Universtiy house networking question...

[MrChris]

Hello guys & girls,

Here’s the deal:

I’m in my newly rented house (which I, my girlfriend and 2 friends are renting) and am just figuring out the internet situation. Basically, each "study room" has a phone line and individual access to broadband, I say individual because each room gets its own USB modem, user name and password.

Now me and my girlfriend are sharing a room and using the spare room downstairs as the living room and making what was the living room into the dining room. This means there is a spare internet connection in the new living room (because it originally was my bedroom). So, my question is this;

Will each line be independent? I.e. if I am downloading will I take the bandwidth of my fellow house mates? I am going to test this later on I think.

Also, I am going to create a small network to allow mine and my girlfriends computers to all connect at the same time seeming as though we are sharing one connection in our bedroom. The network will be wireless for her laptop and my iBook and wired for my main PC and my other laptop which I use for converting video/graphic rendering etc...

So basically I came up with an idea; IF the lines are totally independent of each other and have their own bandwidth then I am considering purchasing another wireless ADSL modem/router (This One) and connecting it to the spare line in the living room so that I can connect one of my laptops to it and have a dedicated line for downloading large files, transferring large files etc..

What do you think? Is 2 separate wireless networks in one house a good idea, will it work? And what about the lines? I will get back and let you know once I have tested them to see if the bandwidth is shared.

Kind Regards,

Chris.

 

[Earp]

Are these seperate phone lines or just different connections to the same line? I'll assume the latter.

I wasn't aware you could have multiple (A)DSL modems on one line, but if you can, then whether the bandwidth is shared depends a lot on how your ISP has your account set up.

One line (assuming traditional copper) will have a certain maximum data transfer rate that depends on the distance from the DSLAM (equipment at the phone company, or in a remote cabinet), the quality of the cable (wire gauge, age), and cross-talk from other pairs in the cable along the way back to the DSLAM. Let's say in your case, this is 1.5Mbps. Now if your account has a limit of 1.5Mbps, then your bandwidth is shared. However, if your account has an artificially imposed limit of say 384Kbps, then your bandwidth may or may not be shared depending on how your ISP implements their bandwidth cap.

In short, you'll have to test.

 

[MrChris]

OK, after a bit of testing here's what i have come up with:

Each phone "outlet" has a different number, does this mean they are seperate lines?

I did try downloading a 200mb file on my computer which was going at about 60kb/s (the connection is 512k ) and my house mate then tried generally surfing, downloading some quick time movies etc.. and we could'nt detect any significant drops in speed so..

what do you guys think?

Regards,

Chris,

P.S. Im looking a either a Netgear or Linksys router for about £45. which make is better?

The specific routers im looking at are:

Linksys

and

Netgear

 

[nismo_r34]

chances are if that each outlet has its own number, the lines are all independant of each other, so downloading on your line will not effect the bandwidth of your roomates.