New home networked. What to do with router? (1 Viewer)

[CRyan]

Ok. Here is where my knowledge of home networking goes blank.

I currently have a wireless router that is hooked up directly to my cable modem. I run my three PC's directly off of this router.

Ok, now in the new house I have a 6 port hub in a Leviton enclosure where all 6 network lines converge from all over the house. How do I get internet to all of my PC's scattered through the house?

Can I just plug the cable modem and wirless router into any point and be able to share the net connection and files? What do i do?



Thanks for any help,

C. Ryan

 

[SteveA]

If you are planning to connect your PCs wirelessly, then yes, you should be able to connect your cable modem and router at whichever spot in your house makes the most sense.

If you are planning to use wired connectivity, then the best spot for the router and cable modem is the point where all your cables converge.

In my house (which I pre-wired when it was built), I use a combination of wired and wireless networking. In the closet where I have my patch panel, I have a cable modem and a four-port wired router. I have three ports in the house connected to this central router - 2 PCs and a wireless access point which sits on a perch above my foyer. My two stationary PCs use wired connection, while my laptop connects wirelessly wherever I take it in the house.

Hope this helps.

 

[JamesHl]

If you are running all wireless, you can setup your network completely independent of the wiring. Just put your router and cable modem wherever it is convenient. If you want to use the wiring, put the cable modem and router in the closet or wherever you have that wiring box (I assume if it's like the one in my apt everything is in it so you can get cable from there). You can plug whatever ports are on the back of your router into the available plugs on the patch panel, which is what I assume you meant when you say hub. If you actually have a hub in there, plug one of the ports on the router into the crossover port on the hub and it will provide to all of them.

 

[CRyan]

Oh yeah, I am planning on using the in-wall cat5. The Leviton box is in the garage. I also need wireless for the laptop.

Now the question came when thinking of using the wireless router for continued wireless supprt of the laptop. The rub comes when thinking of placing the router in the Leviton box in the garage. I will not get good reception from there.

So I was wondering if I could just plug the routher into any port in the house and get internet wirelessly that way. I suppose if I place the cable modem in the box and have it feed all of the wiring, that this will work. Am I thinking correctly??

Thanks for the help

 

[JamesHl]

Unfortunately, most cable modems these days require that you have a router to use NAT. You could place the modem remotely and put the router in the box, but not vice versa.

If you can describe this Leviton thing more exactly, I might have a better idea of what to tell you.

 

[CRyan]

Oh, it is a popular media box (much like a breaker box} that combines all media interfaces for the home. Sat, cable, phone lines, and ethernet all break out from this one point.

NAT?

C. Ryan

 

[JamesHl]

Network address translation. Your cable modem can only give you one ip address, generally. You need one ip address per computer. Therefore, the solution is to chop up the one ip address so that all the computers on your network can use it. This is an extremely oversimplified version, but that's what a router does. Hubs don't do that.

More than likey though, it's just a patch panel, which is simply just the convenient collection of plugs at their termination point. The best way to go in this situation would be to get a regular router and a wireless access point. That way you could put the access point wherever you want in your house, and the router will allow all your computers use of the cable modem. To continue just using your current router you could do this, but it would eat one of what I assume is a small number of ports (probably 4), leaving you with 3 or however many to run your wired computers off of. You could also get a wireless ap to act as a repeater, or a dedicated repeater. Or upgrade the antenna if you can.

 

[nolesrule]

Some wireless routers can be turned into access points by turning off the router functionality.

 

[Lee L]

It sounds like your panel has a built-in hub. You will need to hook all the wired devices in your house (if any) to the various jacks in your house and then plug one of the 4 ports on your router into one of the wall jacks anywhere you have a empty jack (it can be where ever you get the best wireless reception or near the cable or dsl modem, probably both). Once you do that, it is just a matter of making sure the cable or dsl modem is plugged into the WAN port of the router, that it is propery set up to work with you DSL or cable and that the router is configured as a DHCP server. If you are doing this now, the current setting should work. Then make sure all the devices in the house, either wired or wireless are set up to use DHCP (they should, by default).

