router or something...

[Laz.e.rus]

Now that I have two PCs, I need to hook my G/F Mindy up with net on this one.

I dont know ANYTHING about this stuff, so any input welcome plz!

Thoughts:

- can I cap a pc's bandwidth so when shes surfing her forums/vids etc dont kill me when she spikes the bandwidth?

- Is it so bad that I should just get her a seperate dsl line instead of my cable ( ow $)

- If I put us both on cable, with or without some form of cap, should I go usb hub, or router?

- Ive heard wireless blows for gaming. True? Should I go with a wired router if this route?

- Ive seen routers from $30 - $120 so far. Including a "gamers" router. Whats the story?

- If router, what would be recommended or AVOID list? I hear people complain alot about certain routers for gaming.

 

 

etc etc

I need to do something soon though.

Thanks!

[Guest zerodamage]

Laz, I am sure Cujo and others will recommend that expensive D-link gaming router for you. That one is probably the best when it comes to capping the bandwidth of other users, or at least that is my understanding of that router. I have never used it. There is a cheap way to limit her bandwidth usage. You can put her on wireless and keep yourself on a normal ethernet hookup. In the router, you can limit the ammout of bandwidth used by the wireless connection starting at 1-Mbs.

 

I do not believe all routers will do this but my linksys does. I guess it comes down to location in your situation. How far is she from the router or the router's location? I've been using a Linksys Wireless G router with "range booster" for the past 2 years without a single problem. Great range as well. Consider this before purchasing an expensive $100+ router.

[NOFX]

a gaming router is the term for given to a normal router with maybe an extra feature, so those who know nothing of technology, but play games will buy this expensive piece of equipment.

 

If you want to get technical about it, what we call routers in our homes, aren't really routers. They are nothing more than NAT with a firewall.

 

Wireless used to be horrible, its now become alot better. I personally don't use wireless for my main PC, but I wouldn't mind giving it a try. Just get a normal wireless router, and let her use the wireless card and you use wiring if its a problem.

 

Unless your on dial up, I seriously doubt your girlfriend browsing forums will spike your bandwidth. What will kill you is if she is running bittorrent and is using alot of your upload speed. I'm confident that if she is using a consistant 75% of your down speed(on a decent connection), you will not see any difference while gaming.

 

If she is using bit-torrent, just make her use an app that has built in throttle.

 

I have lived in many college apartments with roomates using the connection. Anywhere between 4-5 people.

 

My el-cheapo D-link wireless for 20 bucks has always worked awesome.

 

I would go with a 15 dollar refurbed router.

Edited June 26, 2006 by NOFX

[Guest zerodamage]

I would avoid the cheap Dlink routers at all cost. Way too many problems with them. If you are going wireless, get a mid range linksys so you can secure it with WPA-PSK if you live near a lot of people. I say again, AVOID cheap DLINK.

[NOFX]

I say again, AVOID cheap DLINK.

 

We all have our expierences with equipment.

I bought my cheap wireless D-link off ebay about 3+ years ago and never had a problem.

[Lunk]

nofx has it right. (the concept of using a wireless router, can't say about d-link never used one )

 

I use a linksys wireless/wired router. Got my gaming pc wired to it. And my wife uses wireless for all her things. Only time I have an issue is when she is uploading photos to Costco to get them printed.

[Laz.e.rus]

Alright, looking good so far.

The spikes Im referring to: Like when she opens up forums like these and theres 100 sigs and 12 pics that all get DLd simultaneously, thatll definitely spike the bandwidth out if not capped. ( 3 megger here)

 

So , wireless for her with a cap ( even at 2Meg for her) will give her plenty.

Ive seen people in game lag all over, and I always hear "stupid wireless", thats where the ?'s came from. And Ive heard of router problems getting people dropped or cant connect without certain settings etc.

 

I take it the usb hub is bad idea then?

Thanks for the info so far guys. At least I have a clue now.

[Guest zerodamage]

Just grab a mid range Linksys and you will have the built in option to throttle the ammount of bandwidth usage on the wireless.

[appalachian_fox]

For my two cents...

 

The spikes Im referring to: Like when she opens up forums like these and theres 100 sigs and 12 pics that all get DLd simultaneously, thatll definitely spike the bandwidth out if not capped. ( 3 megger here)

[\quote]

 

Well, the answer to the question that you stated as fact is, depends on a few things, but it's possible, yes. I'd do a quick manual pull on any router you seriously consider and see what options are on it. Usually you get at least one of several including bandwidth throttling for given MAC addresses and QoS prioritization for certain services (such as games over HTTP). There's plenty of opportunities, just double-check the manuals -- I've never had a problem finding one online.

 

So , wireless for her with a cap ( even at 2Meg for her) will give her plenty.

