Home Network Ideas

[Joe Bloggs]

Hi all.

I have just learned that broadband is now available in my area, and want to
set up a home network to take advantage.

I currently own (well me, the wife, and the kids!!) the following spec
pcs/latops/equipment:

1. Athlon 1300 Mhz, 64MB graphics, Epox 8KTA3+ Raid Mobo, 512 MB SDRAM, 2
x Maxtor 80GB ATA HDD, 2 x IBM 30GB ATA HDD, Lan card, WinXP Pro (mine)

2. Athlon 800Mhz, o/b graphics, PC Chips Mobo, 10GB HDD, 256 SDRAM, Lan
Card, Win XP Pro (Son 1)

3. Celeron 700Mhz, Abit BF6 Mobo, 10 GB HDD, 128 MB SDRAM, Simple
Graphics, Lan card, WIN XP Pro (Son 2)

4. Laptop - Dell P4, Ethernet card, no wireless, Win XP Pro(Wifes)

5. Pentium 133 Old machine. 2GB HDD, Some EDO RAM! (in loft but works)

6. 4 Port switch NetGear FS105

No.s 1, 2, 3 are currently set up through the switch No. 6.

Now I am currently upgrading mine, and thinking of buying a P4 3Ghz, 875P
Mobo maybe Abit IC7-MAX 3 or Microstar 875P NEOFISR , 2 x SATA HDD, (Just
won some money so gonna treat myself)

And was also thinking along the lines of a Belkin F5D7230uk4 Router/ADSL
Modem, and getting a ADSL service only (ie no hardware Package).

Does anyone have any thought or suggestions on this. I would like to end up
with, if possible:

PCs in the follwoing rooms: Study, Son 1, Son 2, and the Wifes work room,
(though this will probably be the laptop). Preferrably I would like the
LapTop to be accessible anywhere, especially the garden! (hence why I have
chosen the Wireless Router/Modem). The four rooms in question are wired for
ethernet with 2 cables each, back to a central point in the Study.

I also have a HP LaserJet 1010 USB Printer, and a HP Photosmart 7260 Photo
Printer. Can I get USB Printer Servers to use these more effectively?

Is there any benefit of setting this up with a file server (I was thinking
the Athlon 1300Mhz pc, with its raid mobo). I own Win Server 2003.

Finally, I would like a web site, and host it here, as I believe I can with
a static IP address from my chosen ISP. Is there any point/benefits with
this?? I see most ISPs offer web space. Out of interest, what sort of spec
machine would work well as a web server??

Your thoughts, ideas would be appreciated if you have the time!

Many thanks for thinking about this.

Cheers in advance

Joe

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Hi all.

I have just learned that broadband is now available in my area, and want to
set up a home network to take advantage.

I currently own (well me, the wife, and the kids!!) the following spec
pcs/latops/equipment:

1. Athlon 1300 Mhz, 64MB graphics, Epox 8KTA3+ Raid Mobo, 512 MB SDRAM, 2
x Maxtor 80GB ATA HDD, 2 x IBM 30GB ATA HDD, Lan card, WinXP Pro (mine)

2. Athlon 800Mhz, o/b graphics, PC Chips Mobo, 10GB HDD, 256 SDRAM, Lan
Card, Win XP Pro (Son 1)

3. Celeron 700Mhz, Abit BF6 Mobo, 10 GB HDD, 128 MB SDRAM, Simple
Graphics, Lan card, WIN XP Pro (Son 2)

4. Laptop - Dell P4, Ethernet card, no wireless, Win XP Pro(Wifes)

5. Pentium 133 Old machine. 2GB HDD, Some EDO RAM! (in loft but works)

6. 4 Port switch NetGear FS105

No.s 1, 2, 3 are currently set up through the switch No. 6.

Now I am currently upgrading mine, and thinking of buying a P4 3Ghz, 875P
Mobo maybe Abit IC7-MAX 3 or Microstar 875P NEOFISR , 2 x SATA HDD, (Just
won some money so gonna treat myself)

And was also thinking along the lines of a Belkin F5D7230uk4 Router/ADSL
Modem, and getting a ADSL service only (ie no hardware Package).

Does anyone have any thought or suggestions on this. I would like to end up
with, if possible:

PCs in the follwoing rooms: Study, Son 1, Son 2, and the Wifes work room,
(though this will probably be the laptop). Preferrably I would like the
LapTop to be accessible anywhere, especially the garden! (hence why I have
chosen the Wireless Router/Modem). The four rooms in question are wired for
ethernet with 2 cables each, back to a central point in the Study.

I also have a HP LaserJet 1010 USB Printer, and a HP Photosmart 7260 Photo
Printer. Can I get USB Printer Servers to use these more effectively?

Is there any benefit of setting this up with a file server (I was thinking
the Athlon 1300Mhz pc, with its raid mobo). I own Win Server 2003.