If you do not have a hub, you will need to install the router in the garage or install a hub or switch there.

Also, try http://www.practicallynetworked.com/ for additional info.

 

[JamesHl]

plug one of the 4 ports on your router into one of the wall jacks anywhere you have a empty jack

I'm fairly sure this wouldn't work. To connect a hub to a router so that the router acts as a dhcp server and gateway, you have to plug the router into the uplink port of the hub, not just any port. Assuming it is a hub, I would also venture to guess that the uplink port would only be accessible from the inside... although...

what you could do if it's a patch panel is put a simple hub in there, plug the router from wherever you place it through to the hub, and then plug the hub into the rest of the ports on the panel. That would work pretty well actually, and you can get hubs for cheaper than you can another router or ap.

 

[Lee L]

True, I forgot to mention to use the uplink port or use a crossover cable, although many consumer routers can automatically sense the connection and will work with a crossover or straight through cable. At least my Netgear MR314 will.

 

[Ken Chan]

With all this talk about hubs: you really should get a "switch", not a "hub". They look similar, but the switch will give you better throughput with multiple computers.

//Ken

 

[Patrick Larkin]

The house we are building comes with a structured wiring box as well. It comes with 3 - 5 port hubs and an 8-port switch.

I was wondering the same thing. I will have all the rooms home-run to this box. I'm not sure how they will terminate them. I'm assuming they plug all rooms in the switch.

Somehow, I need to have a cable modem and a wireless router incorporated to give the whole house access to the cable modem and for the wireless devices to have access as well.

Will I need to tell the cable guy to put the cable modem in the basement next to this box or can that go anywhere? I assume I will need to put my wireless router inline between the cable modem and the house network...

BTW, this is the box, made by GE:
http://www.ge-securitypro.com/gesmar...m?PageID=10113

 

[SteveA]

Patrick, the best thing you can do is put your cable modem and a cheap, wired router (about $40) in your basement next to the structured wiring box. Then connect the jacks you want to be "hot" to this router. If your setup is like what I have in my house, you will have some kind of patch panel that connects to each port in the house. Connect your desired ports to the router.

You should then connect a separate (non-routing) wireless access point to one of your "hot" ports to give wireless devices access. You can plug other PCs into the other "hot" jacks. That's exactly how I have my house set up and it works like a champ!

 

[JamesHl]

With all this talk about hubs: you really should get a "switch", not a "hub". They look similar, but the switch will give you better throughput with multiple computers.

Not for having 4 computers that pretty much browse the internet. You'll never see the difference.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

atrick, the best thing you can do is put your cable modem and a cheap, wired router (about $40) in your basement next to the structured wiring box. Then connect the jacks you want to be "hot" to this router. If your setup is like what I have in my house, you will have some kind of patch panel that connects to each port in the house. Connect your desired ports to the router.

What do I do with the switch that comes in the structured wiring setup then? I suppose the cables come down to the box to a patch panel where they come out and plug into the switch using RJ45 patch cables. Are you suggesting that unplug from the provided switch and plug into a router with switched ports? I'm thinking there is some way to uplink from the provided switch into a single port on a router. That way, the internal lan stays on the switch and only talks to the router as a DHCP server and as the internet gateway...

 

[JamesHl]

With networked DVR's, home media units, PC's as media servers, IP cameras and the like, a switch is a must. Its dedicated bandwidth to each port as opposed to sharing.

Well, not really unless they were all transferring data at full blast for a certain length of time, or something. 99.9% of the time your network isn't close to using 100mbits of total bandwidth in a home environment.

 

[SteveA]

I'm thinking there is some way to uplink from the provided switch into a single port on a router.

Yes, that should accomplish the same thing as using the routers built-in switch.