Cheap folding network q's

[mr_ouija]

Currently, with the setup i have I've got 2 machines folding in my room. One has wireless and the other is wired-only. In the living room is the wireless router and cable modem. There is no wired connection between here and there, and no way to install without it being crappy (I live in an apartment). I'm exploring cheap methods to connect the second computer to the internet, so i do not have to swap the wireless card from machine to machine to get new wus for the second box (and soon to be third box). I don't want to run more software on my main rig if I don't need to, but if there's something I could turn on/off as necessary then that would work fine. I did see something about a USB -> NIC bridge, but I don't have cables for that and i could get a 802.11b card on ebay for about the same.

Anyways, is there another way to set it up? I tried ICS, but ICS can't route if there's another NAT router on the network, so that's not an option. Optimally, I'd be getting 2x wireless nics for the second boxes, but would like them to work with their existing onboard, wired, nics.

TIA!

 

[Herulach]

A Usb wireless dongle maybe? Just unplug it when you dont need it.

 

[mr_ouija]

You my friend are brilliant. For some reason I completely overlooked that, even on ebay.

Anyone used one of these 802.11g USB Dongles ? Just curious on the quality of them, and if they are worth $9.99 and $15 shipping.

 

[Herulach]

I dont know about that. But, assuming it works, and all you want to use it for is d/ling the odd work unit, then youre set, especially at that price

 

[Tigerbiten]

Which OS are you useing.
I know XPpro lets you bridge networks together.

My set up is to use one of my folding boxen as a gateway computer with all the firewall/ antivirus software on it.
Then my main box is networked directly from it.
All my other boxen are then networked from the gateway via a switch.
That give me the best access with the minimum of software on my main box.
But then my network is all wired.

Luck.......

 

[mr_ouija]

A wired network would be ideal, but not going to happen at this apt. USB Dongle may just be my answer, even if only a 802.11b, it'd work wonderfully

 

[Hito Bahadur]

What is your wireless setup on the other computer? PCI card, WAP, internall, etc.


I ran 6 box off one WAP and it was fairly responsive. You would just need a cheap router on the end of the WAP. You can do the same thing with 2 wireless routers. It's not ideal but works very well.

 

[unhappy_mage]

I've used one of those (similar anyway) and it worked fine. The drivers will likely suck though. Be warned.

 

[mr_ouija]

What is your wireless setup on the other computer? PCI card, WAP, internall, etc.


I ran 6 box off one WAP and it was fairly responsive. You would just need a cheap router on the end of the WAP. You can do the same thing with 2 wireless routers. It's not ideal but works very well.

My main comp is wireless pci card. I had a second wireless router in here but it wouldn't work as a WAP and give dhcp leases to wired computers. or are you talking about something else? hehe

 

[Hito Bahadur]

My main comp is wireless pci card. I had a second wireless router in here but it wouldn't work as a WAP and give dhcp leases to wired computers. or are you talking about something else? hehe

You are right. A WAP won't act as a DHCP. In my case, I had a WAP and a wired router sitting around so I hung the router off the WAP. You might be able to use a gateway switch off a WAP, but I'm not certain. An 4-8 port gateway switch is pretty cheap. Someone might know if that would work.

 

[Shadowchild]

If you've got wired ether on both boxes, I'd say keep the wireless card in one of them, have it act as a bridger, and grab a crossover cable on the cheap from somewhere and wire them directly together, and you've got your problem solved as long as they're in the same room, and it's also mad cheap that way. I don't have crimpers and extra cable at my house, and no easy access to them, but I'm sure if you talk to someone here they could help you out with the cable and such pretty easily.

 

[mr_ouija]

i've got the cables and supplies to make more. The problem is this:

Living Room has:
Roomie's Comp = Wired connection to Router. IP 192.168.0.100
HP 5800 Printer = Wireless connection to Router. IP 192.168.0.101
Wireless router 192.168.0.1

My Room has this:
Comp1 = Mainrig w/ Wireless connection to router. IP 192.168.0.102
Comp2 = second rig, folding box, crossover connected to Comp1

Now on comp 2 I have tried to set it where it and the wired port on Comp1 have their own network... bridge connections on comp1, Wireless and Wired to Comp2. I can't access Comp2 when I try to remote desktop to it, via IP address and computer name, but windows sees it in the workgroup but I can't tell if it can get to the internet. Also, half the time the wireless doesn't work when it's bridged with the wired connection. It will see the network, but be unable to join it.

On a side note, I got a hell of a deal from newegg on a USB dongle.

Gigafast 802.11b USB Adapter: $20 + $4.99 shipping - $17 Mail-in Rebate = $7.99 shipped in the end! That's less than Ebay BEFORE SHIPPING! Thought I should share that with the rest of you wanting a cheap way to setup your folding farm.
Rebate offer is for $17 off Gigafast USB 802.11b Adaptor (i think $14 for the 802.11g adaptor) purchased at newegg.com between 2/1/05 and 3/31/05

 

[Herulach]

You want to set up the wired interface on both pcs to a seperate subnet, then use the windows bridging stuff on the wireless pc to bridge teh 2 connections together. You could do it with firewire or usb also, assuming you have the right cables, but if you got the wireless dongle then you should be set. Although if you were worried about software it might have been better to go with one that windows has the drivers for, that way you dont need any random crapware installed that you dont need. But to be perfectly honest i dont know why youdont go on the intarweb on your main rig anyway, does it not drive you crazy having to copy patches to cds and things? Assuming youve got a half decent router with NAT, then youre safe from the outside world, and you could enjoy the true joys of network gaming.

 

[mr_ouija]

My main rig IS on the internet, it's the other comp that isn't getting online.

The following is my network setup:
Main Rig Wireless @ IP 192.168.0.102 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Network 192.168.0.0 Node 102 (DHCP)

Wireless Router 192.168.0.1 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Network 192.168.0.0 Node 1 (Static)

Main rig connects to router, surf the net etc, no problems. Now to the problem section...

Wired (Nvidia G-Bit LAN) on my main rig was set @ IP 10.1.1.1 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Network 10.1.1.0 Node 1 (Static)

Wired on second rig set @ IP 10.1.1.2 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
network 10.1.1.0 Node 2 (Static)

The two machines could talk, transfer files, see one another in My Network Places -> Entire Network -> Microsoft Windows Network -> MSHOME, etc. and this allowed me to use MS Remote Desktop Utility to admin the second rig without a hitch.

When I enable Wireless/Wired bridge, that's when the problems arise, the Wireless connection typically doesn't connect to the router, and when it does, I can't ping second rig or remote desktop to second rig. Mind you, out of probably 50 attempts so far, once the wireless connection was working while it was involved in the network bridge.


On a side note, I just swapped the PCI card to the second rig because it was done with all it's work... and when I connected to the network, none of it was worth any points? Why would that be?

 

[Herulach]

If you really want to get it working that way, try setting up the bridging first, and put the second machine on dhcp.

AS far as not getting any points, check your log file (FAHlog.txt) look for Early Unit end, that means it broke somewhere. Or give it a few hours to show up at stanford.