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Gombunan |
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saintly |
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[08-19-2000] Gombunan : Hello,
I am planning to connect a PC (Cyrix 166+) and a laptop (Celeron 500) both have 10/100 based Ethernet cards. I just want to make it clear so that I don't waste my money buying unnecessary hardwares. My question is, if I want to setup a peer to peer networking, should I buy a hub or a switch?
One of the computers will be connected to the internet using 33.6K modem, which I may upgrade to 56K or even ISDN sometime later. Are there any other alternatives? Btw, this is my first networking project. Hope you can help.
Thanks in advance.
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[08-20-2000] saintly :
Depends on the type of 10/100 card. If it has a connector on it that looks like a large phone jack, then you need to buy a Hub. A small 5-port hub should be fine. You need to buy two twisted-pair ethernet cables to connect your two machines to the hub.
If there's a round pole-like connector, you don't need the hub. You can connect your PCs with coax line. There is coax ethernet cabling. You need to buy one length of coax, two terminators and two T-Connectors to connect your PCs together. This is called a coax/thinnet network. It may be good for only two PCs, but if you add more, a hub also identifies network problems, like bad ethernet cards, collisions and non-responsive computers.
There are several alternatives to modems and ISDN. ISDN is falling out of use since you have to pay by the minute you use it.
DSL is a feature from the phone company, it provides fast (3x to 10x times the speed of ISDN) and costs a flat fee of about $30-$40 a month.
Cable modems are a feature from your cable company, they provide semi-fast (up to 10x the times the speed of ISDN, up to 20x the speed of a 56k modem, but you share the speed with everyone else in your neighborhood). They also cost $20-$30 a month.
Does this help?
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[08-20-2000] Gombunan : Yes, it does. Looks like I need to buy a hub. I'd like to have DSL connection but unfortunately my ISP doesn't offer such service yet.
Inevitably, ISDN is my best bet. Since I live outside the US, the cost would be significantly lower than that it the US.
Thank you for your help. Really appreciate it.
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[08-20-2000] saintly : Glad I could help.
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