Is USB suitable for a home network?

Interesting, and I'd like to know more about how it's usually used, as I hadn't heard of this beast before today.

USB can be made to work here but doing it would be more expensive than just replacing the modem with an ethernet setup.

If you had to stick with the USB connection you could do it with something like Belkin's "USB Direct Connect" .

Even a 12 MB/s connection would be fine. That's still way faster than what you are going to get through the DSL setup anyway.

Many things, including our ISPs, it seems! I suppose for a single user at home, plugging a USB lead into the PC is fairly easy, although an ethernet-type connection isn't any trickier...

The problem seems to be that the modem is not designed for what we want to use it for, and that a new piece of hardware (and maybe some new cards as well) is needed to sort it all out.

If I ever manage to get this to work, is there going to be a problem wih the fact that the PCs are all running different versions of Windows (98, ME & XP)? It just gets worse...

More or less.


Not exactly. Routers forward data from one local area network or wide area network to another. Based on routing tables and routing protocols, they also read the network address in each frame and make a decision on how to send it based on the best route (traffic load, line costs, speed, bad lines, etc.) They're also used to filter traffic for security purposes.
The main thing it'll be doing for you is interpreting what traffic is meant for your local network, and what is meant for the the greater wide area network of the internet.

Monger & fishin' - thanks.

So the router sits between our local PCs and the internet?

Does that mean that a seperate device is needed to join the PCs together, which is then linked to the router which is then linked to the internet?

Or does the router itself act as the join between the PCs to create the LAN, then join that the WAN?

And where does the modem come into all this?

Since you only have 3 PCs to network this is one way you can do it:

The ADSL modem connects to the phone line.
The router's WAN port connects to the modem.
The 3 PCs connect to the the router directly.

No need for a hub in your case, unless your router has fewer than 3 LAN ports.

Hmm.. Let's back up a second.

Your PCs put out a digital signal. Bits of "1" and "0". A hub or router work with those bits as they are. A hub is similar (in concept) to just taking the wires and splicing them all together. A router does the same thing EXCEPT, it has brains. It not only ties the lines together but can look at the data and steer the bits in the proper direction. It's usually easiest to think of a router as a hub on steroids. There are significant differences between the two but unless you are really interested in the nuts and bolts working of things the differences are unimportant to getting things to work.

A modem converts the bits into an analog signal (although the use of "modem" in DSL is a bit of a misnomer). But suffice to say that the modem converts the bits into a signal that can be transmitted down the wireline for long(ish) distances.

What you need exactly depends of the specific models. Most home networking routers have adequate ports available so that you don't need a seperate hub. The router fills both purposes.

There are some modems that also have a router built in and have enough ports so that one device is all that might be necessary.

But in most cases the modem will only have one port. If that is the case you need a NIC in each PC. Those NICs would then be connected to a router with multiple ports (usually 4 or 8). The router's "uplink" port would then be connected to the modem's port.

Here's a pic to lay it out for ya!

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/diagram/share-router.asp

Thanks again fishin' & Monger.

I now understand that the ideal set-up would be as described above (PCs -> Router -> Modem -> WWW).

So it looks like I'm going to have to buy a router. Each PC also needs an ethernet PCI card, and we need a bunch of standard network cables.

Finally, I'm going to have to find some way to adapt the modem's USB signal into a ethernet signal to go into the router, or buy a new DSL modem with ethernet connections not USB ones.

Blimey...

Late to the party here ... but I just wanna say that ADSL>Router>PCs is the way to go ... wired or wireless.

D-Link and Linksys offer a range of suitable products at relatively low prices, though I'm partial to the somewhat pricier 3Com and Ciscoproducts. I run a mixed wired/wireless network which generally has anywhere from 5 to 7 machines on it, and supports VPN, allowing me to connect with the networks of colleagues.

D-Link does offer the DSL 320-G USB/Ethernet DSL modem ... but I don't really know much about it, other than it supports either connection.

Yup, sounds like you got the concept down pat, Duke.

Although, by buying an ADSL-Modem/Router combined in one unit (which would also mean no need for a USB to Ethernet converter) you'd be able to simplify the connections.


edit: damn typos!

Also GD, if you need any hardware, go to ebay, u will find stuff much cheaper there than PCWORLD. Or get hold of WhatPC kinda magazines - and look out for mail order companies....