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internet sharing with 5 pcs

S

suklee

Diamond Member
I've receieved the task of purchasing a hub/switch to replace our broken 5-port hub. Currently we are splitting an @Home cable connection between 5 people. (it's crappy too.. tonight connected to just one computer I was downloading around 24kb/sec).

We have an old server running win98 at the moment; that makes 6 computers in our household. I was wondering if I should buy a 5 port 10/100 auto switch at a much cheaper price than an 8 port one, and have one of us (me probably) be the server for the internet connection? Are there any downsides to being the server besides having to keep one's machine on 24/7? (does it slow down your computer?)

And if some of us decide to move to 100Mbps in the future (not all of us have 10/100NIC cards), we can do so individually with a switch, correct? (ie we dont all have to upgrade to 100Mbps at the same time) If I understand correctly cable quality is important in getting 100MBps to work.
 
I've thought about that, but most routers are 4-port aren't they?

And at the store near my school a 4 port router costs $180CDN.. whereas the 5 port 10/100 Auto Switch costs $65. The uplink port is a "Dedicate Uplink Port and could be as the 5th port via Cross-Over Cable". This means which ever computer connected to the 5th port needs to be of the cross-over type?
 
You can get a 4-port Linksys router for 79.95 from buy.com. OR, you could get a 1-port Linksys router, then uplink that to a switch. That way, you don't have to use a server. But for the price of the 4-port router, you can get an 8-port switch. I have found that buy.com has some of the best prices.

Being a server doesn't slow down your computer at all. In my house, we have a 7 computer network sharing a modem (i'll have cable soon 🙂) and we don't notice any performance loss at all. You'll have to put two network cards in the server (one for cable and the other for your network).

If your switch is an autosensing, 10/100, then you can mix the 10mbps cards and the 100mbps cards. If you transfer data between two computers, one with a 100mbps and one with a 10mbps, then you both will be at 10mbps.
 
Lets assume my comptuer would be the server. Would I then need a 10mbps card for the cable modem, and a 10/100 card to plug into the hub/switch?
 
8 port 10/100 hubs are pretty cheap. I just got one for $40 shipped. Setup one comp with two NICs as the server and put a *NIX/linux OS
on it to do IP masquerading.
 
If you get a 10/100 nic, it will work for both the cable modem and the switch. The 10/100 basically means "either or". So, if your modem is only a 10mpbs, a 10/100 nic will work. If your switch is 100mpbs, then a 10/100 nic will work. I don't think you can buy a straight 10 or 100 mbps nic anymore. So, if you get a 10/100 for the cable modem and the switch, they will both work. The nics will be able to tell what speed you are running at and then connect at that speed.
 
Thanks for all your help.

Looks like I'm gonna pick up a 8 port hub/switch later today.. it'll work out to be around $100CDN with tax..

 
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