Need broadband router help

[Captain Satellite]

I currently have broadband connected to my computer and want to connect two other computers to the line for a total of three. My understanding is that I'll run the main cable into cable modem, to the router, then from there I'll run a connection to the other two computers. Does that make sense? I am also considering a wireless set-up and am wondering if there are any drawbacks. Which manufaturers do you guys recommend? What are the drawbacks if any to a wireless set-up? I don't exactly feel like crawling under the house and drilling more holes in my hardwood floor. Thanks! (Any links to what I need would be GREATLY appreciated)

[Conquest10]

Yes, that is exactly right. You will be going to the modem and from there to the router. Then from the router to the other computers. I use a Linksys. It seems kind of hard to find anything else besides that here. It works just fine.

I haven't had any problems with wireless. The only thing is that you should figure out whether you want everyone else in range to be able to share your connection with you.

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks for the reply, that helps a lot. I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "you should figure out whether you want everyone else in range to be able to share your connection with you." Do you mean outside of my household? (May rank as dumb question of the month)

[aanaravs]

This might be helpful:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/100/1

[Captain Satellite]

Hey, It might not have been such a dumb question - thanks!

[bazooka]

Thanks for the reply, that helps a lot. I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "you should figure out whether you want everyone else in range to be able to share your connection with you." Do you mean outside of my household? (May rank as dumb question of the month)

What he means is that unless you encrypt your wireless signal, anyone with a laptop can use your service.

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks for the reply, that helps a lot. I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "you should figure out whether you want everyone else in range to be able to share your connection with you." Do you mean outside of my household? (May rank as dumb question of the month)

What he means is that unless you encrypt your wireless signal, anyone with a laptop can use your service.

Right, I got that part. Thanks for the reply. Sounds like I'm going under the house and pulling out the drill.

[Conquest10]

Its not that hard. It asks you when you are setting up whether you want to use encryption or not.

[Prot]

ALSO, you can configure your router to ONLY accept certain MAC addresses. Can't get any more secure than that.

[LSchafroth]

Thanks for the reply, that helps a lot. I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "you should figure out whether you want everyone else in range to be able to share your connection with you." Do you mean outside of my household? (May rank as dumb question of the month)

Yes, others can use your signal to access the net via your connection. You can enable the security features for the wireless router. I disable the broadcast ssid feature to it';s not advertising to everyone and I tell the router to only allow connections from PC's with certain MAC addresses. The MAC address is the unique hardware address of each network card.

Wireless would be easy. If you go that route get at least the 802.11g format. 802.11b is too slow. If you are using it for net only and not sahring between your pc's then 802.11b will be fine.

LS

[drjtech]

I'm very pleased with my Linksys Wireless-G Cable Gateway.

It's a Cable Modem, Router, SPI Firewall, 4 Port 10/100 Switch and Wireless-G Access Point.

-drj

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks for all of the replys. Am I correct that I can expect my internet activity to be a little slower?

[ozymango]

Thanks for all of the replys. Am I correct that I can expect my internet activity to be a little slower?

Well, it might be slower because you've got three computers all accessing the same amount of global internet bandwidth to begin with, but unless you're all downloading or uploading big files at the same time, it's not too bad. But if you mean slower because you're using wireless vs. wired, there's no speed drop -- even a "slow" wireless connection is gonna be faster than the speed of your broadband connection, so no speed loss there.

One thing I'm sort of assuming -- that this connection is shared using a switch, not a hub (can you even buy a hub nowadays?). If you were to use a hub to share the connection, that's definitlely slower than a switch 'cause you've got some head-on packet collisions there. But that's only with a hub, and again I think you'd have to go out of your way to get a hub and not a switch.

But in case somebody tries to sell you a hub instead of a switch (for sharing the connection; or are you getting an integrated router/switch?), don't do it. Otherwise you're fine.

[greymalkin]

just want to add to the encouraging words of the above posters..wireless networking is easy..easier in some ways than wired networking! Wireless-g is the standard and it transfers at a maximum of 54Mb/sec...your internet connection will probably be 3Mb/sec at best.

All I did with my wireless router is go in and enable MAC address filtering. You can get your mac address by going to the command prompt (assuming you are using windows?) and typing:

ipconfig /all

It will pull up all your networking adapters...you want the MAC address of your wireless card (it will be called "Physical Address" in the ipconfig results) for the ones that will be connecting wirelessly and your regular network (ethernet) card for the ones that are cabled in. Do this on each computer, then connect to your router (the instruction manual with the router will tell you how) and go to the section where you can filter mac addresses. Enter them in and you're all set!

If you wanna get even fancier you can share out your music files and printers on the network so someone roaming around on a laptop can stream the files over or print the cool web article they found from your printer..one step fancier than that is getting a little print server for your printer so you don't have to have a "host" machine on all the time...ok i'll stop now...it's alot of fun.

[bazooka]

(can you even buy a hub nowadays?).

Yep