Originally posted by: FacelessNobody
Hey Muse it's me!
You're about to do what I did when broadband finally came my way. Honestly, it's surprisingly easy. I installed a Motorola SurfBoard SB4200 cable modem and an SMC 8-port router. I found practicallynetworked.com to be very helpful. Will you be running cables through your house/apartment/dorm? With the right tools, this is an easy job too. I did our whole house rather quickly, and did a good, clean job too (no loose cables just hanging from things
). All of your router settings aren't too tough, but they seem (and kinda are) complicated. You'll probably surprise yourself like I did!
Hey, hey Faceless! OK. It looks like a piece of cake to just get it running but I have another factor that's making me hesitate just plugging this puppy in and going for it. My (admittedly part time) job is 90% telecommute and I connect to my client's network via pcAnywhere with Checkpoint SecuRemote authentication to their network. I have an inkling that if I set up DHCP on my network that will foul up the scenario. It's just a premonition at this point, nothing concrete. I currently have both my machines configured to use the same IP, a no no in networkingland, I realize, but it's enabled me to access the internet in the meantime while I was making up my mind what router I wanted and for it to be delivered. I have a static IP so I have both machines configured in TCP/IP settings to use my assigned static IP and have the DNS addresses specified.
I don't know for sure, but I figure I have two choices:
1. DHCP, which most people use, and to do that I gather I have to change the TCP/IP settings on both machines to get an IP automatically.
2. Specify an IP, and to do that I will choose an IP for each machine, something like 192.168.0.8 I guess. Then, maybe (?), I tell the administrator where I work to allow my assigned IP to gain access to their network. Hey, I really don't know. It may not work like that at all. In fact, I guess I might just try DHCP and see if I can connect. Maybe it will look transparent to my client's network...
I'm diving into the D-Link manual....
To answer your question about cabling: Presently I have a 65 foot cable running through a door and down my steps to my dining room.
Yeah, it's a kludge, but it was just for interim testing, connectivity, etc. until my router arrived. Actually, more than anything, I wanted to surf the net on my new NEC monitor!! I plan to have the box upstairs in another room and run Cat5e cable in the attic. I'm thinking of running a few cables and put in jacks in 2 or 3 places. That's not necessary at this point but I want to think forward. I could think of speaker wiring, even phone. There's a couple of threads going on I think in this forum on house wiring, really interesting and I subscribed yesterday and was reading with some fascination. They advocate conduit for future upgradability.
I was seriously thinking about wireless because I've been planning to get a laptop, but dedided against it in the short term. Wireless specs and performance are much more up in the air right now than ethernet. Prices are coming down, standards are changing quickly.
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