Cable Internet Noob Question

[Barinthus]

Ok I'm completely clueless about cable internet.

I am forced to move out of my current residence so I am looking at possible places to rent.

One place I like is near my work and people there are cool. There's also plenty of storage space which I need for my stuff while I ebay them off.

One thing I must have is good internet access in my room (I need my Guild Wars!).

This place have cable internet but the router is downstairs. People there seems positive that the cable outlet in my room which is cable ready (as I being able to get cable TV channels on my TV) also can be used for internet access.

This just occured to me - I would need a router for this?

How does this work?

Thanks for your help!

[Asher]

You need a cable modem to hook up to the cable outlet. Depending on the provider, there is a maximum number per household.

What people usually do is get one cable modem (the ISP will either sell it to you or "rent" it to you, usually), and then hook it up to a router of some kind to split the internet connection among many devices/computers.

If they already have a cable modem and you can use their service, you just need to hook into their router. If they don't have a router, then you should get one.

The router connects to the modem, and then you connect all the devices to the router. They all share the modem.

[Barinthus]

Yeah they got a router. But its in their office downstairs and my bedroom would be upstairs. They didnt look too thrilled about the idea of blue wire running thru the house up the stairs.

How much does a router usually run?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Barinthus
Yeah they got a router. But its in their office downstairs and my bedroom would be upstairs. They didnt look too thrilled about the idea of blue wire running thru the house up the stairs.

How much does a router usually run?

If they only have a wired router, your options are this:

1) See if you can get your own internet connection (you'd have to contact the ISP)
2) Replace their wired router with a combination wired/wireless router which is extremely common these days

Then you don't need to run a wire.

The price range is huge, I've seen some for $30CDN (boxing day sales though), others hundreds of dollars. You usually only need a basic one...

[KrazyHorse]

In addition to buying a combo wired/wireless router (most wireless routers are actually combos) you will need to get a wireless adapter if your computer doesn't already have one.

If you own a laptop bought in the last 2-3 years you probably already have a wireless adapter. If you own an older laptop or a desktop then you will probably have to purchase one.

[Sava]

get a wireless router and then you can access the internet from anywhere in the house

just be sure the other computers have wireless cards

[Terra Nullius]

Has anyone here heard of Cat-5 cabling?

Especially as the flatmates already said they don't want Bluetooth.

edit: oops. my bad. f/mates don't want blue wire
just ignore me. that works best for most people

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Terra Nullius
Has anyone here heard of Cat-5 cabling?

Especially as the flatmates already said they don't want Bluetooth.

edit: oops. my bad. f/mates don't want blue wire
just ignore me. that works best for most people

IIRC Cat 5 is the standard ethernet cable.

[Urban Ranger]

Yeah, cat5 is standard 100baseT cable.

[Sava]

if you ever plan on getting Gigabit speed network, get cat6 cables...

I've got gigabit cards in 3 of my PC's that I regularly transfer large files between and the speeds are amazing, but it's recommended you use cat6 cables for those

cat5 you can use (for some cards), but cat6 is better (also costs more though)

depends what your uses are... if you are transfering things between PC's a lot and want extra speed, gigabit is the way to go...

[Datajack Franit]

yeah get the damn router if you don't want the rest of the family to bother you about the goddamn internet cable

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Sava
I've got gigabit cards in 3 of my PC's that I regularly transfer large files between and the speeds are amazing, but it's recommended you use cat6 cables for those

Why do you want porn movies on all of them?

[:) Smiley]

just use gray wires. or white wires. or yellow wires.

[Barinthus]

Turned out that they decided to get a wireless modem so I just will have to buy a card for my computer (desktop).

Got any recommendations?

[Sava]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Why do you want porn movies on all of them?

dirty minds