Rookie question :>

[sinunbeso]

I am moving into a dorm with my girlfriend. School provides 10Base-T connection in each dorm. I want to setup a LAN with my girlfriend's computer and my computer. What would be the best way to do it? I am running Win XP. Can I use two NICs in my computer and then connect one of them to my girl's computer and the other one to the wall jack? Or shall I use a hub/switch? How can I connect to wall jack with a hub/switch? Do I connect the hub/switch to the wall jack directly? The system in my school also has an NIC verification (same MAC address is needed once registered). Will hub/switch have a problem with that? Does a hub/switch have a MAC address? I am also running a FTP server for my friends. I need a solution that will keep my computer accessible from elsewhere.

Thank you so much for you time! Have a great day!

 

[n0cmonkey]

You could get a dsl/cable router, or use your machine as a gateway, or setup a Linux/BSD system as a router/firewall. Any of those solutions would work. The best solution would be to talk to the administration to find out what they can do for you as far as having multiple machines on the network at the same time. You will then be following the rules (if they have a solution for this), and there will be less chance of something you did causing problems

 

[sinunbeso]

Thanks! How is a router different from hub/switch though?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Thanks! How is a router different from hub/switch though? >>



The home routers will do Network Address Translation (NAT). This can help secure the machines and make each of them use the same external ip address. So it will "look like one computer", but actually be more than 1. If done right it can "fool" the network people into thinking you only have one machine on the network.