Home Network

[Andy]

This is a thread for those people setting up a home network of computers with printer sharing, firewall and maybe broadband internet connection sharing.

Share away...

[SensoVision]

do you wish to share you experince on creating home network or rather seeking for help on this subject?

[12noon]

I've done it the cheap way, but not the best way. I've added a NIC card to both my PCs and used a cross-over cable to link the two together.
In the future i'll be buying a router so that i can add another computer. hopefully a laptop.

[Queen Bee]

My family shares a home network for 4 different computers. We use Microsoft's broadband networking base station and wireless adapters.

Pretty easy to install, not a whole lot of problems.. For some reason if there's a power outage or something of the sort we're forced to reinstall, but I'm not sure if that's Microsoft's problem.

But like I said before, it's easy to install so there's really not a whole lot to complain about.

[Andy]

Great, there is interest in home networking on this site!

My network comprises 2 microsoft pcs and a linux mini-itx server.

About the mini-itx box:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.wilkes/mini_itx_project.html

[12noon]

I've just ordered a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router BEFSR41

Hope it's a good one.
 

[12noon]

Well my Linksys BEFSR41 ver 2 router turned up and i'm about to install it.
Sould i take out my Norton firewall (one PC) and PC-cillin (other PC) and use the firewall in the router ?
It says it comes with built-in NAT firewall and ZoneAlarm Pro.
 
Hope everything goes OK and i'm still online after the install.

[Queen Bee]

Best of luck to ya!

[12noon]

It took 5 mins to install and was very easy to do.
 
The only thing that took some time was that i needed to update the firmware.
I've still no idea what half the settings are in the router, but it all works, so i'm not that bothered. I'll work it all out later.

[Queen Bee]

Good! Glad everything went well. After using it for awhile you can tell us how cool it is. 

[Andy]

12noon - linking 2 PC's via a twisted cable and sharing an internet connection is a great 1st start. I never did this but it must be the cheapest way to hook 2 computers to the net.

Like you, I now use a Linksys Router. This lets me turn off my PC so other members of the family can use the internet without me powering up my PC.

This is the way to go for internet connection sharing with hardware firewall, logging of web access in/out and port forwarding for web serving. And it looks cool too!