a few Qs about networking and sharing DSL connection.

[nurdonsite2]

ok, first of all, im totally new to this area of computers ( meaning i know next to nothing). im going to be putting togather my second comp pretty soon and i need to know if i should network them or just share internet connection. now having said that, i need to know what a network can do and why would it be useful to me. and also how wold i set it up (hardware needed, software needed ect). and how can i share my dsl connection within a network? and ur welcome to suggest anything else that would be useful to my understanding of networking.

[Bob The Great]

I would deffinatly go network. You can buy a simple crossover cable and that will get them networked and you can share the connection with the other PC. While that would work it could be easier.

I would suggest looking into a router like the Netgear RP640. Its a good 10/100 router so it will allow you to play games over your network. It will also allow you to have DSL for either computer no matter if one is off as long as your DSL modem is external and uses RJ45 cableing.

You'll also need 2 nics (well probably one considering most likely your current machine for dsl probably has one already).

A total cost of about $60 or so. You can get more alborite by having wireless but this is probably the simpleist.

[nurdonsite2]

ok so ur saying that i casn have both a network and share a dsl connection with a router? how would i go about getting a network. and what are the advantages of setting up a network? is it like u can have all ur music files on one machine's harddrive and u can play it from the other or somehting like that?

[ShawnD1]

The advantages of a network that I know of.
1. Your computer can use and change files on another computer as if it was on your hard drive.
2. You are able to share printers.
3. You don't need to buy another internet connection.
4. The router provides excellent security.
5. You can actually run programs directly from another computer such as MS Word, Excel, Photoshop. Any program that requires very little information flow at one time can be easily run from a different computer in the network. Thinks like games can't be run like this though. I tried playing SimCity3000 from my room mate's computer and it was just brutaly slow, the game required too much information flow.

Here are some little disadvantages of a network.
1. You can't send files through MSN, ICQ or any other chat program.



All signs point to network

*fixed major grammer errors*

[meese]

This link describes how to setup a simple network with a router:

http://www.motherboards.org/articles...es/1184_3.html

[nurdonsite2]

ok, thanx for ur help guys!