Need some help with home networking (laptop & PC)

[bigbigsavings]

Hi guys,

Hopefully someone can help me with this. I have a Desktop (win2k) and a laptop (win2k). Although it would be quite simple to purchase a router and network the 2, my issue is that I want to be able to use the laptop anywhere in the house. I have considered going wireless, but a wireless setup is extremely expensive for my needs. I have been hearing a lot about "Home Phoneline Networking" kits which allow you to network PCs through the phone line just as you would through an RJ45 cable, but the problem is that every one of these kits that I have found is only for networking PC to PC, not PC to Laptop, as the PCMCIA ethernet card that I own only has an RJ45 input.

Are there any solutions for me? Possibly a converter from an RJ11 to an RF45 cable? I would appreciate some input on this or any suggestions on what I may be able to do.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Alex

 

[Workin']

Does your laptop have USB? I think you can get a phoneline LAN adapter that can connect to a USB port. But then you might need to plug it into an electrical outlet, I'm not sure. I haven't seen any that are PC Cards (PCMCIA). You can't adapt the RJ-11 to RJ-45, the signal is not the same as 10-base-T.

 

[bigbigsavings]

Hi,

Yep, I've got one USB input. I have a Dell Latitude CPx laptop. I don't mind having to plug into an outlet, I'd just tiewrap the extra cable to the main power cable anyway, so it would not be too much of a hassle. Is there a product like you have described that you can recommend?

Alex

 

[Eug]

Netgear has a bridge that converts 802.3 LAN to HomePNA 2.0. Then on the other side I think all you need is just a USB HomePNA setup. Or you can just go HomePNA to start with.

The HomePNA 10 Mbps USB converter is bus powered by the way, so you don't need an electrical outlet.

If you're doing cable sharing:

Cable modem --> LAN Router --> Lan card on PC
PLUS LAN Router --> Bridge to Home PNA --> Telephone lines --> USB converter --> laptop

Note: the bridge has no router function. So the telephone lines are essentially one giant hub I guess.

Or:

Cable modem --> Lan card on PC--> Home PNA card --> Telephone lines --> USB converter --> laptop

This is all fine and dandy, but I dunno if I've seen anybody actually report their experiences on the first option yet.

By the way, as of this month, a Linksys wireless access point will be US$200, and a PCMCIA card will be about $100+. So considering the hardware costs for the HomePNA setup, wireless isn't that costly.