2nd PC in another part of the house question...

[Trainable J]

I have my main PC in my office hooked to my cable internet. I want to put my old PC in the garage and hook it into the same cable internet. A co-worker said to just do a wireless network. I'm not to keen on that idea (to much $). Can I just run a splitter in the attic and do a cable drop into the garage through the ceiling? What other options do I have? I also need to add that we may be switching to DSL in a few months. How is that gonna screw me up?

[MetalSign]

If you want both to use the same internet, I'd suggest getting a wireless router (you can get one for about $50) and a wireless card for your old PC (about $40). This would be the easiest solution.

Otherwise, buy a wired router (again, about $50) and run a network cable through to your garage.

Unless, only the garage computer will use internet. In that case, make sure that there isn't a certain wire that carries the internet signal (in my old apt, any outlet would work, but in the house I'm in now, there is a dedicated coax cable for internet).

If there is not a dedicated cable, run a cable from whatever outlet is closest.

Good luck, bro!

[JimsInfectedEye]

Does the old PC already have a network card?

[MrBogey]

If you can hardwire it the best way is to run a Cat 5 patch cable from PC to PC set both PC's into a router (a switch, if your cable modem has a built in router already). Then connect it to the modem and voila. If you can't get access there's wireless and powerline adapters available.

[THE FEZ MAN]

when i upgraded to Fios i had them install a new router (at there expence) so now i have wireless and a wired net work ( i already wired everthing for the cable) i have a computer in every room 4 in all and there all wired to the net, but not individualy networked to each other, im too lazy to push a few buttons

[Sinn Fein]

They install a new router for everyone. It's part of the deal. In fact, they gave me a fancy new router on Monday when they installed my FIOS TV service. I am using the original FIOS router as a wired and wireless AP downstairs where I had shitty wireless signal. I did a CAT5 drop down here over the summer to the PC. I just connected the secondary (old) router to that jack, disabled DHCP, gave it an IP in the subnet of the primary router, configured the wireless access point, and I'm good to go. I had pulled CAT5 and installed jacks in the master bedroom and our other bedroom over the summer as well. But I didn't have provisions to connect them as I was out of ports on the router. I planned on buying a switch. But now I don't have to. Those jacks are now live, connected to the secondary router.

Now I've got killer wireless signal everywhere in the house, and jacks in most of the rooms I need.

For the original poster: some cable modems have both a USB and an ethernet port. You may be able to get off cheap. Connect the PC near the modem to the USB port, and run ethernet out to the other PC. You might not need a router in this case. YMMV.

[Sparkstalker]

Poke around at TigerDirect, and you can get the parts you need for a wireless network for around $50 + shipping. That's the way I would go. It's much easier than running Cat5 for yourself, and there's no difference in price between wired and wireless routers.

[kid afrika]

My $0.02...

Watch the weekly ads for Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, etc. I picked up a netgear wireless router for $19.99 with no mail-in-rebate last week at Staples. You can find wireless cards as cheap as $29 or maybe less if you watch the ads, too.

$50 is certainly cheaper than it's going to cost you in Cat5 cable and a wired router to split your cable modem's output.

A router (wired or wireless) will be compatible with either cable modem or DSL.

[Ballbuster1]

The wireless route is definately the way to go. Routers and cards are
very cheap now and they give you the ability to go anywhere in the house
and set up your pc.
We have 3 laptops in my house and I have them all on a wireless network.
Even with a stationary PC it's the easiest move. No wires required and can
be set up very easily.

[TrybalRage]

I got my wireless netgear (reman) for $10 through woot.com, and I've seen wireless cards for $20 or so through newegg.

[Trainable J]

Will I need to crack open the case to install the card? It's funny, I can rebuild an engine from crank to carb blindfoled and do basic carpentry all day long, but, the damn computer scares the crap outta me.

[Mother Shucker]

Dude, the wireless card just slips into a slot on the mother board (well, since it is an older computer, you have a 50/50 chance of the mother board having an open slot), then two screws secures it. I suck at tech stuff, but trust me, it is an easy fix.

[Aero 1]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833135112

[Chin nuts]

How are the speeds wireless compared to Cat 5? I play alot of online games on both PCs on opposite sides of the house roughly 100' apart. I'm using a wired router and have ultra low pings from both PCs now don't want to degrade either PC.

[MrBogey]

If ease and price is all that matters, go with wireless. It's not perfect but it fills a niche. If you can and are able to, run Cat5e. Cat5e will do up to a gig. Wireless G can only do up to 54Mb/s depending upon distance and interference. Cat5e has a long life ahead of it.

[BigBuffaloFan]

GO wireless a lot less work. It will also probably be a lot cheaper too. You can also find wireless adapters that plug into a USB drive no need to open the case. If you do get an internal card it is not hard to install. Just plug in and install drivers. It should be pretty painless if you have XP.

If you go wired the Cat5 cable will probably cost you about $50 - $70 for a 50' piece. Plus the time to drill, drop, and hide the cable it is not worth it.

[BigBuffaloFan]

How are the speeds wireless compared to Cat 5? I play alot of online games on both PCs on opposite sides of the house roughly 100' apart. I'm using a wired router and have ultra low pings from both PCs now don't want to degrade either PC.

Wireless is as fast if not faster then wired. The longer the cable the more resistance your signal gets. CAT 5 roughly max's out at 300'. You will get the same the further you are from the wireless router. You have around 100' radius before the signal starts to degrade.

But your ping rate usually is not caused by your router wired or wireless. Depending on your router PC to PC the transfer rate is somewhere between 50 MBPS - 100 MBPS. But Modem to Router to PC your rate is about 1.5 MBPS DSL or Cable to 10 MBPS FiOS.

Go to www.internetfrog.net and run a speed test and see what your rate is.

Also make sure you are not downloading anything when you are playing that will slow everything down and also make sure you have good virus protection. Virus's and spywherecan be send out a lot of traffic from your PC's slowing your connection. Also if you use weatherbug or other weather software on your that is on your desktop those slow your connection because they are constantly refreshing.

[MrBogey]

Resistance across the pairs affects the connection rate but you won't get any signal loss as long as you're within the standard range of 90 meters.

Signal degredation in a house is hard to predict as it depends upon location and interference sources. Wireless G is only set to support 54Mb/s. There are boosting technology that can support up to 108Mb/s but there's no guarantee it'll work. With wireless you're going to get If you want to spend the cash for about 40$ you can get a gigabit switch, hook it up with Cat5e, and set it to a gigabit card(a lot of motheboard NICs support it already YMMV) and enjoy full duplex consistant transfer rates of 450-550Mb/s minimum. As to ping I just pinged my gateway on wireless and it turned back 11ms despite being 10ft from me. On the wired connection it returned 4ms (sending packets of 1000bits using 100baseT and Wireless G).

Wireless is the way to go if you want convenience and is good enough 90% of the time. But if you got the time and money, wired always beats wirless hands down. For casual use, I'd probably go wireless myself. In fact I left it as an option on my gateway set-up.