Ive seen people in game lag all over, and I always hear "stupid wireless", thats where the ?'s came from. And Ive heard of router problems getting people dropped or cant connect without certain settings etc.

 

You know, that seems to be based on many factors. First off, what wireless cards will you be using? One of my former roommates could never get a reliable connection to his D-Link router. It was so bad in the end he wired the whole house. However, through my entire stay there I never had a single problem with the router over two or three different wireless cards. In fact, it was one of the most reliable hubs I have ever used. I prefer Linksys in recent G-hardware, which is what I run now (WRT54G, though I hear the newest hardware revision just isn't as good), but I've had good luck with just about everything I've come across, including Buffalo and others, and even though everything is nominally "interoperable", you'll have best luck buying everything from the same manufacturer and generation.

 

As far as wireless in gaming, that's pretty much all I've been doing for the past three years. I don't game as much as many people on here, and I play CS / CS:S rarely at best, but FWIW the technology has always been sufficient for me to keep a consistently low ping throughout my session. Keep in mind that there are many factors, including Internet traffic along the route, the number of concurrent wireless users and neighboring wireless APs that can cause flaky responses.

 

I take it the usb hub is bad idea then?

 

Can you actually do that? Share the modem with a USB hub? If it is a supported configuration and everything is USB 2.0, I don't see why it wouldn't be worth trying. Personally, I'd be curious to see what would happen but would expect it to be flaky. Check to see if that's a supported cfg, first. If you try it, let us know models and such and how well it worked.

Edited June 27, 2006 by appalachian_fox

[Kruten]

Get a decent router. Wireless can be bad for gaming if you don't have a decent access point or router. When I finally got a ethernet cable going into my room i ditched the wireless, but I didn't notice much of a difference. The main problems with wireless is either you have interference and get a bad signal and slow speeds, or the wireless router or AP is crap and has a lot of packet loss. The D-Link gaming router does make a difference. It organizes and prioritizes packets for different uses like gaming, downloading, and basic websurfing. If someones downloading a bunch of torrents on another computer and you try playing CS, the game becomes the priority for bandwidth so you don't get bogged down and have a 400 ping. Eh, something along those lines. And most routers let you cap bandwidth to seperate machines.

[Laz.e.rus]

fantastic.

Hrm, I thought routers came with a card ( for her) then I plug mine in directly. Guess not eh? ANy recommendations or does it really meatter ( other than trying to stay in same manufacturuer)

 

As far as the usb hub.. thats one of the 2 options I was looking up in WinXP home networking. 1- router. 2 - hub.

can set the hub up to just share files/printer etc, or net connection too.

But thats all I know

Just use winxp help, lots gunk on it there.

[appalachian_fox]

fantastic.

Hrm, I thought routers came with a card ( for her) then I plug mine in directly. Guess not eh? ANy recommendations or does it really meatter ( other than trying to stay in same manufacturuer)

 

I've seen router kits that include the router and a wireless card or two, so if you find one that could be good. However, the standard router for sale does NOT come with anything other than the box and some cables. Shop carefully.

 

As far as the usb hub.. thats one of the 2 options I was looking up in WinXP home networking. 1- router. 2 - hub.

can set the hub up to just share files/printer etc, or net connection too.

But thats all I know

Just use winxp help, lots gunk on it there.

 

Checking WinXP help (very) briefly, all I see in relation to hubs are specifically network hubs, not USB. Network hubs have gone the way of the dodo, even for small applications, and have been replaced by switches. Pretty much all SOHO routers have 4-port switches in the back of the machine for firewall operation. I didn't see any reference to USB hubs.

 

Either way, a router cannot hurt: If you have to buy a switch to network the two computers anyway, it's not much more expensive to get a wireless router and you get the advantage of (duh) wireless access if you want it and a generally more robust access control system / packet prioritizing options, though the new modems are pretty slick these days, too. If you're running off of an older modem (say you bought one off of eBay to not pay the modem lease) you may also benefit from the firewall protection NAT inherently provides, but most modern modems do the same thing already.

[Laz.e.rus]

Gah!! Help! lol

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....SubCategory=145

 

Also, something I ws wondering about: printer sharing etc. Thats not possible using only a router is it? Or is that the only advantage of going the "old" route of linking the pcs together.

 

Sharing files between the two pcs as well as the printers etc would be a concern for me.

[akaM2]

if your on the same network you can share files/printers, no need for extra cables.

 

I listen to and watch movies on my laptop that are being streamed from my computer, also i can print off anything from my laptop on my computer's printer.

 

just right click the printer and say share, or click properties and click share

[Laz.e.rus]

so two pcs on the same Linsys router ( one hardwired and one wireless-card) actually IS a full network?

