Ethernet Choice
The first thing you want to do when attempting to build your own home network, is choose what you want to use for cabling. For ease of use, and easy expansion, I suggest using 10/t or 100/TX. 10/T and 100/TX both use Cat5 Cabling. If you look at it, it looks like a phone wire, but has twice as many wires both on the plug and in the wire. Because I’m suggesting 10/T (which it will not be referred as) I’m also going to write this tutorial as though 10/T is the only choice, because, in my mine, it is. All other types are inferior in too many ways.
Get some NICs
Now that you’ve settled on what type of Ethernet to use, (thanks to me) you’ll want to get some Network Interface Cards for each computer you plan to put on your network. Network Interface Cards, are just that, they are a card that interfaces your computer with the rest of the network. If you can, get cards that will fit into a PCI slot in your computer, if your computer has such slots. PCI Network cards are much easier to use than any other type of card.. If you can’t get PCI, I recommend ISA cards made by 3COM. They are just as easy to use, and require no jumper configuration. If you can’t get either, it’s time to shop around, or save up your money.
Another thing to consider when buying NICs is the speed of your network. You can choose from either 10Mbps (10/T) or 100Mbps(100/TX.) If you only get 10/T cards, the speed that computer on the network will only be 10Mbps, but if you get both 100/TX cards, and a 100/TX, along with a hub, which I’ll talk about later, you will increase your speed ten-fold. Don’t expect your speed increase to come without cost. Generally, 100/TX components cost from two to five times a much, depending on the component. While on the subject of speed, another important thing to take into account is duplex. By this time, we should all know how duplex works. In half-duplex, or normal mode, one card talks, while the other listens, and vice-versa. In full-duplex mode, both cards can talk and listen at the same time, which means a 2x speed increase. Which means on a 100/TX network, full-duplex will bring throughput up to 200Mbps, under the right conditions. Full-Duplex equipment will also cost more.
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