Finally, I would like a web site, and host it here, as I believe I can with
a static IP address from my chosen ISP. Is there any point/benefits with
this?? I see most ISPs offer web space. Out of interest, what sort of spec
machine would work well as a web server??

Your thoughts, ideas would be appreciated if you have the time!

Many thanks for thinking about this.

Cheers in advance

Joe

The said router is here


http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_ID=141064#

 

[George Hewitt]

PCs in the follwoing rooms: Study, Son 1, Son 2, and the Wifes work room,

(though this will probably be the laptop). Preferrably I would like the
LapTop to be accessible anywhere, especially the garden! (hence why I have
chosen the Wireless Router/Modem). The four rooms in question are wired for
ethernet with 2 cables each, back to a central point in the Study.

Is there any benefit of setting this up with a file server (I was thinking
the Athlon 1300Mhz pc, with its raid mobo). I own Win Server 2003.

If you're going to do this you might want to look into setting up that
machine as a server box, handling fileservering, printers, internet sharing
and webserver. Win Server 2003 might be regarded as overkill for the system
you are looking to setup. If you feel adventurous, I strongly suggest
looking into a Linux distribution. A good one to use which needs little
prior experience is ClarkConnect (www.clarkconnect.com). These setups are
usually very stable, I have one at home here that hasn't been
touched/rebooted in nearly two months.

Finally, I would like a web site, and host it here, as I believe I can with
a static IP address from my chosen ISP. Is there any point/benefits with
this?? I see most ISPs offer web space. Out of interest, what sort of spec
machine would work well as a web server??

Since you're probably looking at a low-hit website for personal use, IIS and
W2K3 would work fine if you chose that approache, however, the requirements
for w2k3 are much higher than those for Linux systems, such as the
abovementioned ClarkConnect. My box here is a 333MHz with 192 ram, and runs
Apache webserver abosolutely fine, alongside email/internet/file &
printsharing of course!

Hope this gives you some useful ideas.

-George

 

[sharad]

I will tell what you can do about the 133 MHz lying in the loft.
Since your network will be online and you plan a website etc.,
you will need a firewall and it's better to have firewall on a seperate
box, between the router and the server, so it will offer better security
rather than in-built firewall on a server.
By just getting 2 nos. PCI NICs, you can convert 133 MHz box in to
a dedicated firewall, (it will become exactly same like a new hardware
fireall) without spending another dime.
The box should have about 2 GB HDD and 64 MB RAM.
Follow the below link to download, install and setup the firewall:
www.smoothwall.org
(Download SmoothWall Express 2.0 Final)

Sharad

 

[John Thompson]

I have just learned that broadband is now available in my area, and want to
set up a home network to take advantage.

I currently own (well me, the wife, and the kids!!) the following spec
pcs/latops/equipment:

1. Athlon 1300 Mhz, 64MB graphics, Epox 8KTA3+ Raid Mobo, 512 MB SDRAM, 2
x Maxtor 80GB ATA HDD, 2 x IBM 30GB ATA HDD, Lan card, WinXP Pro (mine)

2. Athlon 800Mhz, o/b graphics, PC Chips Mobo, 10GB HDD, 256 SDRAM, Lan
Card, Win XP Pro (Son 1)

3. Celeron 700Mhz, Abit BF6 Mobo, 10 GB HDD, 128 MB SDRAM, Simple
Graphics, Lan card, WIN XP Pro (Son 2)

4. Laptop - Dell P4, Ethernet card, no wireless, Win XP Pro(Wifes)

5. Pentium 133 Old machine. 2GB HDD, Some EDO RAM! (in loft but works)

6. 4 Port switch NetGear FS105

No.s 1, 2, 3 are currently set up through the switch No. 6.

Now I am currently upgrading mine, and thinking of buying a P4 3Ghz, 875P
Mobo maybe Abit IC7-MAX 3 or Microstar 875P NEOFISR , 2 x SATA HDD, (Just
won some money so gonna treat myself)

And was also thinking along the lines of a Belkin F5D7230uk4 Router/ADSL
Modem, and getting a ADSL service only (ie no hardware Package).

What's wrong with using this as your router/firewall:

5. Pentium 133 Old machine. 2GB HDD, Some EDO RAM!

Put something with a small footprint, eg NetBSD or one of the dedicated
linux firewall distros and you're all set.
y

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Inline -

Joe Bloggs wrote:

And was also thinking along the lines of a Belkin F5D7230uk4
Router/ADSL Modem, and getting a ADSL service only (ie no hardware
Package).

Make sure whatever you get is a true SPI firewall. I would recommend getting
the DSL modem from your provider and putting a separate hardware firewall
between your Internet router and LAN. Most firewall/router appliances can
handle the PPPoE connection/credentials for you.