I understand why the internet connection would be shared, but files and printers etc would also be shared through the router?

[akaM2]

so two pcs on the same Linsys router ( one hardwired and one wireless-card) actually IS a full network?

I understand why the internet connection would be shared, but files and printers etc would also be shared through the router?

 

yes just run the network setup wizard, and make sure there both on mshome or workgroup, those are the usual defaults

[Brillow_Head]

Used a linksys wireless B router for two years and never had a problem with gamming. In fact, I had a steady 1.7 to 1.8 ktd ratio when I was on wireless and now that I'm wired I cant get above 1.6 (i'm in a slump).

 

As long as you're the only one on the link, wireless is fine.

Edited June 30, 2006 by Brillow_Head

[Laz.e.rus]

MMmk.

got my linksys router and usb adapter for the other all hooked up

Internet works on both, printer works across both ( printer was a pain to figure out though)

 

Question:

When I want to enable security on the PC with the adapter, I select Twik or whatever, then type in a code for the password thing.

Then it all takes a crap

 

I can select security on the adapter one easy enough...its part of the profile. But how do I match it up on this one with the router?

Its a wrt54g router and a wusb54g adapter if that helps.

In my network places, I have Opty1 ( this one), MINDY ( hers obviously), and Bodi8psomethinsomethin. I dunno if Bodi.... is another name for this primary computer, or if Ive already picked someone up. DOnt like that 2nd choice so much...

Help?

[mookie]

I think what you're looking for is WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy; yeah right) unless there's something else out there also. Should be somewhere in the web interface for the router (i.e. just go to http://192.168.1.1 or whatever the private IP is). Make sure you change the password too, nothing worse than someone else changing the password on your router so you can't put a password on to keep them out (of course a reset to factory default would fix that, but better not to need it).

 

So, in summation... WEP

 

As far as matching the keys I think it gets converted to ASCII, so if one takes letters and the other takes numbers you may have to convert. If you know your hex, lowercase 'a' is 0x61 and letters count up from there; 'A' is 0x41, and autobanntbyname is 0x30.

 

And my guess would be that your second guess is right, unless the printer is hooked directly up to the router in which case it could be that.

[Guest zerodamage]

You want to use WPA-PSK. There should be an option for WPA Personal. Chose that and the TKIP option. This lets you chose a Passphrase. You do NOT want WEP if you can help it. Create a password on the router first, then you tell the network adapter on her computer what the password is, and you are all done.

[Laz.e.rus]

You want to use WPA-PSK. There should be an option for WPA Personal. Chose that and the TKIP option. This lets you chose a Passphrase. You do NOT want WEP if you can help it. Create a password on the router first, then you tell the network adapter on her computer what the password is, and you are all done.

 

yeah, thats it

tkip

I cant find it on the router. It was easy on the adapter. Just in the connection profile.

I changed the actual router control password right away. Of course there is a big long key already attached. But I think that is an indentifier for the adapter rather than some sort of encryption?

Scratch that. I jsut connected to the router control and I see it now. The key IS the wpa-personal passphrase and its set to autorenew every 3600 seconds.

Guess Im good to go.

[mookie]

Scratch that. I jsut connected to the router control and I see it now. The key IS the wpa-personal passphrase and its set to autorenew every 3600 seconds.

Guess Im good to go.

I wish my router was good like that. I can't even get it to do WEP let alone do anything automatically.

[Laz.e.rus]

I did a test. Refreshed GC forums while I was playing CS on the other machine. Ping spiked from 30 to 135 back to 45 to 30.

Was reallly fast though. So, Ill have to control that xomehow. Ill do a DL test later to see how bad that is.

Mulitiple simultaneous speedtest DLs show the wired rig at 2.2Mbits while the wireless rig gets 1.2 so at least its giving some preference to the wired rig so far.

[mookie]

So, Ill have to control that xomehow.

Somewhere a bit back two threads were posted about speeding up FireFox by increasing the number of simultaneous downloads it would do (pipelining or some technical term like that). I'd imagine you could do the reverse also. If she's not already running FF, kill 2 birds with one stone.

 

http://www.gamrs.co/forums/in...topic=26887&hl=

bam!

 

If you either switch pipelining off or drop the simultaneous requests way down it should really reduce the burstiness of web browsing.

 

I had my maxrequests set to 64 for when I was on 10mbps; I just changed it down to 4 and it's not spiking my ping up to 500ms anymore.

nvm still doing that

Edited July 1, 2006 by mookie

[Laz.e.rus]

Ive discovered that trying to do a trace route to a game server yields only 1 single hop to "LAN". Of course the bright side is that my "ping" will never go above 10 ..... to anywhere.....ever... lol. Urk :/