Networking Three PC's Problem

Kazu

I am trying to start a gaming lan what type of cable would i need and do i need anything else other than three network cards

Shiny

You will need

3 Patch Cables(CAT5)
1 hub/switch

shurl

All you would need is a small 4 port hub.
An ethernet network card in each PC and 3 Cat 5 ethernet cables to go to each PC from the hub.


That should do it.

S.

shurl

Shiny wrote:

You will need

3 Patch Cables(CAT5)
1 hub/switch

D'oh!
Beat me to it

leeroybrown

To network two PC's with two network cards and no switch/hub you use a crossover cable.

Three PC's represents a bit of a problem as you would normally use a hub (preferably a swithced one). Theoretically you could have two network cards in one of the PC's and use two crossover cables but it's less than ideal and messy.

My suggestion would be to pick up a cheap 8 port hub or switch for your mini LAN. Even an ancient 10Mbit Hub would do for gaming with a small number of PC's but you could probably pick up anl 8 port 100Mbit switch cheap somewhere. Add three ordinary network cables and you're sorted.

Edit: Memo To Self
In future answer questions like this with "3 NICs + 3 cables + 1 hub" to avoid being five posts too late.

Kazu

thanks for the reply can you have three wireless cards to set up a 3 pc network without anything else like a wireless acess point

shurl

Hmm, afaik you can, if you switch them to peer-to-peer mode.

Need to confirm though.


S.

Shiny

shurl wrote:

D'oh!
Beat me to it

Muhahahahaha : )