Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

How should I set up my home network?

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Networking » Small Business and Home Networking

Comments

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

Comment Page:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |  21  |  22  |  23 

Sharing home broadband connection

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi I like to set up a home network so i can share my adsl broadband connection with another tenant in the house I'd like to limit the Mbs he can download per month and not give him access to use the landline at all is this possible and how would i go about doing it? I'd have to buy a hub too connect the two computers together or should i get a router can i limit the Mbs using the router or do i need someother software I'd like him and me to know how much data we downloaded seperately any ideas appreciated

I'm not aware of a consumer grade solution that will get you want you want. You could spend several thousand dollars on a high end router I suppose (and learn how to program it), but I've never seen a bandwidth throttling or reporting solution for small setups.
- Leo
19-Oct-2008
Posted by: Deno at October 19, 2008 3:40 AM

I want to set up a wireless router for my laptop while remaining hardwired on my desktop computer.
That is, hardwire from DSL modem to wireless router, hardwire from wireless router to desktop, and wireless to laptop.

But looking at descriptions of routers, none of them indicate this is a possible. Help please!

That's exactly what the first image in the article above demonstrates. Most wireless routers do exactly that.
- Leo
20-Oct-2008
Posted by: Lindh at October 19, 2008 10:52 PM

I want to add a Wireless Access Point by connecting it to a HUB. The HUB is connected to a Broadband Cable ROUTER which is connected to the Broadband MODEM and then to ISP. Can a Wireless Access Point be connected to a HUB in this way ?
Thanks.

Yes.
- Leo
17-Nov-2008

Posted by: Barry at November 16, 2008 10:50 PM

Hi Leo

in one part of my house (lower level, corner room) i have my cable modem and an older linksys wireless router. i've given up on wireless approach as i believe the plaster walls, cinderblock walls and bx electrical cable block the single, even just 30 ft straight down the hall u get very very poor single (yes even tried state of art router)

i've two pcs cable connected to the router. i have a 100 ft cat5 cable run to another part of the house where i have another pc. I need to add two more pcs in that location. can i buy a switch for that far end of the cat 5 and use it to hook up the 3 pcs to it instead of just the one?

diagrams of current/proposed:

current
--------
-[modem]-[router]
..................| |---pc #1
..................| |-----pc #2
..................|
..................|-(100 ft cat 5)
..................|-------pc #3

proposed
--------
-[modem]-[router]
....................| | |---pc #1
....................| |-----pc #2
....................|
....................|-(100 ft cat 5)
....................|-------[switch]
...............................| | |--- pc #3
...............................| |----- pc #4
...............................|------- pc #5

i need a simple solution, can you assist?
thank you!

eck

What you propose should work.
- Leo
20-Nov-2008
Posted by: eck at November 19, 2008 10:02 PM

Can I have a switch connected to one of the ports of my wireless router? I have a Leviton Integrated Network (smart house) panel that distributes ethernet to all rooms, so that is where my DSL modem and wireless router are installed (centrally located in the house). The problem is that I have 3 computers and a network printer that I want installed all in one location, but only have 2 ethernet ports to use (and one actually needs to be used for the phone/fax). I also have an older router that is not wireless capable. Can that be connected to a wireless router port for adding network? Most of my PC's are desktops without wireless capability currently installed and I prefer to go hard wired anyway. Perhaps there is an even easier solution to my problem. Please advise.

You can certainly connect a switch to one of the ports on your router. That's a common way to "get more ports", so to speak. You can use the other router as well in the same regard (connect it's "WAN/Internet" port to one of the ports on the upstream router), but getting machines to see each other across the two routers can be tricky. Switch is easier.
- Leo
07-Dec-2008

Posted by: MBLV1 at December 6, 2008 10:33 PM

I am going to let my son have his own PC. It will have a wireless connection to our wireless router which is also used by two other computers. ROuter has a hardware firewall. All computers have up to date virus s/w. If my son downloads something he shouldn't, could that compromise my other two computers 'inside' our home network?

Absolutely. Have a look at this article: How do I protect myself from my children?
- Leo
07-Apr-2009

Posted by: Damien at April 6, 2009 2:46 PM

hi,leo i have what is probably a common question,i have mobile broadband as does the girl living in the apartment next door to me,and she asked me yesterday how can i stop my neighbour from stealing or hijacking her bandwidth? iv'e often wondered this myself,basically this chap knocked on her door and said to her can i have your password because i want to use your bandwidth,which made her angry,and i wasn`t to happy about it either,so any advice on how to prevent him from doing this would be much appreciated,i just need to know how to set up a password and how and where it is located on my pc! thankyou.:)

I don't quite understand. "Mobile Broadband" - as in something from your cellular telephone provider - is not sharable that way; there's no way to "steal" it.

Wireless broadband - as in setting up a WiFi access point on your broadband connection - can be simply protected by configuring the access point to require a WPA key, and then only installing that key on machines you want to give access to. That's done on your wireless router (varies by model) and then your PC will ask for a password when connecting to that network.
- Leo
30-May-2009

Posted by: adam r at May 29, 2009 7:28 AM

I don't quite understand. "Mobile Broadband" - as in something from your cellular telephone provider - is not sharable that way; there's no way to "steal" it.

Wireless broadband - as in setting up a WiFi access point on your broadband connection - can be simply protected by configuring the access point to require a WPA key, and then only "installing that key on machines you want to give access to. That's done on your wireless router (varies by model) and then your PC will ask for a password when connecting to that network.
- Leo
30-May-2009"


it`s this http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband
leo,and apparently you can tap into it just like any other broadband it simply connects into your pc or laptop etc and i want to prevent anyone from sharing that bandwidth thankyou..

That's cellular, and your bandwidth cannot be "stolen".
- Leo
31-May-2009
Posted by: adam r at May 30, 2009 10:26 AM

Hi, Leo - Thanks for the article, it helps a lot.
But, I still have some doubt;-)
I have a cable modem with the ethernet connected to my PC (so far working solo ok) and I want to add another PC on the same connection; can I just use a 4-port switch (instead of the router as in the above graph)? Would my 2 PCs work then from the switch alone connected directly to the cable modem? Would they then have same IP or different ones?
Thks in advance.

It depends.

If your ISP provides more than one IP address per connection, a switch may be enough.

If your cable modem is also a router (a possibility) then a switch may be enough.

If your ISP assigns only one IP address, and the cable modem is not also a router, then you will need a router.

You'll need to ask your ISP.
- Leo
31-May-2009

Posted by: Les at May 30, 2009 2:17 PM

I have a wired home network with 2 computers hooked to it. I use a 4 port linksys router and cat 5e cable. One is running XP (Athalon 2400-1 gig ram) and one Vista basic (Athalon 2800-1.5 gig ram). They both have different download speeds and the Vista machine seems to load the pages faster. Does the ram affect this and also does the hard drive have any affect? I am pulling my hair out!

Posted by: David Jordan at June 3, 2009 10:15 AM
Comment Page:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |  21  |  22  |  23 
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Post a Comment

To post a comment on "How should I set up my home network?", please return to that article's main page.

Question? Ask Leo!