First home network, need your thoughts

**toomanystraydogs** · 07-29-2010, 09:51 AM

Yeah I am way behind the times.

Right now it's TWC basic and 2 DSL lines feeding 4 standard def tv's, 1 HD tv and 2 pc's.

Also have xbox 360 and blu-ray that are not connected to net but need to be.

PC's are about 60 ft apart, opposite ends of the house.

HD tv, 360 and blu-ray are also on far end of the house.

Looking at TWC digital cable for the tv's and TWC / RoadRunner for the net.

So I will have 1 coax coming in from the street.

Thinking that will go to a router next to pc #1.

Not sure what happens next.

Do I need a coax splitter from the street so one part goes to pc #1 / router and the other feeds the tv's?

Worried about too many splitters on the coax.

Thoughts appreciated

**Disco Batman** · 07-29-2010, 11:17 AM

Your one COAX into the house will carry your Cable and Internet. I'd go wireless with as much as you can. Get a good "N" router and go with it. Most will come with a few ports on them to run Cat5 to your non wireless devices.

**toomanystraydogs** · 07-29-2010, 11:37 PM

K, thx.

Let me ask u this.

I split the coax, one side for tv, the other for the net.

On the net side, it would go to the cable modem, then to a router.

One port on the router would feed pc #1.

Another port would be for a room on the other side of the house with pc #2, xbox 360 and blu-ray.

What is that device that those 3 plug into? Is it a bridge?

**trent.memphis** · 07-29-2010, 11:55 PM

Hub.

**bama29** · 07-30-2010, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by toomanystraydogs

Another port would be for a room on the other side of the house with pc #2, xbox 360 and blu-ray.

What is that device that those 3 plug into? Is it a bridge?

Another name is a Ethernet Switch.

I use this one that can be found at Amazon for $12.74. It handles my Xbox, PS3 and BD player without a hitch using one line from my router. The box is so small it hides behind my equipment and is out of sight.

**Disco Batman** · 07-30-2010, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by toomanystraydogs

K, thx.

Let me ask u this.

I split the coax, one side for tv, the other for the net.

On the net side, it would go to the cable modem, then to a router.

One port on the router would feed pc #1.

Another port would be for a room on the other side of the house with pc #2, xbox 360 and blu-ray.

What is that device that those 3 plug into? Is it a bridge?

Exactly what bama said. Get a cheap little switch like that. It is far more efficient than a Hub, but that would work as well.

**gadgtfreek** · 07-30-2010, 09:41 AM

I like my powerlines, XE104 (2 for $70 on ebay). Has 4 outs, and I have 3. Ones at the wireless router in my office, and it supplies HSI to the other two, which are behind my tv's and give internet to the BR players and other crap.

**toomanystraydogs** · 07-30-2010, 11:17 AM

Thx all,

Was getting hung up on on the diff between, access points, bridges, etc. and was not even looking at switches.

With TWC / Road Runners fastest being 15 Mbits, a Gigabit switch is not needed and a 10/100 should be fine, correct?

**toomanystraydogs** · 07-30-2010, 11:58 AM

Looks like wireless n is 300 Mbps / Mbits max, so if I ever want to use it seems like gigabit is the way to go.

**bama29** · 07-30-2010, 10:39 PM

Originally Posted by toomanystraydogs

Thx all,

Was getting hung up on on the diff between, access points, bridges, etc. and was not even looking at switches.

With TWC / Road Runners fastest being 15 Mbits, a Gigabit switch is not needed and a 10/100 should be fine, correct?

Yes it should be fine. If you can, wired is preferable to wireless. Generally quite a bit faster and does not suffer from the issues that bother wireless from time to time.

**bama29** · 07-30-2010, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by toomanystraydogs

Looks like wireless n is 300 Mbps / Mbits max, so if I ever want to use it seems like gigabit is the way to go.

Your bottleneck is the provider. The switch is capable of 100 Mbps wich would not even breath hard handling the cable 15 Mbps. You can't go faster than the provider is streaming bits to you.

**toomanystraydogs** · 07-30-2010, 11:37 PM

Yeah, I was just thinking about file sharing on my LAN

**toomanystraydogs** · 08-02-2010, 03:06 AM

OK, this is what I am going to get unless someone stops me

D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Gigabit Wireless Router
Will use ports for PC #1, voip box and cat6 to 'media center' switch

D-Link DGS-2205 5-Port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch
My 'media center' switch for 360 gaming, netflix streaming, etc. - cat6 connection to router

D-Link DAP1522 Xtreme 4-Port GigaBit Selectable Dual Band Draft 802.11n N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point
Other end of the house bridge for pc #2 and voip box - wireless connection to router

Make sense?

**toomanystraydogs** · 08-15-2010, 10:06 AM

UPDATE

Got the 655 wireless router and 2205 bridge /access point.

The 655 has a windows XP machine and a VOIP ATA plugged into the ports and working just fine.

The 2205 is in bridge mode. It's on the other side of the house. Plugged the 360 into it yesterday. Watched the Expendables trailer, no problem. Setup Xbox Live, played MW2, no problem other than I get killed a lot.

The ATA can be tricky to set up, needs some port forwarding.

Also use IE when setting up dlink, does not play nice with Firefox. Whole portions of the wireless setup page were blank with Firefox.

**bama29** · 08-15-2010, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by toomanystraydogs

UPDATE

Got the 655 wireless router and 2205 bridge /access point.

The 655 has a windows XP machine and a VOIP ATA plugged into the ports and working just fine.

The 2205 is in bridge mode. It's on the other side of the house. Plugged the 360 into it yesterday. Watched the Expendables trailer, no problem. Setup Xbox Live, played MW2, no problem other than I get killed a lot.

The ATA can be tricky to set up, needs some port forwarding.

Also use IE when setting up dlink, does not play nice with Firefox. Whole portions of the wireless setup page were blank with Firefox.

Sounds like you have got it going. The technology involved with home networking, and everything you are able to do with it still amazes me! Of course I remember building a crystal radio when I was a young. A nine transistor radio was the goods then...

**toomanystraydogs** · 08-17-2010, 10:09 AM

Yeah, can't complain for $130.

Will be adding a little more later but the end result should be under $200 to get 2 pc's, 2 VOIP ATA's, xbox 360 and other a/v gear all hooked up.