How to network my house?

[Stephonovich]

If you can ping a system, you have a working connection. Whether or not you can connect is dependant on a few other things such as ports being blocked, shares being open, etc., depending on what you're trying to do. As for TCP\IP 'kicking in', Windows will use whatever you tell it to. You can set a default protocol in Network Properties.

And on NetBIOS... that's now called NetBEUI, and is a whole 'nother protocol (even sucker than IPX/SPX, actually) on it's own.

 

[Edwood]

Where do all the wires go? Are they just point to point from room to room, or a bundle that leads to one or two locations

-Ed

 

[jpburton5150]

they should all go to the basement or someother area where you could put a router (possibly by your cable modem or cable box?). Basically what you do is...
1.Buy a router
2.Move your cable modem down to the basement or wherever all your wires should lead to
3.Put the ethernet plug coming from the cable modem into the corresponding port on the router
4.Plug in all the wires from the jacks all over the house into the router, if there's not enough go out and buy a hub/switch for like $20, plug that into one of the normal ethernet ports and then plug the reamining into the hub
5.boot up and you should be networked

 

[britishbane]

Yup, all the wires lead to a single point in the basement. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Bunnyears]

I've seen routers for small business use that will enable up to 8 connections. I believe linksys has one. http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=29&prid=604

Quote:

# Share your high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection with multiple computers # Built-in switch connects eight local PCs directly, and daisy-chain out to more hubs and switches as your network grows # Supports QOS, DHCP, Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP), and includes a user-friendly Setup Wizard for easy configuration # Compatible with all Internet Service Providers

 

[britishbane]

Are routers and switches specifically made for one type of connection? (cable, dsl, T3)

 

[ls20]

Quote:

Originally Posted by britishbane Are routers and switches specifically made for one type of connection? (cable, dsl, T3)

nope

networking nowadays is, basically, plug and go