JPS 0 Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Hello everyone, havent been on in a while (in sixth form now not much time these days unfortunatly :mrhappy: ). I am in search of some help; I am considering purchasing a laptop/desktop for my bedroom but when it comes to an internet connection for it my ethernet router is downstairs and is occupied by this PC. To get internet up to my bedroom would I have to purchase a seperate router? or is there a way of using my current router for two PCs? I am not a whizz at internet connections and the like so some advice would be appreciated :-) Link to post Share on other sites
reef 3 Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Hi JPS. It depends on your router and how many ports it has. Mine personally has 4 and we run 3 PC's from it. If its wireless a laptop should be able to pickup the signal but if not you would need to run an ethernet cable to your new PC from the router. Hope this helps. steve Link to post Share on other sites
JPS 0 Posted September 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Hi Steve thank you for your reply, I had a look this morning at my router and it has one Ethernet port and below that is has a USB port it would seem. I had a look online for a USB-Ethernet adaptor and there seem to be a few avaliable. Does this mean that the USB port on my router can be used to get a connection up to my room and someone still able to use the internet downstairs at the same time? Thanks for the help so far :-) Link to post Share on other sites
reef 3 Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 I'm pretty sure the USB is only for setting up the router and not for using as a line. However if your thinking about having a PC upstairs it may be worth getting yourself a wireless router. You can still run your main pc of wired while being able to use a laptop anywhere you want and still get a signal. The cost for such gear is pretty cheap these days. steve Link to post Share on other sites
JPS 0 Posted September 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Ok, well I dont want to take a risk in buying anything just yet I will have a search on the web and see what I can reveal. Personally I am not keen on wireless networking I prefer to have a cable (I know it can be a pain but hey). I was thinking maybe something such as this can help me make to connections at the same time: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/941720 Thanks :-) Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted September 26, 2008 Report Share Posted September 26, 2008 If it has one RJ45/ethernet port and a USB, you may well be able to use the USB for your downstairs comp and the Ethernet for upstairs. My old BT Home hub was like that, only there is an extra Ethernet port on the BT hub. Trouble is, USB is notoriously unreliable with routers. You can also get an Link to post Share on other sites
hello_basil 0 Posted September 28, 2008 Report Share Posted September 28, 2008 We use wireless - utterly flawless, have had it installed for over 5 years now! Seriously, visit www.ebuyer.co.uk and get a cheap wi-fi ADSL Router, you won't regret it - as long as you have decent protection with it then no sad old sod will hack into it. :mrhappy: Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 It's slower than wired though isn't it Theo? My old router was. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 13, 2008 Report Share Posted November 13, 2008 We run two PCs full time on our wireless router - my wife's PC is hard-wired to it, mine connects by wireless. Our hobbies are both extremely computer and web intensive and we just don't have any issues at all. We also have a wireless laptop that connects through it from time to time. I never have any speed or performance issues. The worst thing that happens is an occasional lost connection and that is only a matter of 30 seconds to re-connect. John Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted November 16, 2008 Report Share Posted November 16, 2008 Wireless is slower than wired. If you have a reasonable speed connection though you wouldn't notice it. Somewhat less secure also. I frequently run three at a time here. Two PC's and one laptop. I took the trouble to run Cat5 through the structure of the house a while back, and in addition a replacement NTE5 faceplate at the telephone socket, [not sure what you do in thye US] that contains a high quality filter. No other filters required anywhere and Cat5 to the router instead of rubbish telephone extension cable. What speed are you in the US John? Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 Quote What speed are you in the US John? It varies, but have seen download rates up to about 350 KB/sec on file transfers, which is not bad. Have also seen the same downloads as slow as 40 KB/sec, but I think it's as much a matter of what's going on at the source server and connection as it is the service at my end. I think the actual connect speed for Internet services is much higher but really don't know the numbers. We don't have to wait long for web sites to load - it's all pretty brisk. Our provider supplies telephone, cable television and Internet all through the same co-axial cable. A branch goes to the cable modem and a jumper from that backfeeds into the home telephone wiring for phone service. We get all three services for a single price and it's pretty reasonable. John Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted November 21, 2008 Report Share Posted November 21, 2008 About the same here. An 8 meg connection that runs at about 5, due to the distance to the exchange and the quality of the line. My TV is satellite, and my phone and broadband via the copper telephone conductor. BT. I could have gone to my Satellite TV provider for all three, but they insist you use their router. Not something I wanted to do, my current router gives me a great connection far better than the old BT Home Hub and VOIP phone. Flightboy mentioned on JF that he had haggled with BT and got a great deal, so I did the same and got the price down to the same as Sky [sat TV] and kept my Netgear router. You're pretty much all HD TV in the States now aren't you? Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 24, 2008 Report Share Posted November 24, 2008 Quote You're pretty much all HD TV in the States now aren't you? A lot of it is already and there's a date by which everything must be. I've lost track of when that is, but the marketers are making hay from it, of course. There's also an intresting side-show battle going on for the frequency band that was formerly occupied by the broadcast television stations. All that is regulated by our FCC (Federal Communications Commission). John Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted November 30, 2008 Report Share Posted November 30, 2008 You have a switch over date for High Definition? Or did you mean [like us] a switchover date for digital TV? If you have a switchover date for HD that would mean many with analogue terrestrial would require new TV sets as well as digital HD receivers. In the UK, high definition channels are broadcast alongside low definition for digital customers, so just a receiver swap required. Low def analogue users can buy quite cheaply set top boxes to receive digital TV through their TV aerial. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted December 2, 2008 Report Share Posted December 2, 2008 Quote You have a switch over date for High Definition? Or did you mean [like us] a switchover date for digital TV? I checked and you're right, the mandatory switchover is to digital, not necessarily to HD. I'm not a TV maven by any means so a lot of this kind of goes over my head. John Link to post Share on other sites
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