How to build a home network?

Hi,
How can I build a home network? and what are the prices for different choices?
Thank you.

wow there reda up on hub's, routers and ethernet cards... this is a very broad field and we would have to know what kind of uses you want for the network and q=what kind of internet acess you have...

your going to want any broad band connection, cable and up, then you put either net cards in then hook it all up with a hub its fairly easy and enexpensive (except the internet connection) :) just buy a book or something to get the details

There are countless articles on the subject that can be found by going to www.google.com and searching for home networking.

Do you know what the difference between a crossover and a patch cable?

Do you know what ethernet is?

Do you understand IP configurations, DHCP, ICS, etc?

A lot of stuff can be found (believe it or not) in the windows help file... on the subject.

Research it... good luck.

As far as prices... my computer cost $1,500 I got a deal on about six ethernet cards for $20 from a hospital that was ditching them. I have picked up a free 16 port linksys router from a buddy of mine. I look around swap meets and second hand stores for decent P100 or 486/100 computers... as well as a few that my work was throwing away. And I link them together for fun. It doesn't take a lot of money... just a lot of connections.

If you lived in my hometown, I would give you a 486/100. I have enough parts to make 20 of them probably. They are out there... and people are giving them away.... good for beginning networking.

For what it's worth, here's how I have my home network:

Code:

---

[Internet] --- [Cable Modem] --- [Linux]
                                    |
                                    |
                        [ Fast Ethernet Switch ]
                          |              |
                          |              |
                        [Win98]        [WinME]

---

The Linux box is running two network cards. One to speak with the cable modem (the outside world), and the other to speak with the LAN. The Linux box is the default route for my Windows boxes, which provides IP masquerading and firewalling.

The job of the switch used to belong to an active hub, and I've noticed a significant performance increase by moving to the switch.

if you're looking for something cheap and don't care much about connection speeds, here's my home config:

Code:

---


[Internet] ---- [3Com 56K Lanmodem] -----------------
                                                    /|\______ [backup comp]
                                        __________ / | \ ______
                      [dad's comp]                  |            [bro's comp]
                                                  [my comp]

---

it's simple enough... just a 56k modem with 4 lan ports... we had to run cat5 through the house, but it was easy... total system minus NIC cards (which I can't imagine computers wouldn't come with anymore)... approx. $300 USD

Mine:

Code:

---

[Internet]-------[My computer]

---

Pretty basic.

At school:

Code:

---

[Internet]-------[hub]--------[my system and my roomates' systems]

---

ahh.. must suck to not have your own connection to multiple T1s in your room at school... ;)

mine:

Code:

---

[hacker] ---  [AOL]  --- [14 million routers] ---  [internet] --- [my computer]

---

See AOL has a firewall which filters out all the hacker's packets (and anybody elses packets) so I don't have to worry about all that internet firewall crap.

That isn't the first time I have seen someone say something bad about AOL in a good way, but that has to be one of the better ones.