[kris23]

ok, with the whole expense of WiFi (PCI cards, routers hubs, etc.) im thinking of just screwing the whole deal and running a bunch of ethernet cables all over the house through the walls.

now i'm wondering, with the length of these things, is there any sort of particular cable i should be looking for to transfer the signal a few hundred feet?

i seen how some cables have signal integrity issues so im looking for good ones that can transfer large amounts of data at high speeds with little quality loss.

also, is there a particular kind of hub (or a good one) that i would need or recommend?

thanks dudes!

[Tril]

I have a few computer connected together at home on a 100 Mbps network. I have a switch that support 10/100 Mbps and a few cat5e ethernet cables that range from 5 to 50 feet.

You don't need anything complicated to get it to work. I you have a few recent computers, they might have cards that support 1000 Mbps transfer. If you want your network to support that speed, you need a switch and cables that support it (should probably be written 10/100/1000 on the packages).

I can't recommand any types or brands or cables and switch. If you buy a switch, take into account your network growth (i.e. it might be getter to get a switch with more ports than you need right now).

When you buy the cables, I recommend to get cables that have a protection on the tab that locks the cable in the switch. If you disconnect the cable someday and pull on it (I know you should not do that but it can happen), you could break the small tab by mistake.

[kris23]

k thanks man, do you know the difference between a switch like this one:

Newegg.com - D-Link DGS-2208 10/20/100/1000/2000Mbps Desktop Switch 8 x RJ-45 Ports 8K MAC Address Table 144KB per Device Packet Buffer Memory - Retail

and a router like this?

Newegg.com - D-Link DGL-4100 10/100/1000Mbps GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit Gaming Router 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN Ports - Retail

im planning on using this Category 6 cable as it seems to be the only stuff that outputs at 550Mhz.

Newegg.com - Link Depot C6M-100-GYB 100 ft. Cat 6 Gray Network Cable - Retail

sound good?

[Tril]

The first one can only be connected between your computers. If you tried to connect it to internet, it would not work or if it did, it would give an internet ip for each computer (isp charge for each ip you use, if you can use more than one).

The second one can be connected to the internet (one internet ip for many computers) and contains wireless support. You can connect computer by wire and by wireless to it. The wireless connection usually works to get internet and to connect to the wired computers (file sharing works between the wired computers and wireless computers).

It might be useful to get wireless if you plan on getting a laptop later or if you plan on not wiring all your pc.

The way it works with the second one is, you connect it to your internet modem and you connect your pcs to the router. If the router does not have enough ports for all your computers, you can connect a switch to the router and connect computers to the switch.

[kris23]

ok, i have a wireless router (D-Link DIR-655) and all that. so i can plug the switch to my router and have things run right with internet on the switch?

[H3X4D3C1M4L]

The router has an integrated switch. The switch is basically a router without any of the internet connection/sharing functionality.

As for wiring and such.... do what I did. When I moved in here, I went to home depot, got a bunch of the plugs, wall jacks, and face plates, a crimping tool, and 200ft of Cat 5e ethernet cable (Cat6 is not necessary or worth the expense IMO). Now... I had a crawlspace to make it easier on me, every room I wanted wired had access to the crawlspace in one way or another... but doing it yourself with the crimping tool and such is not only easy (with Google to figure out which wire goes where ), but it saves money in the end and the crimping tool is useful for making your own patch cables with the leftovers or repairing old cables with broken ends.

[kris23]

ehh....the thing is that cat 5e isnt exactly found in the sizes i want on newegg (frys is waaay overpriced) and i really dont want to dremmel holes and install wire boxes, too much work......

all were gonna do is drill small holes for cable to run, then install probably another router or switch on each end... man i wish there was FIOS iin my area.....

[H3X4D3C1M4L]

I may be a bit late but Home Depot has all the stuff you might need (though I don't know if you have Home Depot in LA).

Hope Depot is pretty great.

[Judas]

Unless your jump well over the 300 ft for a single stretch of cable, your "decent quality" standard cable is going to do even 1gbps just fine. I've bought in bulk, I've got both several thousand feet of indoor (just generic blue cat5e), and several thousand feet of Pressurized Gel Cat5e for outdoor any temperature (a good bunch more, but very well shielded and pretty much can go from -100 to +100 without concern for moisture or problems). The heaviest gel stuff is overkill for inside however. (stiff to)

The only thing to worry about it NEVER kink, make 90 degree corners in it, (actually i suggest nice gentel curves for your corners and leaving alot of slack)

If you going into areas where there may be rapid temperature changes, (attics for example), the the gel stuff might be somewhat nessary.



But just get a decent router, and then run the cabling. And ALWAYS, measure the distance you need to go, then ADD 10% to it for slack and mistakes

[kris23]

I live in CA, Los Angeles CA and here theres no such things as rapid changes. never snows and only rains polluted rain......

i finally ordered some CAT 6E which should do fine in the attic, rather warm up there too.

i ordered 100ft cables, most ill need is 60ft so its good for running around the attic.

[Judas]

cat6e is a little on the extreme side lol... not nessary...

for the price, i'd start running fiber optics through the house...

btw.. .where the hell are those fiber NICs

[kris23]

the cables were only 12 bucks.... Rosewill, cheap, semi-decent company...... good enough for me. Gigabit aint going mainstream for a while so these will last a few years

fiber optic cables are hard to find as the need for them isnt that great. i guess FIOS uses them for the great distance they get and the internet speed is just getting started man....

Ordered 2 tubes of Tuniq TX-2 so i can begin covering everything in the case.

[H3X4D3C1M4L]

Originally Posted by kris23

the cables were only 12 bucks.... Rosewill, cheap, semi-decent company...... good enough for me. Gigabit aint going mainstream for a while so these will last a few years

fiber optic cables are hard to find as the need for them isnt that great. i guess FIOS uses them for the great distance they get and the internet speed is just getting started man....

Ordered 2 tubes of Tuniq TX-2 so i can begin covering everything in the case.

I would argue that gigabit has gone mainstream, what with pretty much everything (except oddly enough wireless routers) coming with gigabit hardware.

[Matth]

You must have one router to distribute broadband, then switches are what you would extend with.

Ideally, you would use a single central switch to feed all ports (a typical router would feed 4), as the main benefit of a switch is allowing port to port traffic without congesting other ports.

eg. Two PCs could be in file transfer with each other at top speed, not causing congestion with any other traffic.

If you use a single though cable and then chain another switch to feed extra ports, then that through cable is shared - won't matter for broadband sharing, as that will be the ultimate point of congestion, but may not be so good if you use networked storage (can get a very cheap NAS drive case these days) or other high speed internal network (intranet) traffic.

For broadband sharing, chaining 10/100 switches is quite acceptable, and a small home network is unlikely to require too much from the first switch (corporate/office size, then the size of the MAC table will matter).