How to setup my home network.

[Parm]

Right, now, where to start...

Ok, here's what I have:

My PC
P4C 3Ghz
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe Mobo
1Gb Corsair DDR500 XMS Pro
ASUS Radeon 9800XT
BT ADSL, 512/256. Alcatel Speedtouch Modem.

Brothers PC
P3 1Ghz
ASUS Mobo (I forget which one :S)
512Mb SDRam
64Mb GeForce 2 Ultra
Netgear Ethernet card

and then theres one NetGear 4port Hub.

Now, at the moment, my PC is connected to the Hub using my mobo's onboard LAN features, then theres the wire from the Hub all the way into my brothers room connecting to his Ethernet card.

Both systems use MS Windows XP SP1 and share the internet connection which runs from my PC. Unfortunately, this means that my PC has to be on all the time, or at least when my brother wishes to be online.
Both PC's share files with one another.
We have one printer, a HP Deskjet 895cxi, which is currently connected to my brothers PC and not shared.
Both PC's run Norton Internet Security 2004 with firewall and antivirus enabled.
The network used to run rather smoothly, but lately its had its hicups which I believe are solely associated with Norton's firewall.


Anyhow, here's what I want...
The ability for both PC's to be able to use the ADSL independantly. File sharing ability when both machines are running. Ability for both PC's to print to same printer.
In order to achieve this, I believe I require a Router. Having had good experiences with NetGear in the past, I've found Netgear DG834G (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._wireless.html - top one).
I've never used a Router before, and am far from a networking expert

What would be the best course of action, what hardware would you recommend, and how should it be setup?

Thanks,
Parm

[Parm]

Anybody?

[Flibb]

All you need is this
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=57418
Not wireless ut works with your existing setup.
A single port broadband modem/router, £22 cheap as chips. Both PC's could use the adsl indpendantly, but whatever pc the printer is plugged in to will need to be on for the other to print. All you do is plug the above bit in to your current router and then configure it. This is basically the setup I have. You could get a network print server, but it would probably be cheaper to buy another printer. The other way would be to get a low spec pc and run it as a server/firewall/print server, this can be cheap but could involve hassle.Due to having an old box heading my way soon I will be going this path at some point, just so I can have my printers sorted properly and have my blutooth network run without having to turn on my main rig. Will hopefully be a silent setup.

[Steve]

Yes you need a router. They all have DHCP servers on them these days so the clients can pick up IP's and settings automatically.

Now, do you still want wired of wireless networking? I've lost track of what routers are best so somebody else will be able to advise you.

Also, in my opinion, software firewalls cause a lot of problems. However if you get it setup to work OK then you may as well keep it.

edit: Well flibb beat me to it. Touche!

[Flibb]

Ment to say I use kerio free firewall, works fine on a home network without buggering stuff up.

[Parm]

I've never used a wireless network before, how good are they? Are they worth investing in or is it better to stick to wired?
The main advantage or wireless would be that we'll be moving house at the end of the year so with wireless we could just pick up and go.

[nichomach]

The price differential between wired and wireless kit is now actually quite low, and with 54Mbps products commonplace, if I were setting up a network for a home user, I'd always get them to at least think about wireless. Do you really want to wire your house with Cat5? Thought not.

Ideally, you'd be looking for a wireless router/firewall with an integrated DSL modem to replace your Speedtouch, assuming this doesn't have an ethernet port. I've used Linksys kit a lot (they're Cisco's "budget" range) and have found them to be reliable and effective; http://www.linksys.com/international...oid=6&ipid=371 includes an SPI firewall, ADSL modem, router and wireless access point in one box. I'd tend to stick with one manufacturer for your wireless kit, since it makes configuration easier (for instance, you can use a passphrase to set your WEP key rather than having to type it in manually). Your brother's PC and yours would require something like http://www.linksys.com/international...oid=6&ipid=232 (wireless-G PCI adapters). You could always look at sharing your printer with something like http://www.linksys.com/international...oid=6&ipid=447 - a wireless-G printer server that supports both USB and parallel printers, but you might feel that wasn't required.

Cautionary note: By default, out-of-the-box, wireless kit is NOT secure. At the least you want to consider the following:

1. Change the SSID of your router to something other than "linksys". This is the name your network's known by.

2. Turn OFF SSID broadcast. Why advertise that you've got a wireless network when you don't need to?

3. USE MAC address filtering - basically, restrict the router so that only the network cards that you explicitly authorise will be able to connect over it; the MAC addresses of the cards will be printed on a label on the outside of their boxes.

4. USE the best encryption for your traffic that you can - in the case of the products above, 128-bit WEP. It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than nothing.

[Parm]

I use my PC for a lot of online gaming, by using a wireless network, would I experience any / an increase in lag?
Would file sharing between the two PC's be as efficient as a wired network?

[Jonny M]

Wireless is a touch slower, but only adds 1 or 2ms to pings. I'd consider it, and the Netgear DG834G is a good quality all-in-one-box solution.

[Parm]

Its just occured to me, the Netgear wireless router thingy has the normal ports too so if I bought one of those now, I would have the option of wireless / wired. With my current setup, the wires are all installed under the floorboards so I could just hook those up to it.
Then when I move house in December I could use the wireless features if I needed too. Ker-ching!

Curious though, is the current wireless standard likely to become obsolete by Christmas?

One other thing, how do Netgear fair against Linksys, D-Link or any other manufacturers?

[nichomach]

No, the standard will not become obsolete by Christmas. As mentioned in another thread, 802.11b was ratified as a standard in 1997 and is only just now being superseded by 802.11g. Indeed, Intel has only just brought in wireless-g components to the Centrino spec. It'll be around for a few years, and later kit will probably interoperate with it fine, in the same way that 802.11b kit will work with 802.11g kit.

edit: I like Linksys; their stuff's reliable, easy to use, and well-featured, so I tend to use Linksys kit where I can in a wireless environment.