[X-Newbies] First time LAN

[Steven Rogers]

On Oct 10, 2005, at 11:09 AM, Tony Johansen wrote:

> I need some advice please. I have cable broadband connected to an eMac
> (about 18 months old)
>
> I wish to connect my wife's graphite iMac running OS 9.2 and an old  
> Hewlett
> Packard Vectra VE running Windows 2000. Both so they can all access  
> the
> cable, but also to swap files if that is possible from the  
> computers being
> linked. I presume the router will have a new IP address, or am I  
> wrong on
> that one?
>
> The most economical way I can figure is with a NetGear RP614  4- 
> port router
> and ethernet cable. It is half the cost of Airport.
>
> I need to know if the old iMac will be a problem, (or the HP for  
> that matter
> - I can do without the PC, but the iMac must be part of any  
> network) and any
> other potential problems I should watch for.

No computer made in the last 10 years or so will be a problem. Using  
a little 4 port home router, you set each of the computers on your  
local network to use DHCP for network addresses, plug them into the  
router, plug the router into the cable modem, and you're done (more  
or less).

The "ports" are just for convenience. It does not mean that the  
router can support 4 computers - it can probably support about 50  
through the use of additional hubs. So don't pay extra for more ports  
unless it fits your configuration - i.e. the computers are close  
together and would plug directly into the router on their own  
ethernet cables.

DHCP allows the router to assign IP addresses to the computers on the  
network as they start up. It presents one IP address to the outside  
world, and sends the incoming traffic to the right computer on the  
local network. There are a lot of options in terms of how the router  
can be set up, but most routers (in the past year or two) have a  
reasonable "out of the box" configuration.

Initial cost might not be the most important thing, since a  
troublesome router can waste tons of your time. Netgear is probably  
OK. Linksys used to be good, but the quality is unreliable now,  
though their manuals are reasonably well written. SMC has quality  
gear, but the manuals are just horrible. I'm not really up on the  
latest on D-link and Belkin. You can usually get a good idea by  
looking through the review sites.

SR