On Tuesday 08 July 2003 07:55 am, you wrote:
> sorry about the confusion...
>
> i have set up a second computer for the wife to get her email in another
> part of my apartment and wanted to connect it to RR.
>
> i do not have the funds to purchase a new wireless router (Linksys WRT54G
> - $129.99) or wireless network card (Linksys WMP54G - $69.99).
>
> i also have a spare cable modem (3com CMX) that i was hoping to just hook
> up and pay < $20/month for the second connection.
>
> i guess my wife will just have to deal with the 25' cat 5 cable going
> from room-to-room for now.
>
> thanks,
> thor
>
> btw: i found several network devices which used the existing cable wiring
> but i wasn't sure how reliable they would be in an apartment complex.
>
> any thoughts?
If you can find an old computer (any class) it can run some router &
firewall s/w which will make your setup more pleasant as far as
communication between the two goes. You have f.ex. freesco.org which is
quite nice w web access as well as direct access. It runs of single floppy,
two nics and 8MB RAM. Others work similarly.
I prefer OpenBSD myself, as it is the most secure O/S out there (and only
takes 20 min to install).
Anyway, By setting up a router & f/w box after the cable modem you can have
as many computers as you want and they will both be protected by the f/w.
You could go wireless but I would not wish that on anyone as security is
still easily bypassed so why take the risk? (Target machines becomes not
only targets for "vandals" but a storing place for hacking tools, and/or a
jump point to hack others from.)
When you pull twisted pairs like CAT 3, 5, 5e, etc. you should not wrap
metal around, or through, the cable as it interferes with the magnetic
shield that the twisted pair creates. (This degrades performance and adds
extra traffic to correct corrupt packets, and can even make it useless.
(Often I see cable being kept in place by drop ceiling metal wire holding it
up in a U. This is not a good idea. Instead hang it in a 2 tiewrap harness
which is strapped to the metal wire.) This problem may not be as visible on
lower speeds as on higher speeds as it is simply more sensitive to
interruptions.) You should cross perpendicular to electrical and ground
wires, including metal walls. Use 12" distance to florescent lights and 4"
away from power outlets.
When you crimp RJ45 plugs/jacks use the B color scheme. A is seldom used,
this way you remain standard. Finally fixed cable is usually not stranded,
which means the plugs and jacks must also be made for single strand wire.
Terminate each end to a fixed wall outlet. You use flexable (multi strand)
cable only when it may be moved around. Like for patching your
computer/devices into the fixed wiring. (Why patch panels are used to
terminate fixed wiring.) This way you don't break cable running inside the
wall.
Don't force too tight 90 degree turns with the cable either. Give it a bit
of a soft turn. I usually clamp down the cable no closer than 2 inches to
the turn.
Plain single (phone) lines usually works in the worst conditions, but if you
were to later increase the speed over the wire you could be in trouble.
Always use the highest standards available to you, in the long run it
invariably pays off. Chasing down wire problems can be tricky and time
consuming, do it right the first time.
If you connect 10Mb devices to a higher speed network like 100Mb realize
that the whole network sends one electrical pulse over the whole network so
slower connections will degrade the overall performance. The way around it
is to use seperate network legs where a NIC is connected to each side. Like
between your cable modem running at cable speed and maybe only offer 10Mb
ethernet. By plugging that 10 into a NIC in a firewall and then having a
different 100Mb on the inside does not affect the LAN speed.
|cablemodem|---10Mb---|firewall|---100Mb---|switch|-->(each computer)
I think I covered most of the main points here...
As far as Brighhouse goes I think most have a good experience, myself
included. Some have been treated absolutely horribly, but most I'd say are
positive. They know that properly serviced they can win DSL users over with
much better price performance and usually do so. My connection is around
2Mbit down and 768Kbit up.
Have a good connection! : )
--Steve ___________ Sigless?
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