Networking for beginners - 2 PCs?

Zaphod Beeblebrox

Hey all,

Just replaced my old P3 450 with a Athlon 1800, but seeing as the old one runs Half Life and Quake 3 fine I'm looking at making a mini-network. My budget is small (think small by a poor person's standards) and neither PCs have network cards built in. The purpose of the network will mostly be gaming with HL and Q3 so it will need to be fast, but I will also want to move files from one to the other. Any ideas? Here is some more info that may help:
Both PCs have spare PCI and ISA slots, both have USB, one has Firewire (the Firewire that comes with the Soundblaster Audigy). The comps are about 10 feet apart if that makes any difference.
Any ideas yet?

Thanks,
Zaph.

Dustaz

I aint no expert, but you can get NIC cards pretty cheap (18 quid at IT Direct ). 2 of these and a crossover cable and you have yourself a 10 base-t connection (am i correct in this?).

Fooger

try this for a ABC guide http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/network/
as for cheap ask someone about a direact cable connection but i dont know if this will be to your needs

Zaphod Beeblebrox

Thanks lads just placed an order for one of these

Netgear Network Starter Kit

10/100 Mpbs, 5-port hub, 2 10Mpbs network cards and cables all for £35. Gwan Dabs.com

phobos

10/100 Mpbs, 5-port hub, 2 10Mpbs network cards and cables

Just so I can clear this up, you say above 10/100Mbps, and then you say that the 2 NICs are 10Mbps. So which is it?

TBH I don't recommend 10 meg cards if you are going to me doing some mega file sharing and gaming. I know at this early stage of your network it's only going to be 2 machines, but still we don't want lag, do we?.

Anyway the price difference between cards is minimal. I saw some 10/100 cards for £20 in Compustore. But I have to admit for what you are getting, the price is right @ £35 squids. I like the 5 port hub, hubs are always good. As I always say, you can never have enough sockets to plug stuff inta.

;-phobos-)

Zaphod Beeblebrox

Hehe yeah anywayz I was thinking the same thing, can't go wrong for that price and if it's too slow I can always get some new cardz.

Zaphod Beeblebrox

Erm... just to check before I confirm the order... 10Mpbs cards will run Quake 3 and RTC Wolfenstein right? As in with lag low enough so you can play it properly?

phobos

If it's just the two machines, I don't think there will be much lag with a 10Mbit connection. I would say your setup will be fine.

Actually over the next week or two I will be doing something similar, but with much lower spec machines. But then again I don't expect to be doing much gaming. Since I have a 10/100 NIC in one of the systems already, I think I will buy similar for the other, just to take advantage of the broadband capacity.

;-phobos-)

moist

With 2 machines it will be fine, the differance between
10 and 100 is the _ammount_ of data that you can push
through it at a time.
Latancy and collisions and stuff will not really be an issue
untill you have over 15 or 20 machines pumping out
a fair ammount of data, then you would start
thinking more about a switch than going 100m.

Assuming of course its not a totally kruddy hub
I've heard of hubs that have to be bounced daily
as they keep freazing up, granted these were old.

As for latancy, you will get a better ping than ISDN, so you will be fine.

Jaden

2 x ISA 10 Meg combo cards (3COM Brand).
1 x 4 meter crossover cable RJ45 for above.

£20. That includes post.

Let me know if your interested.

Zaphod Beeblebrox

ARG! Ordered them now! Thanks anyway Jaden

Zaphod Beeblebrox

Sorry to resurrect this post again but...
If I want to play a game on my 2 PC network, do I need a different copy of the game for each PC or is 1 ok? Does it depend on the game? Say for example I want to play Aliens v Predator 2 on the network, assuming I have a copy of the original CD so there is a CD for each PC, will it let me get away with that or will it realise what I'm doing and complain? btw sorry if this breaks any board rules on 'warez'/EULAs etc.

seamus

IMO, there's nothing wrong with using one copy of software to install on your own personal comps, and most(all maybe) progs don't carry out checks to see if there is another copy using the same CD key on your network. If it does, plug out your network cable when installing, simple . XP can be installed on a desktop and laptop using the same activation code so I don't see why anyone would complain in your case, especially if you own both pcs and it's for personal use. Read the documentation, legal stuff changes from package to package.

kudos on not making a new thread to ask a similar question btw