network help

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

Wired is definately better than wireless.

I'm not sure what to suggest as far as brands, mainly what I've done is used old pcs with IPCop.

I need to get another old PC, the last one died 

Reason I go with the old PC to use as a router with IPCop is because most routers you buy tend to crash under heavy load with too many connections, IPCop or Smoothwall won't crash because of this.  Since I use BitTorrent almost 24/7 it's important to me to be able to have as many connections as possible.  That and the ethernet port on my modem don't work <_<;;

[X'tyfe]

iv heard some nasty stuff about linksys too
if you say d-link is good, then ill probabaly try it out

im confused rofl, what do those programs do solo?
if i think i know what your talkin about
i was doing that kind of thing before i had even had a router or a hub
it wasent all that great

thats where you need to have a host computer on all the time for the net to work on the others
you need 2 nics in the host comp, it caused some problems. i forget what software i used back then for doing that

 i need to repalce one of the cat-5 cables going to one of the other comps too
it got kinked or squished really bad and there is some small holes in the insolation
it still works somehow tho haha

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

Smoothwall and IPCop are Linux distros that are used on a computer to make it a router, yes you need to have it on for the other computer to connect, because it's your router.  No monitor, keyboard, or mouse required. (Monitor and keyboard required for installation only)

I use IPCop for the USB support, since the ethernet on my modem don't work, fried in a thunderstorm.

Just put two NICs on the PC your using as the router, burn the Smoothwall or IPCop ISO, or you can do a network install, install the one you chose, set one NIC as RED (internet) and the other as GREEN (LAN), connect your modoem to the one set as RED, then connect the one set as GREEN to your switch or hub, and connect all the computers to the switch or hub.  It's really easy to setup and use, and cheap if you have an old computer laying around that you don't use.

[applejacks]

Xtife what isp are you using? just Get a dsl/cable router with built in switch
there should be some that your isp offers. and you can see whats recommended on your isp forum
try www.dslreports.com go to the forums section find your dsl/cable and fourm

personally i use a caymen router with 4port switch 3 branch out to wired computers one goes out to the linkshit wireless router(yes the older pre cisco take over of linkysys routers are total crap) i have 2 laptops that hook up to the wireless. The wire less is good for a laptop and all and browsing aroung but if your into gaming i suggest you stick to wired connection. All wireless encryption to date has been cracked and is easy to do, in fact there are faqs on how to crak wep and other things posted on the net. Even noobs can get it done in a short time.

But anyway in the router you can have options on the firewall how secure you want it or not secure at all. Also they use nat.
If you run any services youll have to do port forwarding/pinholes/open ports blah blah in it. all you do is tell it what computer you want to host a service or enable a service to pass though. but if your not really hosting anything you can turn the firewall on. If you use irc youll have to open ports to send things out. to recieve no. 
Good luck on what you deciede to do.

[themuffinman]

I didn't read every reply, so I might be repeating here, but if you want one IP, then you need an internet server pc. So in other words, the router only connects to one pc, and all other pcs access the net through this pc. There's a few complications though. One being that your connection will be slower on the rest of the computers, as they're going through another pc to access the net, not a direct connection. Also, the server must be faster than the rest of the computers (obviously), otherwise you'll have loads of lag.

[X'tyfe]

ya corn, i did that once before, it totaly sucks 
i use rogers cable for my connection around here, its about 6mb afaik. pretty damn fast
the thing i dont like about routers is the hassle with opening ports for every single program that uses the net
some program dont even tell me what ports they use either, so im hoping that website will be able to help me some that solo provided

ill figure it out one way or another, even if it means one person goign without internet  lol