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Hello everyone!
We have an opportunity to move into a beautiful house that's around the corner from our current place. So, we'll be moving this weekend.
The house isn't quite ready for us to move in, but our internet service will be switched over there tomorrow. So, we may be without service until we're able to move in. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not ignoring them, and I will be back shortly.
Now, back to packing!
-Griselda
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Congratulations and yada, yada, yada.
Perhaps related pictures can be supplied.
I hope it all works out for you.
-degrak
How about them apples? They say they do not fall far from the tree, and that one can spoil the whole bunch. Well I say we may not all be rotten, but we are all spoiled.
degrak.com
degrak youtube
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First of all, Scrape, I do plan to put some pictures up when we get a chance to take some. I'll post them here.
I had put my networking questions on the back burner, because packing and other stuff seemed more pressing. But, it makes sense to get the computer hardware we need as we move in, and the internet *should* be over there by tomorrow. Mr. Gris wants to run out and buy wireless stuff, and I want to make sure we get what we need.
We don't have a wireless network here. We have a cable connection that comes in from the back of the house, goes up the wall, across the ceiling, and down to the modem which is in my computer desk. The modem connects to a switch, which is connected to our computers via ethernet cables. In the case of my husband's computer, that involves running more cable across the ceiling, into the laundry room, through a built-in cabinet in the dining room, and into his computer room. This is a small one-story house, and it's not really nice enough that we worry about having cables everywhere and random holes in the cabinets.
The new house is bigger, and running cable isn't really feasible. So, we're thinking of going wireless. I've been reading a bit, and it sounds like the wireless bit won't be so tough, but the same old annoying aspects of networking will continue to be annoying.
Our computers are currently not speaking to one another. This is fine, for the most part, because we can use email or CD's to share files or get stuff to the printer. We buy an extra IP, and don't have to get them in the same subnet while blocking out all of the other computers in the neighborhood. Both computers can host TCP/IP games without hassle, which is important. Mr. Gris likes Unreal, which can be especially persnickety when it comes to hosting.
Because this setup is working for us, I don't see a reason to change it for the new house, except for the fact that wireless routers don't seem to be more expensive than wireless access points. Here's what I envision for the setup-
- Cable comes into the house and connects to the modem.
- The modem connects to our current switch.
- The switch connects to a nearby computer via ethernet cable.
- A wireless access point also connects to the switch via ethernet cable.
- Another computer and sometimes a laptop connect to the access point via wireless cards of some sort.
Does this sound like a reasonable setup? Why or why not? I'd like to buy only the hardware that we need!
-Griselda
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Well, wireless is the answer to all of your Netoworking questions, especially if you have any laptops. After using wireless, I would never go back to anything else (hosting problems have more to do with your router set-up than wireless vs. cable). You do seem to have your priorities backwards, though. Get your computers set up first, then you can pack.
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Gris,
You need a router - many of which are capable of wireless nowadays. I recently went over to ADSL (from dialup - with 2 phone lines in one socket) and apart from the 3 days tearing my hair out trying to get the (Netgear) router to talk to the (DLink) ADSL modem - it has been fantastic.
There are 4 in our house - all of whomd seem to want the internet simultaneously'ish. :P
The router enables simultaneous use of the internet connections. It also has a pretty decent firewall (both NAT and SPI) built in. The SPI firewall is significant, as it basically refuses all packets coming in, that have not been requested by someone from the inside.
Wireless is excellent for sitting in the loungeroom watching TV and surfing at the same time with a laptop. The kids and I were sitting there this morning - they were asking questions about what and where - and I was hooking up answers on the fly - all while updating some software at the same time. Gotcha's - it can have a bit of a problem punching a signal thru a lot of walls. Maybe some of the 2-antenna wireless access points are better (I have only one), and I know that there are routers with removable antennas, allowing you to add a bigger one if necessary. It really doesn't like pushing a signal lengthwise down a wall.
Make sure you use encryption - WEP will do - WPA is better if you have XP or even Win2K. Your wireless is readable outside of your house for about 30 metres or so. You may have someone leeching off your connection. I am even more paranoid, and only permit the MAC addresses from the wireless cards in my son's notebooks and my notebooks to have wireless access.
I suspect that your modem has NAT from what you have said (assuming simultaneous access from both PC's). You will find that the cost of a wireless access point, and the cost of a router/switch/wireless access point from Netgear, Linksys or Dlink aren't much different.
The modem has to be able to switch to passthru (sometimes called bypass) to permit the router to handle the addressing. Then the rest should be fairly straightforward.
HowGozit
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I'll echo HowGozit's comments... definitely get a router instead of the access point. (Simultaneous connections, which the switch alone will not give you, as well as needed firewall protection)
- Incoming cable to the cable modem
- Cable modem to wireless router. That's it.
- A 802.11g is preferred, or if you have .11b units that connect to it, one that handles both g and b
(Last time I checked it was almost standard to support both)
- Wireless router/AP should be centrally located if possible, if the house is not small
- *Definitely* WEP protection - although not perfect much better than nothing
- Game hosting is very game specific, but may require some port forwarding or (if nothing else works),
enabling the game host as DMZ host on the router. (These features must be learned, but it's really
not bad, and pretty straightforward)
Last but not least, congrats on the new house!!! 
