay, or tell us where to go".

Upstairs:
(2) Dell desktop, Pentium I/II, stuck at 64mb ram, win 95 (will see about taking these up to 98SE)

Downstairs:
(1) Toshiba Satellite 315CDT running 98 (iirc)
(1) Dell desktop PII/400, 256mb, win98se

Kids:
(1) Laptop (haven't seen it, assuming win 98)
(1) Laptop (not purchased yet, assuming xp home)



DOH: gotta get to the shows, will get back later tonight and provide any further details. Going out to their house today to get a feel for distances and what might already be in place.


Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[Rkonster]

In this situation, I think wireless would be the best setup. It's easy, fairly inexpensive, and very convenient, since they have laptops. The only concern with wireless is the lower bandwitdh transfers. It they want to transfer a lot of data through the network, you might want to consider a hybrid wired/wireless network. But if that isn't a concern, I would definitely just go for a pure wireless setup. A good choice for a router would be the D-Link 713P. This unit received the practically networked recommended award. In addition, D-Link also revamped this router so that you can add external higher gain antennas. This is also a good just in case for some reason they cannot get a signal all throughout the house (big house, metal in walls, etc). Hope this helps.

Ryan

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Ok, on my way over there in a few minutes to take a look at things. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll try to get an idea on pricing.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

After taking a better look at the house, my current thought is to:

- Take the cable (At&t) up from the garage to the Office.
- connect the cable modem to the D-link 713P (can be had for ~$100 this week)
- run 2 cables to the machines up there (can use pre-made cables)
- Buy a USB Wireless NIC for the downstairs desktop
- Buy 2 Wireless NIC PC-Cards for the 2 laptops.

The entry hall seems like the ideal place for an external antenna, given that the foyer/entry way is the full height of the house (2 floors) and very open.

 

[cipher00]

Naturally, your mileage will vary, but fwiw I've got an SMC Barricade WiFi setup. It's in the worst possible place: basement, in a corner, hardwired to my main machine. But, I can wander with my laptops over the whole (reasonably large) house and get a signal, and even from a little bit outside. I use the SMC laptop cards, but the wisdom around here leans to the Orinoco gold cards.

I ran cable to other rooms in the house but never use them.

My 2&Acirc;¢.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Ordered so far:

D-link 713P
Linksys Cable Modem
2 D-link DWL-650 (~$35 each, will test one and return one or both if performance isn't adequate)
1 Orinoco Gold USB Client

Cost so far:
$435 ($385 after dlink rebate)