router or hub

[Prew]

Setting up a home network with three computers and a cable modem. I want to be able to play the same internet game (UT, CS, etc.) with all three computer at the same time. Do I need a router or a hub? and if a router-- do I need one of the ones labled Cable/DSL router-- or is that just for marketing? Any special software?-- two machines are Win '98 one is Win ME. :confused:

[Statica]

You will need a DSL router and/or switch.
Some routers have multiple ports, for creating your home network. It might be cheaper to get a low end router (with one WAN & one LAN port) and then hook it up to a switch.

[bob]

My background is LAN,WAN and I just can't see why a router is needed for a home network. Please explain. (Great_ONE) hope to hear from you.


Hub - connect extra computers cheap
Switch - Get Full duplex and dedicated bandwidth. Use Uplink EPIM [?] to connect Gig server to 100BT switch.
Router - connect seperate networks (usually at different locations) or perform NAT or security.
Software (FREE) do all that the router could do for a home network without a performance hit.

[zione1]

Bob,

I can tell you that using a dsl router is much better than using software to share your internet connection. I just added a router to our network at work and our download speeds increased. Plus the router eliminates the need to have the machine with the ICS software running.

Zione1

[Statica]

The router provides added "security" while sharing the connection out. What would be your option for sharing along the same IP?

The performance hit may not be an issue here, but it depends on what u use for the OS to share the connection, if u use Win 98 ICS, u basically have built the network on a house of cards, flaky OS lack of security. The best option is to share with a NIX and SMB.

Originally posted by bob
My background is LAN,WAN and I just can't see why a router is needed for a home network. Please explain. (Great_ONE) hope to hear from you.


Hub - connect extra computers cheap
Switch - Get Full duplex and dedicated bandwidth. Use Uplink EPIM [?] to connect Gig server to 100BT switch.
Router - connect seperate networks (usually at different locations) or perform NAT or security.
Software (FREE) do all that the router could do for a home network without a performance hit.

[Great_One]

Bob:

multiple home computers/cable connection is a lan/wan setup so the same
priciples apply. You could build an nt server to act as a router for a
T-1 connection (but why?). Hardware solutions can tend to be faster than software solutions and with their task specific function, more stable. I have a 2-server, 3 client setup at home that i connect to the internet through dial-up. I could use either the win2k server or the linux server to handle the dial-up,instead I use a hardware product to handle that function (web ramp). That way i dont have to worry about the server being down or some other software problem affecting other users. Besides the extra feature of nat and firewalling, and dhcp would make it simpler for most home users. yes all this could be done in any OS using software, but the setup would be more dificult.