Cable modem or what Q

[Oboy]

Looks like I can get hooked up to cable from Comcast. My Q is,

I will be networking all the puters in the house (3 of them), so what do I need to get? Modem, router, or what?? I will be using a server, then hooking up the other puters via the network.

Thanks,
Oboy

[Gurm]

The way Comcast works, you can oftentimes just use a hub/switch. But of course this is not a great idea, since they don't REALLY want to give you multiple IP addresses, and sometimes you get bumped off.

What you want is a 4-port (or 8-port, whatever) switch/router. It will act as your firewall as well, which is good.

I use the Linksys 10/100 4-port.

- Gurm

[UtwigMU]

What Gurm said.

I use Level-one 1405TX 10/100 w/4 port.

After that consider cabling. Crimping is easy.

Plan for one central location in house for router, possible print server, p2p server, etc.

Run 1 or 2 cables per room, you can also run phone through CAT5 and you can plug small phone jacks into RJ45 sockets. If you need more cables per room, it's cheaper and less hassle to just put a 4-port switch in the room.

If possible run cables under walls (in plastic tubes) and install wall sockets. Consider that networking cabling might change in the future, so make it possible to easy run another cable.

Make sure cables are at least 2m and at most 100m from switch to NIC.

Least hassle is to have Router act as DHCP server.

WRT to security: Make sure your boxes are behind firewall. Either use software firewall per box (if you need different restrictions or you want to control what goes out) or hardware firewall on router.

Wireless is a potential security problem, more expensive and slower.

[Dilitante1]

You can always use the wireless version of cable/dsl router as well no wires involved for other PCs (keeps wife happy) and as long as your server is wired to it you get full speed

[Helevitia]

Get a 4 port linksys switch with or without wireless. All your problems are solved.

Dave