[drwho]

Well, I've finally decided I've had enough of using a dail-up modem, I'm gonna move up to Comcast cable Internet. My wife surprised the heck out of me when I asked her about it, she said yes (women, I never can figure them out). Now to my questions. I really don't know all that much about cable Internet, I know I'm going to need a modem and a router. I have more than one computer in my house and I want both of them hooked up to the cable internet. I would rather buy my own cable modem than rent one from Comcast, could someone recommend a good modem? Now the second part has to do with the router. The computers in my house are at opposite ends of the house, so rather than spend alot of time trying to run cable from one end of the house to the other, I thought I'd try one of the wireless routers I've seen around at the computer stores. Would this be a practical solution? Or is it better to just run the cable between the two computers and just hard-wire them? Also, what is a good brand of wireless router?



drwho

[riles9262]

A good modem? My favorites are the motorolas...the 5100, 5101 and 5120 are great modems, and are capable of future expansion of cable networks as well, and therefore are a decent long term modem. As for a router, Linksys and Netgear have been just fine for me (i'd go for some form of wireless g for the range, and do that rather than a wired connection for long range)

[Lchevy79]

ok cool you are upgrading. 1st the hard wire the 2 computers not a good idea.if you get the router it will do that for you. you may need to call you new isp and see what modem you can get. i know around here you can only get certian modems for there network it may be the case there

[CDsDontBurn]

Originally Posted by Lchevy79

ok cool you are upgrading. 1st the hard wire the 2 computers not a good idea.if you get the router it will do that for you. you may need to call you new isp and see what modem you can get. i know around here you can only get certian modems for there network it may be the case there

i don't understand anything you're saying there

anyways.....

congrats on moving up to broadband buddy ! it'll be like night and day difference for you. you say that the two computers are going to be on opposite sides of the house? i say you run a wire. the distance between one side of the house and the router would more than likley be too far for any reception be recieved from the router to the wireless card in the machine. Not only that, because of the distance, there will most connectivity issues most definately because of the range. sure you can get a range expander/bridge, but then you're looking at spending like $150 ish (USD) for a completley wireless setup.

Run the cable. It'll be easier, and cheaper to maintain in the long run.

[GutterPunk]

Motorolla surfboards rock

I was in the same situation a lil' while back, we ran from 1 side of the house up 2 stories to the other side (basement to top floor) and had perfect connectivity 100% of the time w/ the wireless G

[Yousaif]

Comcast will actually raise the cost of your service if you don't use one of their modems- at least they did when I first hooked up with them. I rent my modem from them and have no issues. If you do want to buy your own modem, then you can't go wrong with the Motorolas.

As far as your network configuration, I have the same situation as yours, with my main PC's and PC bench in the basement, and 2 other PC's 2 floors above that. I have a wireless set up in my house as I didn't want to string cable all over the place, and it works just fine.

[drwho]

Originally Posted by Yousaif

Comcast will actually raise the cost of your service if you don't use one of their modems- at least they did when I first hooked up with them. I rent my modem from them and have no issues. If you do want to buy your own modem, then you can't go wrong with the Motorolas.

Thanks for the reminder, Yousaif. I was planning on talking to Comcast and seeing which modems they would recommend and then going from there. My main for asking was to see if anyone else was using their own modem and what brand it was, trying to narrow the field, so to speak.

Thanks to all you guys for your recommendations and suggestions, I appreciate it.



drwho

[Drakon]

My modem is RCA Model DCM425. Hope it helps and welcome to "THE FUTURE!!!" hehe

[H3X4D3C1M4L]

Aren't you supposed to use the modem the ISP reccomends?

I mean they'd know theyre the ones who know what to do to get the modem to run best on their service

[Yousaif]

Quick answer to that is no, Hex. Any Docsis 2.0 compliant modem will work fine with any cable modem system. The issue that people get into issue with is when they buy an old 1.0 or 1.0 modem at a rummage sale and then get all pissy when we tell them it won't work.

If you buy a new modem then you will be fine. Incidentally I have the RCA DCM425 as well and have had zero issues with it.

[riles9262]

Building of what yousaif said about the docsis cable system, this was the case for some older modems, such as cybersurfers (non docsis)and 3com tailfins (docsis 1.0). Surprisingly, even after upgrading the system, some 3coms were still being given out....Also for me, not all cable modems are created equal; we have many more problems with ambit modems and some models of toshibas, than we do of motorolas and rca's.

