Help the Poly Luddite set up a network

[Guynemer]

So I ordered the Dell late Monday afternoon; it said it would be shipped Friday, arriving 3-5 days later.

So, naturally, UPS knocked on my door this afternoon.



Anyway, I'm trying to hook the new computer up to the net. We have a hub that receives the cable modem input, and it is hooked up into both computers. It works fine on my fiancee's computer, always has--every post you've seen from me has been from her computer, including this one. But for some reason, I can not get the new computer to get on the net; had the same problem with my old computer. It's gotten far enough that it recognizes that there is a network and that there is another computer on it, but it will not work for the life of me. Help this poor, hopeless technophobe.

[KrazyHorse]

Here's a quick networking question: what's the difference between a hub and a router? And what can you do with one that you can't do with the other?

[Urban Ranger]

You need a router, not a hub.

The difference is the router can be seen as a node on a network, not a hub. Since I presume you only get one IP for your cable modem subscription, only one computer can use it. The way to get around this is to use a router that has a proxy function. Connect the router to the cable modem, and connect your computers to the router. Doing so makes the other end thinks that there is only one computer connected, even though you can have 4 (or whatever number the router allows).

Also, a router allows every user to connect at full speed. A hub shares the bandwidth.

[KrazyHorse]

Also, a router allows every user to connect at full speed. A hub shares the bandwidth.

The rest of your post makes sense, but this part doesn't.

If it's all coming in through the same modem then how come you can get 2 computers at 10 mbit/s when before you could only get 1 at 10 mbit/s

[Urban Ranger]

This Linksys Etherfast router is one of the more popular ones.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Frogger

Also, a router allows every user to connect at full speed. A hub shares the bandwidth.

The rest of your post makes sense, but this part doesn't.

If it's all coming in through the same modem then how come you can get 2 computers at 10 mbit/s when before you could only get 1 at 10 mbit/s

Each computer connected sees only a dedicated channel. Granted, if more than one computer uses the Internet connection at the same time, the speed drops. That's not the case most of the time, though.

[Asher]

There's also a switched hub, which is very similar to a hub but everyone also has dedicated bandwidth.

I use a 5-port 100Mbps switched hub, and every single outlet gets 100Mbps of bandwidth. If this was a typical hub, all 5 ports would share 100Mbps of bandwidth.

A router functions similarly to the hub, but has some advanced firmware and programmability on it. You can use it as a sort of hardware firewall, you can make it share IPs across several computers easily, etc. It can also cause some headaches with some programs and stuff like Xbox Live though.

[Wraith]

--"We have a hub that receives the cable modem input, and it is hooked up into both computers."

I assume this is actually one of those Cable/DSL routers with a switch built in. If not let me know exactly what you've got.

If it is, this should be simple. Recent Dell, so I'm assuming it's running XP Home. Right click on Network Places (or Network Neighborhood, whichever they've titled it), and select properties. Right click your LAN connection and select properties. Select TCP/IP and hit properties (see a pattern? ).

There should be a box checked that says something like "automatically find an IP address". If it isn't checked, check it.

--" what's the difference between a hub and a router?"

Ignore what these other people are telling you.

A hub is a simple repeater. What comes in one port gets repeated out all the other ports. It's the most basic way of connecting many computers together in a network.

A router is a different beast. It connects two different networks (a hub is within one network). It's a higher-level entitity, but it's kind of difficult to explain exactly what it does unless you're at least basically familiar with networks.

Think of it as the difference between a local call (hub or switch) and a long distance one (router).

As for hubs and switches, the first is a simple repeater (think party line; everyone shares the resources), a switch is pickier about what it sends where. It tries to send the information only to the specific client it's meant for, rather than just repeating it to everyone (standard phone line).

--" If it's all coming in through the same modem then how come you can get 2 computers at 10 mbit/s when before you could only get 1 at 10 mbit/s"

He is a little confused. Having a switch instead of a router won't do anything to speed up your DSL line. What it will do is speed up the connection between computers connected to your switch (no waiting for the other guys on the party line to get off the phone before you make your call).

Wraith
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port
& the bus is interrupted as a very last resort
& the memory address makes your processes abort
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!

[Guynemer]

That box is already checked, Wraith.

The setup that we have worked over a year ago, before we moved into our new place. We checked and rechecked to make sure everything was plugged in correctly once we moved, but for some reason my computer could no longer use the net. Which, naturally, makes me think we ****ed up somewhere... her father is the one who initially set everything up.

I just took a quick look at the hookup. (Take this with a grain of salt, since I am not technosavvy.) The cable comes into an external cable modem, which then sends input into my fiancee's computer. There is then a connection from her computer to the hub (I'll just assume this is an Ethernet connection), and then a connection from the hub to my computer.

In the setup that we currently have, the hub seems sorta... superfluous. Would it work if I just directly connected her computer to mine via the ethernet cables, or would that not make a difference?

When I bring up the Network Neighborhood equivalent on my computer, I can see her computer, but I can't access it. When I look at Network Neighborhood on her computer, I can not see my computer.


...don't worry. Though I seem quite stupid when it comes to this, I'm a fairly competant medical student, and I shouldn't kill any more than 1 out of the 4 of you who have responded thus far.

[Wraith]

--"The cable comes into an external cable modem, which then sends input into my fiancee's computer."

Ah, I see. This would be a more complicated set up.

The easiest thing to do would be to get a cable/DSL router with the built-in switch, probably a four port. Then you can run the cable modem to the router, and run both computers off of it.

Running your computer through the other one would require setting up Windows ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). It'd be a bigger hassle, and it's one I can't really help with (partly because I dislike doing Windows tech support, and partly because I've never used ICS). You should be able to find guides on the net if you search Google.

Wraith
Hardware /nm./: the part of the computer that you can kick.

[General Ludd]

I'm going to be attempting tos et up a network in the future aswell. I could get the dual lan optional feature on the a7n8x motherboard that I plan on geting - would that be of any use? From what I understand, it would allow me to connect my old computer to my new computer, and my new computer to my cable modem.

[Urban Ranger]

AFAIK, you can't do a peer-to-peer in XP Home, which is what you have now.

Anyway, you need two network cards in your SO's computer, and you need to make sure that both are bound to TCP/IP. If your ISP uses a program to connect to the broadband service, it should only bind to the network card that is connected to the cable modem. You need to set a static IP for her second network card, and also for the network card in your computer as well. Whatever you do, never use the IP address 127.0.0.1. You probably need to enable IP forwarding on her computer as well.

For your computers to see each other on the Network Neighbourhood, enable NetBIOS.

[Urban Ranger]

Osweld,

The easiest way to do it is to use a cable/DSL modem with a built-in switch. The dual NIC (probably the nForce2 chipset) is useful on a LAN, but if you need to connect more than one computer to broadband, it's more complicated than necessary.

[Guynemer]

Well, fiddling around with various settings has resulted in both our computers now recognizing the presense of each other, and accessing each other. But still, no internet on my computer.

I tried playing with ICS, but unfortunately her version of Windows is old enough that it won't work with my computer; this seems like it ought to be the Big Problem. I just don't know how to fix it. Would it work if I connected the modem to the hub, instead of her computer?

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Anyway, you need two network cards in your SO's computer, and you need to make sure that both are bound to TCP/IP. If your ISP uses a program to connect to the broadband service, it should only bind to the network card that is connected to the cable modem. You need to set a static IP for her second network card, and also for the network card in your computer as well. Whatever you do, never use the IP address 127.0.0.1. You probably need to enable IP forwarding on her computer as well.

Okay, I know she has two network cards; the rest was absolute Greek. Anyway you could dumb that down for me?