Sign up with GoogleHi everyone,
Hoping you can help me out here. We're getting our ADSL installed either this week or early next week. We're going to set-up a home network to which my PC, my parents' PC and an old box which'll be used for storage will be connected. I'm going to order a Netgear DG834 modem/router/firewall/switch tomorrow and contact the ISP too and get them organised, so it's all ready for when Telkom arrives.
Our only problem so far is trying to guess where Telkom will install the ADSL line connector. Do they install a new socket where you ask for it, or do they simply convert an existing socket? Reason I ask is because at least 2 of the 4 sockets in the house result in quite bad 56K connection rates.
Never tried the line in my parent's room so I don't know how that one is, but I do know that the family room (where my parents' PC is) and the dining room both have worse connection rates than I get. I get about 44kbps in here (though it's dropped this weekend), whereas they get something in the 30s.
The other reason I ask is because the DG834 comes with a 2-metre cable for connecting the modem to the phone line, and a 3-metre CAT5 cable to go between the modem and one of the PCs. Now the CAT5 length isn't a problem since it's usually easy enough to get hold of that, but it's the other 2-metre cable that's concerning me. The phone socket in my room is on the opposite side of the room to my PC, so the only way for it to reach the modem would be to run one around the edge of the room, which would be at least 10-metres.
Do Telkom have any of this or would I have to get it elsewhere? I don't particularly want to put the modem under my bed or somewhere obscure like that, since that makes it harder to route network cable from the modem-switch to the other 2 PCs.
Also, what's the best way to set-up the DG834? I just want to be able to share the ADSL connection to my and my folks' PC (both running XP), and give both PCs access to the old PC (running Windows 98SE on this one). And of course, ensure that the firewall protects us both so I can turn off my software one.
Is there any amount of set-up that I can do between the delivery of the DG834 and the installation? Would be nice to have it at least partially ready so that I can get the network up-and-running as quickly as possible and start enjoying ADSL!
I'v heard stuff about using PPPoE to connect and disconnect the modem when it's not being used - I'm not totally network-literate (still learning the technicalities), so how would that sort of that be set-up and used?
One more thing: Since both myself and my parents are going to be using the connection at the same time, would it be neccessary or recommended to use a bandwidth-limiting program? I was thinking along the lines of being able to limit the speed of internet access/downloads on my PC to about 25-30KB/sec so that my parents still have bandwidth to use.
I don't want that to be permenant of course, but I've been told that if I'm hogging all the bandwidth when they want to use the connection, there'll be trouble, but when they're not using it I want to be able to switch this limit off. Someone told me that the pay-version of GetRight can limit download speeds, but that doesn't help if I'm browsing the net.
Sorry for the long post (bad habit I'm afraid), and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Hoping you can help me out here. We're getting our ADSL installed either this week or early next week. We're going to set-up a home network to which my PC, my parents' PC and an old box which'll be used for storage will be connected. I'm going to order a Netgear DG834 modem/router/firewall/switch tomorrow and contact the ISP too and get them organised, so it's all ready for when Telkom arrives.
Our only problem so far is trying to guess where Telkom will install the ADSL line connector. Do they install a new socket where you ask for it, or do they simply convert an existing socket? Reason I ask is because at least 2 of the 4 sockets in the house result in quite bad 56K connection rates.
Never tried the line in my parent's room so I don't know how that one is, but I do know that the family room (where my parents' PC is) and the dining room both have worse connection rates than I get. I get about 44kbps in here (though it's dropped this weekend), whereas they get something in the 30s.
The other reason I ask is because the DG834 comes with a 2-metre cable for connecting the modem to the phone line, and a 3-metre CAT5 cable to go between the modem and one of the PCs. Now the CAT5 length isn't a problem since it's usually easy enough to get hold of that, but it's the other 2-metre cable that's concerning me. The phone socket in my room is on the opposite side of the room to my PC, so the only way for it to reach the modem would be to run one around the edge of the room, which would be at least 10-metres.
Do Telkom have any of this or would I have to get it elsewhere? I don't particularly want to put the modem under my bed or somewhere obscure like that, since that makes it harder to route network cable from the modem-switch to the other 2 PCs.
Also, what's the best way to set-up the DG834? I just want to be able to share the ADSL connection to my and my folks' PC (both running XP), and give both PCs access to the old PC (running Windows 98SE on this one). And of course, ensure that the firewall protects us both so I can turn off my software one.
Is there any amount of set-up that I can do between the delivery of the DG834 and the installation? Would be nice to have it at least partially ready so that I can get the network up-and-running as quickly as possible and start enjoying ADSL!
I'v heard stuff about using PPPoE to connect and disconnect the modem when it's not being used - I'm not totally network-literate (still learning the technicalities), so how would that sort of that be set-up and used?
One more thing: Since both myself and my parents are going to be using the connection at the same time, would it be neccessary or recommended to use a bandwidth-limiting program? I was thinking along the lines of being able to limit the speed of internet access/downloads on my PC to about 25-30KB/sec so that my parents still have bandwidth to use.
I don't want that to be permenant of course, but I've been told that if I'm hogging all the bandwidth when they want to use the connection, there'll be trouble, but when they're not using it I want to be able to switch this limit off. Someone told me that the pay-version of GetRight can limit download speeds, but that doesn't help if I'm browsing the net.
Sorry for the long post (bad habit I'm afraid), and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.