Setting Up A Network

Magnolia_Fan

I'm currently contimplating setting up a LAN system using 10 PC's, a server and a laser jet printer..I have no experience in this at all and I'm a little confused as to how I network my Printer to all of my PC's..any help would be appreciated..what wires I might need, routers etc.?

osmethod

Let us know if any of the following makes sense.

You have 10 pc's, 1 server, 1 laserjet printer c/w power leads

In addition you'll need a 16 port switch, 11 Cat 5 cables, a printer cable, 24 power outlets (at least).

Each PC and server needs 1 cat5 cable to run between it and the switch.

Power up everything....

Connect the printer to the server only and install software/drivers for it. (It may autosetup.

Thats the physical side taken care off.

To get them all taking to one another each pc and server will need to have an "IP Address" assigned to each of their network cards. Start with the server and give it an IP Address of 192.168.0.1 Mask 255.255.255.0. Set the defaullt gateway to 192.168.0.1 (IP Address of server).

For the pc's give the first one an iip address of 192.168.0.2 and comtinue up to 192.168.0.11.

When this is done open up a command prompt on each of the pc's and type the following command:

ping 192.168.0.1

If you receive 4 replys all is ok... if not....

See how that goes first...

osmethod

diarmo

You make it sound so complicated osmethod.

Firstly Magnolia_Fan what is your level of experience with computers??

As osmethod has already pointed out you will need a 16port Switch and a good amount of Cat5e cable.
If you are serious about setting up this LAN and want to do it correctly I suggest you purchase a RJ45 crimper as 1metre of Cat5e can be as cheap as 25cent...but the pre-cut/packaged version is at leat 10 times more expensive.

The printer can be equipped with a usb/parallel-RJ45 network adapter to allow its use independent of any other computer on the network.
It will take some searching but they are out there...but could be expensive!!!

Stephen

A printer with its own ethernet port is generally the best way to do it - that way everyone can print even if the PC that it would have been connected to is off/disconnected.

Magnolia_Fan

Thats great thats exactly what I wanted..my experience is pretty limited on the technical side of computers, I use them alot I just don't do much with the components or any I/O Devices. Thanks

Capt'n Midnight

Stephen wrote:

A printer with its own ethernet port is generally the best way to do it - that way everyone can print even if the PC that it would have been connected to is off/disconnected.

BTW: microsoft are kicking up about this sort of thing, people using networked computers without paying extra !

Suppose you create network software or hardware that needs to talk to a Microsoft file system. It could be a printer, of a storage device, or a piece of middleware. As a licensee you must agree to pay Microsoft $50,000 up front in Prepaid Royalties. Then depending on the number of users your product has, you pay on a per user basis depending on what's accessed. For the 'Print and File Server' portion you pay on a user basis up to $1900, but no less than $80 per server. For workgroup access (Domain Controllers command a higher royalty) you pay up to $600, but no less than $100 per server.

Seriously file and print sharing from window is limited to 10 clinets unless you buy the server products and that is a serious cost.

Magnolia_Fan

sorry me again here comes the killer blow that will show me up as the computer hack that I am....when i get all of the above should I connect the Printer to one of the computers of to the switch?

Snowbat

If your printer has an ethernet port, connect it to the switch.
Else if you have a print server device such as this, connect the printer to it.
Else the printer connects to one of the PCs and you will set up printer sharing on that PC.

osmethod

Magnolia Fan...

Did any of the above make sense....?

Can you describe at what point you are at now and if you have problems?

osmethod

Magnolia_Fan

I have drawn a layout for it...I have my printer and server attached to the 16 port switch, each PC is connected to an ethernet cable which is linked onto a Cat 5 cable linking it to the switch...I also drew in a DSL router which is also connected to the 16 port switch....I'm pretty sure thats wrong now though but I can get some help with it I know some computer mad people

po0k

Ok.

So the printer is connected to the LAN directly and not through the server yes?
Assign each device or machine an IP.

DSL router ip: 192.168.1.1 subnetmask: 255.255.255.0 (a "/24", slash24 subnet, 254 nodes) same subnet for each device
Server ip: 192.168.1.2 subnetmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 192.168.1.1
Printer ip: 192.168.1.3 subnetmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway should be left blank.
PC#1 ip: 192.168.1.4 subnetmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 192.168.1.1
PC#2 ip: 192.168.1.5 subnetmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 192.168.1.1
.
.
.
PC#10 ip: 192.168.1.13 subnetmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 192.168.1.1
All devices with unique IP, Subnetmask set to 255.255.255.0 and all the PCs and the server with gateway set to 192.168.1.1 (your DSL router - the "Gateway" to any external networks).
The printer and router should be the last two you configure as you'll need a networked PC to configure them first. Read their manuals for instructions. RTFM tbh :)
From here you should be able to ping every network node from each machine.
If you can't, post here with the problem.

Now that you have basic IP connectivity running, the DNS (Domain Name Service) server IPs need to be entered. This depends on your router and server setup. Easiest way is to set both Primary and Secondary DNS IPs to those provided by your ISP.
A better way would be to have a cachin DNS server running on the server machine and set the primary DNS on all the PCs (Client machines) to the LAN server IP. That way DNS resolutions will be more efficient as only your LAN server need perform external DNS requests for new domain names. This may be beyond what you can do at the moment. It's highly advisable though.

After that, setup whatever sort of windows network you need (Simple "Workgroup" type or a Domain Controller-based setup).

If you get as far as being able to ping each machine, post back here with more detail on what you need to do and what software and requirements you have.

Magnolia_Fan

o.k thanks