Network tips, and help

[maddog573]

I have 2 system's at my house 1 running XP Pro, and 1 running XP Home, I have them networked with a hub, with my cable modem connection also attacted to the hub. Now on my pro it has 2 seprate network connections. one for local and one for my cable it appears. Should that be? My one upstairs only has 1 connection. I'm not using internet connection sharing because the cable is going direct to the hub. In this situation what would eb the best setup for my home network? I don't mind starting from sratch I just want the most effiencent and secure setup.

 

[Rootz]

Unless your cable modem works as a router as well, I recommend you to plug the modem to one of your computers and then share the connection... both for performance and security reasons.

 

[maddog573]

Gonna need 2 NIC cards for that right?

 

[Rootz]

Yes, that way you let your *server* computer manage two different traffic channels: one for DSL connection and the other for the LAN... and it would be definitely a more secure network.

 

[relder]

If you want to spend a little more money, a cable/dsl router is a good hardware solution. Linksys makes a little one port model for about $80 US.

Every computer has equal access to web.
One computer is not overtaxed.
This router can run DHCP and allow access to the LAN from the outside when you open specific ports.
Scalable--up to 253 connections from the LAN.