[joey1]

putting together a new rig as my siblings need to get on at the same time blah blah will be very similar to my current setup probably not as good but enough to run office applications and games with ease, however i wanted to setup a network not to sure what is a good router and dont really want to be spending a whole lot on one as well the new rig is costing me about 600-700
and i have already spent bout 1400 on the my current rig. So everyones thoughts on a good but cheap router would be great also is it easy to do never set one up before!.

also would it be possible to expand say if mates brought round their comps and had a booze and lan night going? ...got a couple spare monitors lying bout

thanks in advanced

[turtile]

wireless/wired?

[joey1]

very good question i currently have cat5 cabling running to the sunroom so preferably wired.

[joey1]

bump
any ideas

[joey1]

bump
new computer will be in sunroom behind the house round 30m or so, got cat5 going their so will be wired. any suggestions will be great

[saladfork]

How many wired ports you think you'll need

Since ur building a new rig anyways, I'd suggested giving it a wireless nic, I'm not sure how much greater wireless n is compared to g, but if u want to save a few bucks, get b/g.

[murdocsvan]

please don't bump the thread

a) Wireless sounds like a good idea BUT the wireless adapters are far more expensive than network card AND they aren't always the quickest to set up on your mates computers IF you decide you want high security. a wireless router would generally cost you upwards of $50 but most of them come with Ethernet ports (around 4)

b) Wired also has its advantages. the network cards are cheap and most motherboards have one integrated so that isn't aways a problem. they're quick to setup on your mates computers, simply just plug em in and off you go BUT it doesnt sound as simple as that, in your situation, although i have no idea what the floorplan is most Ethernet cables are extremely cheap and 30m cables cost around $5-10 each

my advice is to get a wireless router from Netgear or Linksys with 54 Mbps bandwidth and integrated Ethernet ports. no idea about the cost, just go on the same site you buy your computer parts form and im sure they'll have a couple.

[saladfork]

Yea... don't know how many times my buddies and I have ran around for about half an hour trying to get the network to work, but the problem generally lies in the firewalls... then there are the times when we just done know whats going on and bust out the ethernet.

And yea, a good wireless router will cost around 50 bucks, if you get a linksys wrt45 somethingorother you can have the option of flashing it with firmware from other sources that can give some pretty cool options.

[joey1]

thanks guys for the comment will most likely look into a wired router and a switch for more port availablity. What about the actual setup never done a network before know a little bit in theory is hard to do ???

sorry about the bumps :rolleyes: habit from my car forum when i want answers hhahahahaha

[murdocsvan]

yeah thats fine. the setup should be pretty easy. it sounds patronizing, but just make sure you read the manuals first. my dad insisted on taking several days to install a wireless router without properly following the manual