How to setup home network?

I currently have 4 pcs on my network (3x XP and 1 98) these are networked using a 10mbs hub and have access to the internet through a shared broadband connection on one of the XP machines.
This setup works well but I find that sometimes one of the machines hog the download speeds. Its also a pain to leave the XP machine on all the time.

I am looking at purchasing this router/modem http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=48449. This would give all pcs internet access and also give me a 100mbs internal network.
What I want to setup is something that I cant control who gets what bandwith. If I am using emule on one pc I still want to be able to play online games on another and my sister can suft on another as well. Is there any software that can do this?

Pody

 

break down and spend the $ on a router. it will be one of the better investments for your network for security. make sure you get one that has enough ports for your pc's OR add a switch in the mix.

 

Get a router! I'm running 4 on dlink router with broadband connection bought for $20.00 after rebates 40.00 before.
Nice thing about my router has great firewall running in stealth mode! a must for broadband.
should consider one with print server or networkable printer, cause if you share printer running thru one of your pc's that pc will be affected when another pc prints, not so if networked thru the router

All seem to have same speed no matter if all are running or not.

 

Don't believe the statements about equal net access with a braodband router. It will help and the firewall is quite useful, but if using file sharing like emule you have to be careful. You have a cap on upload speed, for me it's 128Kbps, which come out to around 16k in the real world. Now with Bit Torrent type downloads you can cap your upload speed thus allowing the net access to function by leaving 1-2k free at all times. Everything you do on the net requires at least some upload bandwidth. Internal access to shared printers and folders in your internal network will of course be full speed during this time as the internet only uses at most 10mbit of the 100mbit speed of the router. You might also consider a linux based routing solution, check out www.smoothwall.org. It's linux based and includes a web type setup similar to broadband routers, but can have more direct control over how much bandwidth each user gets. Of couse this will only work if you have an old PC laying around gathering dust, but you could get a cheap switch to work with it. Anyway, good luck which ever solution you go with.

Leland

 

EDIT:

I had a big long post, but after rereading the post, I agree with the above poster, except that I've never seen any router advertise that it gives each computer equal access on the net.

I have seen them advertise full bandwidth to each port, be it WAN or LAN (meaning, each computer can access all the bandwidth).

And that is true.

 

Not all rebates are available like this outside of the US. I still wait on "rebates" from the day after thanksgiving!

 

I had a rebate to IBM once. Took over a year to receive it.

And the rebate department it was sent to was only 2 hours away.

 

yeah, and you should have seen the post office guys face when he found out he practically went in circles for almost year trying to find your house... HHAHA!!!! I had him going here and there and back again.. HEHEH what a hoot!!

 

ROFL!

/slaps Kodo.

 

Just to clarify a little, a true corporate router that you pay $1000 or more for is likely to give you equal internet access between computers, unless of course you program it differently. The linux based routing software should give you the same flexibility. Or if you want you could split the pie any way you want. You just have to know what your doing to get the most out of it.

Leland

 

Thanks for the replys guys, I am going to get a modem/router in the next few days and will look into software to help configure my network.

I was not really wanting to give "equal" net connection speeds, just have it setup so that my dads download and uploads dont get my kicked out of net games.

Pody