OT. How to set up a home computer network?

Windose help will tell you how to set up a home network.

You obviously have an internet connection. Presumably you have a router. External drives can be bought that have a network connection and could plug straight into your router and be accessible to all the computers using said router. Here is a link to one from PC World although I am sure you can get them cheaper.

don't want to install Ethernet cabling or use wireless: just buy one for each computer you want to network and plug them into a mains socket near to the computer they are to connect. An Ethernet cable (supplied) connects the homeplug to the computer and the data travels across your house wiring.

Add an NAS device to the network with a homeplug and you can store backups and/or data anywhere in the house. Choose an 'unusual' location and a thief is unlikely to find it even if they find your computer(s): you can replace a stolen computer but not your data.

Well... a very good way to do it is to build your own NAS. Recipes vary for homebrew equipment of this nature, but mine was as follows:

PC case and power supply: Free (had one spare, huge choice available free via Freecycle or at a local recycling site).

Motherboard with Gigabit LAN and SATA: Had to pay for one, got an Asus model that cost me £50. Gigabit LAN is essential, the speed hit from

Processor: Had several around used an AMD Turion because it's 64 bit and low power. YMMV a lot.

Memory: Had 4GB going spare.

Drives: Had around 4TB of drives kicking around from other projects and a further 4TB of USB/Firewire drives. YMMV again, but internal SATA drives cost just a few quid.

CD-ROM: Only needed during installation, had a spare IDE model.

Plumb up the whole mess. Temporarily attach monitor and keyboard. Install Ubuntu, use Desktop if you want a pretty interface, but really Server is all you need. Format all the drives. Load up Samba. Set up Samba.

Errm that's it. Terabytes of on-line storage accessible at 70MB/s for a fraction of the cost of any NAS or indeed many external USB drives of similar capacity. The home-brewed NAS is about 2x faster than USB2 drives. Copying a 5GB file can be done in 70 seconds.

... it will take hours to transfer files of non-trivial size.

I don't know what you mean by 'non-trivial', but I'm running an NAS on a homeplug network here and the number of times it takes 'hours' to transfer a file is not very often. And when it does, so what? It's all going on in the background.

Just an easier alternative to installing Ethernet wiring, runs faster than wireless and not mentioned in the Wiki.

Very useful to a non expert like me :-( , however I wondered whether the info is up to date I don't know when it was last reviewed and things change so fast in the electronic/computing world. Thanks Don

Yes a Siemens SE587. There are four yellow sockets in the back only one of which is connected to the LAN socket on my laptop.What would the others be used for?

That's useful to know.

I don't think the old brain could cope with home brew, I assembled a few computers in Windows 95/98 days but things have moved on at such a rate, more new data for a brain that's has a reducing memory storage. :-( Thanks Don

And causes a lot of HF radio interference;(...

I couldn't contemplate that I'm afraid, it will have to be a purchase.

Is CAT 5 cable still the best one to distribute the signal round the house?

Cheers Don

want to make. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way for me to create an account so that I can log in and edit.

You can do it in baby steps if you want to. If you have an old PC you can re-use it as a network server reasonably easily. If not then you would be best advised to start by buying a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device.

Yes. There is a Cat 6 but it's overkill for domestic purposes. The current standard is Cat 5e which will be sufficient for Gigabit networking. If you do install Ethernet cabling then I strongly advise you to work to a standard that will enable you to switch to Gigabit networking even if you only use 100Mb technology at first.

I recommend that you subscribe to the uk.comp.home-networking newsgroup.

We had spam hell so signup is now requierd. Click index, account requests, and post there

NT

Click 'history' at the top of the page to see. The article's currrent.

NT

cat 5e

NT

Done

Wired is still the best, faster, more reliable and secure. These days I'd put in Cat6 cable or Cat5e rather than Cat5. B-)

Is there a maximum length of Cat5e over which Gigabit networking speed degrades,? I suppose my max length will be approx 30 Metres.

Thanks , have just done that.

Cheers Don