home network Q.

Rabies

i'm thinking about networking (well getting someone to do it for me) the PCs we have back home. it will mainly be done for business use but of course gaming will be coming in to the equation also. i was wondering could anyone shed some light on to home much it could cost.

we have three PCs and a laptop.
will give few specs if it is any help.

first PC: win98, 500mhz, 128mb ram

second PC: winME, 700mhz(i think), 128mb ram

third PC: winXP, 1000mhz, 128mb ram

laptop: same as second PC

none of these machines have network cards.

one of the PCs is in the house and the rest is in the office next door.

would it cause much of a problem that they are all running different OS. would it be best to get win2000/nt.

how much would it cost to buy the nextwork cards,cables etc.
any ideas on a labour cost if i was to get some one in to set all of this up.

thanks for any info

SkepticOne

Just to answer one of those questions, you should not need to upgrade all the PCs to the same operating system to network them together although doing so might make things easier.

Rabies

thanks SkepticOne
thats one part answered for me.

all i need to know now is the price:D

Gavin

3 X network cards. Around €30 max in peats/maplins for a network card. around €60-80 for a pcmcia network card for the laptop.

So around €150 for the cards. Around €100/130 for an 8 port 100mb hub. ( no need for a switch for games and office printing sharing etc.. )

Cabling.. Not too sure. Obviously will depend on the distance. 1 metre is around 1.5 euro i think.

Getting someone in to do it. It would take a competent person around an hour or two to get it done, just laying the cables down.

Possibly around 4 or 5 hours to cable the place properly with patch points if you want to be very neat and tidy.

If I am doing work like that, I'd charge in or around €50 per hour, so we'd say €150 or so for labour. ( just as an estimate, I'm not offering to do it )

At the end of the day a rough estimate would be around €450-500 euro.

You could cut labour out of that of course by doing it yourself which is very easy to do. Read through the various posts on this board and also www.helmig.com will be helpful. The various OS's will all work fine together. Main thing is to make sure of is either, have 1 user between all the machines or make sure that the Win
XP machine has users accounts for all the other users.



Gav

Rabies

thanks Verb.

i know a person that might help me set it all up if i ask him. just needed to get a rough idea of the price. it will be my father that will be paying for it all.

i told him it would prob cost at least €400.

i might be able to get some of the cards slightly cheaper from a guy i know.

two of the PCs and the laptop are in the office and other PC is in the house so i guess i would need about 10-15meters of cable at least to reach the house.

the laying of the cable doesnt need to be extremly neat. as long as there is no cables hanging from the lights i'll be happy

i have done a little bit of networking in college but i dont think i'm up to the standard of trying to set up a fully functional network myself. i will be asking some one to do it and i'll help out. its the only way i'll really learn how its done.

prob get different user accounts set up.

i think the price seems pretty reasonable.

thanks verb

Sesshoumaru

You could also go for a wireless solution. I recently bought this little gem from cruxworks https://www.cruxworks.com/cruxworks/showdetails.phtml?cw=128353 . Its a wireless access point and a 10/100 4 port switch. This would be very suitable for inside your office where there are 3 pc's(is your laptop in the house or office?)You could connect up the pc's in the office using your standard network cards and cat5 cableing and then use a wireless link to your home pc. Probably a good idea to use a wireless pc card in your laptop also as it will give you more freedom to move around with it and stay connected to the network. If you ever got an ADSL connection its also and ADSL router. It should be well within your €400 budget and its very easy to setup.

Rabies

one PC is in the house
the other two and the laptop are in the office.

would the wireless networking work even though one PC is in the house. do they need a line of sight to work right or at all.

thanks for the second networking option Sesshoumaru

Sesshoumaru

Forgot to mention costs:

Linksys wireless access point €158
Linksys PCI wireless network card(for desktop pc) €45
Linksys wireless pc card(for laptop) €80

Those prices are from www.cruxworks.com expect to add about €30 for shipping to ireland.

Then for the wired stuff

PCI network card €13 each(you will need 2 probably)
10m cat5 cable €2.50
25m cat5 cable €7.00

Those prices are from http://www.marx-computers.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi
You can add about €8.00 for shipping or if your in dublin you can go pick them up.

Thats a total of €339 plus a bit extra for whatever amount of cables you need.

and if you need someone to set it all up for you I will charge you a very reasonable price for it

Sesshoumaru

The wireless access point has an output of 80mw so its pretty good at punching through walls. The manufactures specifications say it will go 457 metres outdoors or 91 metres indoors. I use mine at home and have tested it from a few neighbours houses and I can get a signal even through a couple of houses so its as good as linksys says it is If you need to get more distance than that a simple outdoor antenna attached to it will greatly increase its range.

Rabies

thnaks guys for the info and price estimations.

i'll just go and explain all of this to the man that pays the bills and let him how much this will cost.

he needs it for the usual file sharing capabilities. but it will come in handy for me as well. few networked games of quake or UT will go down a treat.

the wireless method will prob suit him better. no need to start drilling holes.

91 meters indoors is more than enough range.

po0k

imo:
Do things right.
You get what you pay for.
First off, get wired
Wireless is fine, but at the moment the bandwidth is coming to it's end, and there'll be 54mbps cards out soon (802.11g)
get Cat5e(150Mhz) or "Fast Cat5e"(300Mhz) cable
3Com 905C-TX-M cards (~€50 each - fúcking class)
A similar PCMCIA network card
A 100Mbit 8 port switch really won't cost you more then €100-130 and you'll deffinately notice the speed difference, makes the whole thing much more useful and future proof.
Especially if there'a large backup/file transfer on fridays.
Don't want to get caught waiting for the network.

It should come to about €400, depending on where you go, and what brand PCMCIA card you get.
I know for a fact you can get 15m of ready made belkin fast cat5e cable for €15 if you want reliable stuff.

it'll definately make the difference.
Basic hubs are last decade. Switched hubs are the way forward.....

Samson

Originally posted by SyxPak
I know for a fact you can get 15m of ready made belkin fast cat5e cable for €15 if you want reliable stuff.

Where ?

The Cigarette Smoking Man

http://www.pycom.ie