Charis
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I do *seem* to be getting simultaneous connections with the switch now, although we both have to avoid bandwidth-hog activities (*cough* downloading the WoW beta *cough*) when the other is on. Are the connections not truly simultaneous with the switch, then?
Thanks for the notes about security. My husband recently traveled with a guy who put a wireless card in his laptop just so that he could drive around and get free internet access when he traveled. He wasn't sending spam or trying to get into people's computers, but it made me realize how easily something like that could be done. Luckily, it sounds like security of some sort comes standard with just about anything I'd be buying. Is it completely annoying to have the network not broadcast itself? That is, will I be kicking myself every time I start up the laptop that I have to go and find the network again? I'm also considering permitting only designated MAC addresses here. I suppose it could be an issue if all the computers died simultaneously, but other than that sounds like it should be fine.
The wireless router means that I will have only one external IP, right? So, I can cancel my second IP with the cable company? It's only $5 a month, but with the increased expense of the new place, I'll take any $5 savings I can get!
-Griselda (off to work, sigh, and hoping Mr. Gris will have at least the one connection up at the new place so I can read replies later)
PS- BTW, anyone else going for Detroit? (edit- spelling of "Detroit")
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Hi,
Quote:[...] get a router instead of the access point.
Nitpicky note: It's not really an either/or choice; a wireless router is a 'normal' router with an incorporated access point.
To Gris: Don't worry, secutiry won't lead to more tedium. Once all computers in your house are configured to use (for example) WEP, it's completely transparent to you. The wireless network can still be detected by other people outside, just no longer be used without your permission. It's not a perfectly safe mechanism, though, so limiting wireless access to certain MAC addresses won't hurt.
And yes, since all net access will go through the router, only one IP is needed.
-Kylearan
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider
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Hi,
Hope the new place works out well for you. Moving is one of those things that are only rewarding when they're finished 
Now for the hijack:
(EDIT: I thought this would be a good place to put this, since it seems that Mr. and Mrs. Gris have the same problem and a similar set up).
Magi and I have the following situation. We both have a game machine used only for games and related activities (patch downloads, etc.). We also each have a work machine that is (pretty much) game free. In addition, we have two machines that are being used one as a file/print server and the other as a router (functions to be combined when -- if ever -- I get the "office" finished). So much for the basic hardware.
We have a cable modem through which we can get service from Comcast or from Earthlink. Comcast lets us have (for an extra charge) up to four (non contiguous) IP addresses. But Comcast has no dial in capability for access from the road. Earthlink would give us ten hours dial in access in addition to the unlimited access through the cable modem. However, it will not give us more than one IP address.
The way I have things set up right now is through Comcast so that the cable modem goes to a hub. Off that hub are the game machines and the router (3 IP addresses). Behind the router is the "office" network on local IP addresses. In addition we keep a "cheap" Earthlink account for on road use. Besides having to pay for extra IP addresses and for the Earthlink account, another drawback of this system is that the game machines cannot easily talk to each other nor can they share the file and printer services of the "office" network.
However, if I switch to Earthlink, I would have to put the game machines behind the router. My attempts to do so in the past have met with mixed success. Hosting games that require an IP address doesn't seem to be possible with this set up. Also, many games either seem to get confused or to lock up if I try to play them from both game machines at the same time when the game machines are behind the router.
My Google-Fu has failed me. For every article that says "yes you can" I find one that says "no way". I've looked into doing it with the router as either a Wintel machine or as a linux box running samba (both the work and the game machines have to be Wintel, the first for compatibility to clients, and the second since that is what most games are written for.) I cannot find a definitive answer, much less any hint of how to get the system set up. If it definitively cannot be done, then that's good too. At least I know that the solution I have, as bad as it is, is the best I can do for now and I can quit worrying the problem.
So, anyone who knows, please help. A link would be appreciated. A good discussion would put me far into your debt.
--Pete
"What I tell you three times is true." -- The Bellman
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Hmm. Would you not use the hub, then? If so, your setup would be fairly similar to mine.
I use Comcast (single IP address). Setup is cable modem to linksys router to two or three PCs. I have hosted D2 games (using port forwarding), but not tried anything else.
This may not help you, Pete, but in case it's useful for someone else, here's what I did:
According to Linksys: "Port forwarding can be used to set up public services on your network. When users from the Internet make certain requests on your router, they will be redirected to the specified IP." Basically, it allows me to select a specific machine on me home network to host a game or be an FTP server or whatever.
Most people probably let the router assign local IP addresses to PCs as they boot/join the network. The problem with this is - depending on what order I boot my machines on a given day - my game machine might have an IP address of 192.168.1.100 one day and 192.168.1.101 the next. Since I don't want to confuse the router, the solution is to give my hosting machine a static IP address. This is set in the TCP/IP properties on the host machine. (For moe info go to the support knowledgebase at http://www.linksys.com and do a search on "static IP address".)
Having done that, I went to the Port Forwarding page for setting up my router and forwarded ports 4000, 6112-6119 and 27960 (necessary?) to the IP address I chose for my host machine.
After doing this, I was able to host a game of D2 that people could join over the net, join the game from another machine on my home network, and still be able to access b.net from both my machines. (I've bought two copies of D2, so I have different CD keys on the two machines for accessing b.net.)
I think this should work for hosting most games, once you know the ports. But if you want to be able to host multiple games at once - like hosting two UT games - you might need to have two external IP addresses, unless the game has some kind of built in support.
-- CH
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