Home P2P Network Dilemma

[DigitalMP]

Alright, I just moved back into my buddy's old house, and I have two laptops that need simultaneous connectivity (in a second floor room). One has wireless, one does not. The cable modem, however, is connected in the next room over, to my friend's computer, using a 4-port D-Link non-WiFi router.

Other details:

I have four other Linksys 4-port Cable/DSL routers, two of which I think might be dead, and one WiFi, but I have never tested it and it was rumored to be defective. I will be testing it tomorrow, along with the others.

There is an RJ-45 phone jack in my room, but my buddy says it's just standard phone service. I'm assume that's the only wall plate the guy had, but I'm thinking that, if I don't use a phone in there, I could fish a crossover cable down into the basement from there and then another from the room with the modem, and connect them there - the modem room has a hole in the wall where we fished a Cat-5 up into the attic, which has ceiling access in the opposite room that I lived in last time I was here, and I ran the cable down along the wall. However, no ceiling access in my current room.​

What should I do? I thought of taking advantage of the wireless, but if one computer doesn't have WiFi, then I'll need to run a cable anyways, right?

Hmmm...I don't want to run cables all the freakin way around the house, as I'm not even sure how far I'll have to go in the basement to get to the phone connections.

 

[thedude42]

If you have unadulterated access to run cables through the walls, by all means take advantage of that (provided you know what you're doing). WiFi across a house can work just fine, and it can also be a pain depending on the situation. But wired is always better, so check your options there. I would try to use patch cables, not crossover, unless the situation won't allow for anything but a crossover.

Just remember if it's a long haul to run the wire, 100m is the top limit on unshielded cat5.

 

[edicwhun]

n00b question, but I'm learning as well...couldn't you set up the wireless laptop and then connect the non-wireless laptop to the wireless one via crossover and enable file/internet sharing and be done with it?

 

[DigitalMP]

n00b question, but I'm learning as well...couldn't you set up the wireless laptop and then connect the non-wireless laptop to the wireless one via crossover and enable file/internet sharing and be done with it?

not efficiently, no...

dude, thanks. 100m is way more than I'd need, even if I took a lap around the basement I would probably suffice.

The reason I suggested crossover was, well, here's my envisioned setup:



I envisioned the crossover cable as 4, so that any signal would be duplicated from the basement, up to my room, whether it is used later on as a phone, or whatever, but if someone suggests otherwise based on their experience, then I'm down.

Furthermore, the cable currently running from the RJ-45 plate is likely plain old 2 pair inside phone wire. I can run whatever I want, but my buddy would likely want that to act as a phone line whenever I might leave. However, if that room could be easily networked based on what I'm doing, and Cat 5 patch cable would allow for that (I was assuming Cat 5 crossover would provide both, but again, it was a fairly uneducated guess), I'm sure it would be acceptable.

Lastly, cables 2, 4, and 5 are currently non-existent.