Posted: 3/11/2012 3:30:17 AM EDT
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I am in the midle of building a home server. Currently I have a wireless router with 5 ports, all are filled but one. However I do not want to run another 25ft cable to my server. I have one 25ft cable running to my gaming PC and I want the server next to that. What is the best route to split that cable for both the server and PC?
I have another wireless router I could possibly use or would a small switch work best? I have never messed with switches so don't really know how they work. Any advice would be appreciated. |
| A 5 port switch from Netgear or similar will fit your needs just fine. Take the line that is currently going to your gaming computer and plug it into the uplink on the switch, then you've got 4 ports to wire up your server, gaming rig, and whatever else to. The second wireless router you have could be used as well; if you disabled NAT and DHCP, it will basically function as a switch/WAP. |
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Quoted:
Thanks, I wasn't sure is a switch would work because the last time I messed with one of those (at least I think it was a switch) I was only able to get internet to one device. If you had something set up like modem -> switch -> computers, then that's expected. Your ISP is only going to give you one IP address, and without a router you'll only get one device online. If you have a setup like modem -> router -> switch -> computers, then the router can use the single IP address that you get from your ISP, and then it'll create a private network (NAT) where it gives out private IP addresses (DHCP) to all your equipment on the network. As I mentioned before, if you go into your spare wireless router's configuration and disable NAT and DHCP, it'll act the same as a switch. So, you could do that to keep from having to purchase new equipment, or just grab a little 5 port switch and not worry about needing to configure anything. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Thanks, I wasn't sure is a switch would work because the last time I messed with one of those (at least I think it was a switch) I was only able to get internet to one device. If you had something set up like modem -> switch -> computers, then that's expected. Your ISP is only going to give you one IP address, and without a router you'll only get one device online. If you have a setup like modem -> router -> switch -> computers, then the router can use the single IP address that you get from your ISP, and then it'll create a private network (NAT) where it gives out private IP addresses (DHCP) to all your equipment on the network. As I mentioned before, if you go into your spare wireless router's configuration and disable NAT and DHCP, it'll act the same as a switch. So, you could do that to keep from having to purchase new equipment, or just grab a little 5 port switch and not worry about needing to configure anything. That helped a lot. That's how it was setup modem-> switch. I'll check out my other router. |
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So I got everything working, it took me awhile to figure out. I was using the WAN port on the second router which I didn't know you couldn't use.
Question on a server. I was planning on using WHS 2011, mostly to have all my media in one central location that all my computers could get to. I also want to be able to access this away from home. However to my understanding connector has to be installed on the client pc in order to access my files correct? Is there away around this? Say I went to visit my dad and didn't bring along my computer is there any way I can access those files on my server? |