Does anyone have any thought or suggestions on this. I would like to
end up with, if possible:

PCs in the follwoing rooms: Study, Son 1, Son 2, and the Wifes work
room, (though this will probably be the laptop). Preferrably I would
like the LapTop to be accessible anywhere, especially the garden!
(hence why I have chosen the Wireless Router/Modem). The four rooms
in question are wired for ethernet with 2 cables each, back to a
central point in the Study.

If you do decide to get a separate firewall as suggested above, you can get
one w/wireless....this might be easy to set up:
http://www.netgear.com/products/details/FWAG114.php?view=

I also have a HP LaserJet 1010 USB Printer, and a HP Photosmart 7260
Photo Printer. Can I get USB Printer Servers to use these more
effectively?

If they're located next to the computers, might's well just plug them into
each PC and share them - I find this easier. There are USB print servers but
if you don't need 'em, you don't need 'em.

Is there any benefit of setting this up with a file server (I was
thinking the Athlon 1300Mhz pc, with its raid mobo). I own Win Server
2003.

I'd do it - why not set up a domain, even? No harm in it, and you get
centralized logins/security - and everyone can store their files centrally
so backups will be easier.

Finally, I would like a web site, and host it here, as I believe I
can with a static IP address from my chosen ISP. Is there any
point/benefits with this?? I see most ISPs offer web space. Out of
interest, what sort of spec machine would work well as a web server??

Don't put a public web server on your LAN - put it in a DMZ port if you want
to host your own site. But frankly, I'd not bother - I'd let the ISP or
someone else handle web hosting for you - likely to have much better kit and
more security. www.olm.net is nice and very affordable.

 

[CWatters]

Hi all.

I have just learned that broadband is now available in my area, and want to
set up a home network to take advantage.

Make sure the modem they give you has an ethernet port if they give you one
with just a USB port you have to mess about with Internet Connection Sharing
(ICS) and that can be a pain.

 

[Sunil Sood]

And was also thinking along the lines of a Belkin F5D7230uk4 Router/ADSL
Modem, and getting a ADSL service only (ie no hardware Package).

Does anyone have any thought or suggestions on this.

Assuming you are in the UK and are going to get an ADSL service the Belkin
F5D7230uk4 model is the wrong one to get, as it won't work by itself because
it doesn't contain a built in ADSL modem - though the F5D7230uk4 is fine for
NTL/Telewest cable modem users.

For ADSL, if you wanted to stick to Belkin kit you would need the
F5D7630uk4A
(http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=
158009) - around £115 from Amazon.

Regards
Sunil

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Assuming you are in the UK and are going to get an ADSL service the Belkin
F5D7230uk4 model is the wrong one to get, as it won't work by itself because
it doesn't contain a built in ADSL modem - though the F5D7230uk4 is fine for
NTL/Telewest cable modem users.

For ADSL, if you wanted to stick to Belkin kit you would need the
F5D7630uk4A
(http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=
158009) - around £115 from Amazon.

Regards
Sunil

Sunil

Thanks for the input.
But with an ADSL modem from the ISP it would right? As long as the
connection was RJ45?

J

 

[Sunil Sood]

But with an ADSL modem from the ISP it would right? As long as the
connection was RJ45?

If you choose the F5D7630uk4A then that includes the adsl modem built in.

If you choose the F5D7230uk4 then yes, you would need a seperate ADSL
modem - if the ISP supplied one then it should be fine as long as it
contains an ethernet port for the F5D7230uk4 to conenct to,

However, I have to say that I don't know of any UK ISP which bundles a non
USB modem - USB modems wont connect directly to the F5D7230uk4.

As such, if you don't have any of the equipment (and wanted Belkin kit) I
would get the 7630 - I think you will find the cost difference of 1 combined
unit (7630) or two (7230 + a ADSL modem) is probably only a few pounds -
plus in my opinion its always slightly easier dealing with 1 box rather than
2.. - the cheapest ethernet ADSL modem I know of is about £31.

Unless you know a UK ISP which is giving away ethernet modems (?), I would
go for a "Wires only" ADSL package and choose your own "All in One" wireless
solution

Regards
Sunil

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Brilliant...Many thanks

JB

If you choose the F5D7630uk4A then that includes the adsl modem built in.

If you choose the F5D7230uk4 then yes, you would need a seperate ADSL
modem - if the ISP supplied one then it should be fine as long as it
contains an ethernet port for the F5D7230uk4 to conenct to,

However, I have to say that I don't know of any UK ISP which bundles a non
USB modem - USB modems wont connect directly to the F5D7230uk4.

As such, if you don't have any of the equipment (and wanted Belkin kit) I
would get the 7630 - I think you will find the cost difference of 1 combined
unit (7630) or two (7230 + a ADSL modem) is probably only a few pounds -
plus in my opinion its always slightly easier dealing with 1 box rather than
2.. - the cheapest ethernet ADSL modem I know of is about £31.

Unless you know a UK ISP which is giving away ethernet modems (?), I would
go for a "Wires only" ADSL package and choose your own "All in One" wireless
solution

Regards
Sunil