posted on January 16, 2001 06:11:06 AM
Hi- I have one PC on a cable modem, I need to hook up a second PC to my Cable Line. The cable company says I need a NIC card and a LAN. Can anyone tell me what a LAN is, and how to I use it. Will Best Buy have it? How much may this run?
posted on January 16, 2001 06:25:31 AM
A NIC card is a Network Interface Card (also known as Network Card and Ethernet Card). A LAN is a Local Area Network. You can buy home networking kits at BestBuy which would include two network cards and a hub (this is what connects your computers and the cable modem as one big group). You won't need to worry about software to run the network as Windows 95, 98 and Me all have that built in.
You're probably looking at about $100 for the equipment. One question though. If you currently don't have a network card in your computer, how does the cable data make it into your computer? If there is a card that has been put inside your computer by the installer then that makes things a bit more complicated.
If you can have someone assist you that is familiar with networking you may want to consider that. The computers will need to be opened up and the network cards installed and then everything connected together with cables. Then the computers will have to be set up with the correct settings in your windows software so that they will talk to each other and the outside world.
posted on January 16, 2001 06:27:39 AM
A LAN is a Local Area Network, in your case, a home network. You first need to connect the two computers using networking cable, and either a hub or a router. Since you want to share your cable connection, one of the best ways to do this is with a Router.
You need to do some reading on setting up a home network, that is the first thing you need to get up and running. Once that is working correctly, then you can use the Router to share the cable connection to each system.
We use a Linksys 4 port Cable/DSL router to share our cable connection on our 3 computer home network. If you use a router such as this, you won't need an extra NIC in your main system.
There are other ways to share your internet that work but are not as good. Using a router gives you a hardware firewall which protects from hackers. Anyone using Cable should have some sort of firewall.
posted on January 16, 2001 07:58:14 AM
I had the Cable Company put in my internet service and I know they put something in my PC (I assume it was a NIC card)..Thanks for the suggestions! I'll read up and try it! Thanks a million!
posted on January 16, 2001 09:02:06 AM
They probably installed the actual cable modem in your computer. That makes the configuration of things a bit more tricky. You then have to make your first computer the connection for your second computer. It's not nearly as straightforward as having an external cable modem or DSL router.
Keep in mind, also... If the cable modem is indeed inside the first computer. That computer must be on any time the other computer needs to use the connection. The information would have to pass through that computer and into the other.
posted on January 16, 2001 09:10:29 AM
If you use a Router to share out the connections, the status of the main system has no bearing on the other computers. That is one reason using a Router is the best way to go. Each system is assigned their own IP address, and they function independently of the others.
First get the home network up and running, then install the router between the cable modem and the other systems. Linksys has great instructions, we had ours up and running in about 20 minutes. Our network was working before we added the router.
The cable company did install a NIC to your system when it hooked up the cable. Most modems are external, do you also have a box of some sort sitting near your computer that the cable company brought? The NIC and the modem are two different things.
posted on January 16, 2001 02:01:31 PM
Meya: Yes, it does make a difference. If the cable modem is of the type that is physically installed inside the computer. Turn the computer off and the cable modem goes with it. It runs off the computer power. There are lots of cable modems out there like this. Many systems do this: 1) to be cheap and 2) to limit the amount of traffic on their system and to utilize PPPoE
Also, if it's an internal modem then there is no place to put a router between. It's inside the computer taking up a PCI slot.
[ edited by avaloncourt on Jan 16, 2001 02:04 PM ]
posted on January 16, 2001 02:33:00 PM
I wonder then, if the modem is internal if you could install a second NIC and use a router that way. I suppose if that is the case, and you HAVE to use a second NIC to share out the connection, the router would be worthless. You would have to use either the internet connection software supplied with Win98 or ME, or use Wingate or Sygate.
We shared our connection using the 2 NIC method and Sygate when we first set up our home LAN, but prefer the router method.
I hope RR doesn't start using internal modems. At this point, in my area, they haven't yet.
A very good place to start your reading is at this site:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/index.htm
As you probably have gathered from the other responses, there are more than one way to do this. There are ways to use your phone lines, wireless options etc-what makes sense fr one person isn't always the best answer for others-you have to do the research.
Meya,
You need to know that your linksys router does nothing to sstop TCP/IP packets and you can be hacked that way. You should also be running a software firewall on each seperate machine on your LAN or you are vulnerable.
You may want to use this site to test your current security level.
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
posted on January 17, 2001 06:27:08 AM
Umm ok. Lots of great info in this thread but also some that might mislead a network newbie.
A-You would not ever use a REAL router (cost $700 & up) to connect 2 computers. There are some special cable routers that would be ideal and cost about $150.
B-What they installed inside your computer was likely a NIC connected by wire to an external modem. Does the card they installed run a wire to a small box outside your computer that has lights on it?
C- If you Have Win 95/98/ME it is possible to network 2 computers with just 1 cable and 2 NICs. It is called a cross over cable. A good low cost home network kit can be found on sale as low as $50 ans is probably a better choice. I would suggest Netgear followed by Linksys.
If you have additional questions post them and you'll like get some great answers from the group. Good luck!
I just answered quickly is all.