Broadband Router
 

[split from Ethernet Card thread]

Before I network my PCs (as suggested by Mathieu), I was wondering if it would be "easy" to do the following scenario:


1 -- XP machine connected to a broadband router (via ethernet cables)
2 -- Linux machine connected to the same router
3 -- The router connected to a cable modem

Will this setup work without much to-do?

Yes. If your router also dishes out ip addresses via dhcp, even easier (otherwise you will have to amend your ip addys in your boxes). That's what I have - cable modem to 4 port hub, then on to a pc and laptop. Works straight away.

If you wouldn't mind sharing what brand you use...?

Bog standard Belkin 4 port hub. Nothing special and was quite cheap.

Interesting. Because I have a hub (not a router), and was unable to get both PCs to connect to the net.

I had each PC in a slot, and the cable modem in the "Uplink" port.

Worked first time for me - out of the box.

Linksys BEFSR41
 

OK, I'm looking at the Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL router... any good/bad on it?

I think I actually do need both. All PCs connect to the hub, the hub connects to the router and the router out to the cable modem, as I only have one IP from my ISP. The router will provide the NAT I need to "hide" my addresses underneath the router.

I have the same router and my worked out of the box. I have had no problems with it and it runs linux.

-Joey

My hub dishes out 192.168.xxx.xxx ip addresses - my modem only has one ip address. Go NAT :)

I'm pretty sure it's not a hub. A hub merely replicates signals across all ports, it's neither intelligent (routing capable) or manageable.

Yeah, I'm going to go the hub-to-router-to-cable modem route.


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I'd like a piece of pie

A hub can't give out IPs. It can't do anything actually. If your machines are getting DHCP IP addresses, your modem must have an integrated DHCP server.

And Linksys is always a smart buy, they are one of the best in the business.

How many computers do you have to network. Because the BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL router has a 4 port switch, so If you have 4 or less computers, you don't need to by a switch at all. There is also an 8 port model I believe.

Also, if you point your browser at 192.168.1.1, you can enter the setup for the BEFSR41 and change the address that the DHCP server dishes out, which normally start at 192,168.1.100. If you want to have a computer (i.e. server) with a static address, you could just give it an address below this.

There are different types of cable internet service. A commercial service would provide 3 or 4 static address. The base service would provide a single dynamic (DHCP) address. So in your case, going from the cable modem into a switch wouldn't work. You either need a cable/router, or use a linux computer to share the internet connection (NAT gateway setup).

You can also set up which services to to which computer if you wish.