[GutterPunk]

I remember Adelphia gave me a rental modem (b4 i bought my surfboard) and it was a modem that had complications w/ the network lol

[Necrosis]

Hey Doc,

Modems of course Motorola, and Toshiba isn't too bad either.

Wireless routers.

Netgear, Linksys, and D-Link in that order. Belkin makes some nice routers too but I haven't been too impressed with their HTML pages though.

Just remember with wireless stated the big deal is interference, and distance.

Starting off you should have one computer connected directly to the router. I know this maybe hard to do; if you can't make it so it's easy to do this. You really shouldn't be tweaking the wireless items on the router with out being connected to it. Now about interference. The big culprit most of the time is 2.4GHz phones. If change channels on the phone/router, and watch line of sight you should be ok. Walls, and hard angles will degrade the signal from your router. How I have mine setup my router sits on top of my computer, but I have an external antenna which sits in my kitchen. It will take some tweaking to get it just right. However, don't let this put you off the idea. If you think about the lay out prior to setting every thing you should be okay.

The last thing you need to worry about but yet the most important is security. You'll need to secure your wireless network. I recommend some type of encryption, and using MAC addresses.

[H3X4D3C1M4L]

FWIW temporarily while I'm moving stuff around to my new house, an old SMC router is working quite nicely... so SMC Is another option

[swimtech]

Don't know about the modems - got mine from the cable company (Charter - a Terayon??? - works fine though...).

About the wireless router - Netgear WGR614v6 4port (for wiring...) with wireless B and G capability - mine's been flawless. Available for about $30.00 (on sale or after rebates) all over...

[drwho]

Well, I ordered Comcast cable Internet tonight. Signed up through the local Circuit City earlier, got a free Motorola SB1520 with the deal. Yesterday I bought a D-Link DI-634M wireless router and 2x DWL-G520 wireless adapters for the computers. I gotta call Comcast tomorrow to schedule a time for installation, then I'm in business.


Looking forward to not having to take a nap while I'm waiting to connect to driverheaven anymore. Thanks for all your help and suggestions.



drwho

[dj_stick]

the 520 cards are good ones. I've got three of them myself and i'm building another machine for a friend with one

[drwho]

Originally Posted by dj_stick

the 520 cards are good ones. I've got three of them myself and i'm building another machine for a friend with one

Thanks for letting me know, dj_stick. Since I know little or nothing about wireless networking, I'm glad I was able to purchase some quality equipment.



drwho

[BWX]

Originally Posted by drwho

Yesterday I bought a D-Link DI-634M wireless router and 2x DWL-G520 wireless adapters for the computers.

Hook at least one of the PC's up with a CAT5 cable.

If you lack experience in wireless networking you would have been better served by the Netgear HTML pages.

[Yousaif]

The DLink setup utility is pretty straightforward. Shouldn't be a major issue.

[drwho]

Originally Posted by BWX

Hook at least one of the PC's up with a CAT5 cable.

If you lack experience in wireless networking you would have been better served by the Netgear HTML pages.

Originally Posted by Yousaif

The DLink setup utility is pretty straightforward. Shouldn't be a major issue.

Thanks for your concern , guys. I have a friend who is a wiz at networking, he has kindly consented to give me a hand setting up my system.



drwho

[BWX]

Originally Posted by drwho

Thanks for your concern , guys. I have a friend who is a wiz at networking, he has kindly consented to give me a hand setting up my system.



drwho

You'll be fine.. yeah they all have fairly easy setup screens and whatnot anyway, but none of them are easier than netgear's..

[riles9262]

You're gonna be in heaven once this is done and setup. There's no words to describe the difference between dialup and a good broadband connection

[H3X4D3C1M4L]

Originally Posted by riles9262

You're gonna be in heaven once this is done and setup. There's no words to describe the difference between dialup and a good broadband connection

DOS ---> Windows 3.1 comes to mind

[drwho]

Originally Posted by riles9262

You're gonna be in heaven once this is done and setup. There's no words to describe the difference between dialup and a good broadband connection

All I can say to that is, "Amen, bruder".



drwho