Farm Growth Problem

[Hito Bahadur]

All,

My farm is currently in the office/spare bedroom. Generally, I have 4 Desktops in there and 2 Laptops (all with hardwire NICs). I also have a wireless laptop located in another room. My dsl modem is in this room as well as my wireless router.

My problem: I have 2 more desktops on the way. I have to expand to the garage, but running cable between the garage and the spare bedroom is a non-starter. But I do have the wireless connection.

The computers in the garage would just need bandwidth for folding as I don't intend to do much more with them. Is there such a thing as a wireless router uplink???? Would it be better to put a wireless router connection to one of the garage computers and use that computer's other NIC to run a router??

I'm not a big network infrastructure guy so am quickly out of my element and could use some advice, plus if anyone knows any good arguments to explain to the wife about 2 "unneeded" computers showing up in 1 week they would be appreciated also.

The good news is 3.5 more Ghz for the [H]orde.

 

[exharrison]

You could get a wireless acess point/extender. You should be able to hook up a router to that for the two computers. I'm pretty sure that you can do that to solve your problem.

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Would this be considered an Irrigation problem?

 

[Tigerbiten]

More like a fertilizer one.
I'm sure someone will be along to help you spread it............

Luck..........

 

[unhappy_mage]

More like a fertilizer one.
I'm sure someone will be along to help you spread it............

Luck..........

a moose perhaps? I'm sure he has lots of fertilizer to donate.

plus if anyone knows any good arguments to explain to the wife about 2 "unneeded" computers showing up in 1 week they would be appreciated also.

Good luck on that. <python>We shall watch... and pray. </python>

 

[marty9876]

Hito- Please post your wireless router make/model. Should be able to come up with something.

Thanks,
Marty

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Hito- Please post your wireless router make/model. Should be able to come up with something.

Thanks,
Marty

Belkin F5D7230-4 (802.11G Wireless Router)

edit: for stupidity

 

[BakedON]

How far from your current wireless setup is the garage? I get a decent signal in my neighbors garage a little more than 50 feet away.
If you aren't that fsr from the garage a couple of wireless USB adapters would be more than sufficient.

 

[Hito Bahadur]

How far from your current wireless setup is the garage? I get a decent signal in my neighbors garage a little more than 50 feet away.
If you aren't that fsr from the garage a couple of wireless USB adapters would be more than sufficient.

I've already got NICs and I would end up with more than 4 computers wireless.... figure for final distribution of computers:

4 in Office (CAT5)
4 in Garage
1 Wireless in other part of house.

I have an additional 4-port 10/100 router (not being used)
I have no additional wireless "NICs"
I have NICs in all my computers.

Part of my plan to appease my wife, is to move some assets out of the office.....

 

[BakedON]

Well... you could use Windows internet connection sharing and use, as you said, the NIC in one of the already wireless PC's in the garage to connect up the rest of the non-wireless PC's. You could use your spare router between the gateway (pc with both wireless and wired) and the rest of the garage lan. Run the WAN to the NIC in the gateway and the rest plug into the 4 open router ports and you should be good....
Might be overcomplicating it a bit.... someone else have another idea using his existing equipment?

 

[marty9876]

I hate wireless, I really do. It all comes down to how much you want to spend.

What you need is a bridge and a switch. Example is Belkin F5D7130 (you should be able to use and bridge, they are not cheap, 80-100 bucks. Go with B if it's cheaper in my opinion).

The bridge only has one output, drop this into a switch. On your router you have, shutoff DHCP in it and plug the bridge into a port 1-4 (not the WAN port). This will give you 3 ports to work with, your short one. You could drop two nics into one boxen and use the internet conneciton sharing deal in XP (not sure what OS your using, if Linux I can't help). I've done the connection sharing deal in XP, it worked. Better idea is just get a bigger switch, an 8 point should not be much. Maybe move some other boxen to garage and make the wife happy?

OR

Just stick a bunch of wireless NIC's in the boxed. I think they can be had for around 15 bucks on newegg. It really comes down to price per port in this stuff.

New thought as I type.

In one boxen drop in a wireless NIC, with a wired NIC. Turn on ICS (internet connection sharing) running this into the router (still shut off the DHCP, don't use WAN port). Then wired on the rest of youe boxen.

Total cost- price of the wireless NIC. And you have the ports you need. You are maxed out tho.

ICS is not easy, it's not too hard to. XP has some nice wizards for this if I recall.

WAF= wife acceptance factor.... Use a wireless bridge, 8 point switch and move some other boxen to garage. Not sure if you are using these boxen for anything tho... Plus this costs the most.

Re think pulling a line to the garage. I think you would still be short a port in the office.

Good luck!
Marty

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Well... you could use Windows internet connection sharing and use, as you said, the NIC in one of the already wireless PC's in the garage to connect up the rest of the non-wireless PC's. You could use your spare router between the gateway (pc with both wireless and wired) and the rest of the garage lan. Run the WAN to the NIC in the gateway and the rest plug into the 4 open router ports and you should be good....
Might be overcomplicating it a bit.... someone else have another idea using his existing equipment?

BakedON, thanks for ideas, but I have no wireless currently besides a laptop that will not be in the garage. I figure, if I have to get 1 more wireless piece of hardware, it might as well be a WEP and then plug the spare router directly into it as exharrison suggested.

 

[BakedON]

1 Wireless in other part of house.

I read that wrong and assumed you had a WAP already... sorry dude.
If your laptop has a wireless card that isn't being used... and you scrounge a wireless nic to put in the garage you could run them both in AD-HOC mode (wireless device to wireless device without routers) and accomplish the same thing.

 

[Hito Bahadur]

I read that wrong and assumed you had a WAP already... sorry dude.
If your laptop has a wireless card that isn't being used... and you scrounge a wireless nic to put in the garage you could run them both in AD-HOC mode (wireless device to wireless device without routers) and accomplish the same thing.

Nope, only 1 laptop with wireless. It is being used, but in the living room.

 

[BakedON]

Nope, only 1 laptop with wireless. It is being used, but in the living room.

Where do you live? i'll come set it up for you. I'll wire everything up with cat5 but I'll bury the lines... it'll be sweet!

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Where do you live? i'll come set it up for you. I'll wire everything up with cat5 but I'll bury the lines... it'll be sweet!

Rhode Island. Come on up.


j/k...I can run CAT5, but it is a rental.

 

[Buckus]

You should be able to just purchase another wireless router, disable DHCP, and use it as an access point. I dunno for sure because I haven't set one up that way, but it sounds feasible in my head.

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Thanks for the help guys. My WEP showed up and with only a little frustration everything is up. I even moved the most noisy boxes out of the office so I won't have to hear any complaining when my sister-in-law shows up.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=837198

Now I am waiting for my new box to show up next week and add it.