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rendrag

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Posts posted by rendrag

  1. Hi rendrag,

    Thanks for the response. I guess I forgot to mention that the cable modem connects the the PC via USB, not ethernet. There is however, a built in ethernet port on the internet connected PC. So this PC would get the router between the built in ethernet and the other PCs?

    Yes, you'd use an ethernet cable to go from the cable modem into the WAN (or internet) port on a router. As far as routers go, I use a modified Linksys WRT54G which is wireless-G. If the other PC's in the house want to stream video or any other bandwidth intensive application (copying files over a network, etc..) and you can't run network cables to each PC, you'll want to go with a wireless-N router, but I'd wait until it's an official standard and the prices have come down a little (next year IIRC). Wireless N has twice the bandwidth G so you'll be able to do more than just surf the web with 5 or 6 additional PC's floating around.

  2. well, whether or not you can actually accomplish your initial goal will hinge a little bit on your internet provider. But honestly the easiest way to accomplish this goal is get a router to go behind your internet provider's modem. That device will handle assigning IP addresses and related services. That means your server won't need to do internet connection sharing or DHCP, DNS, etc.

    All your server would have to do would be VOD and file/printer sharing. That server can basically be anything you can throw together, however the specifics of what components to focus on, and where you can cut costs are really outside the scope of what we can cover here in a post or 2. There are plenty of resources on the web that have specifics on what you should look for, and how you should build your server depending on the desired application.

    For file/print sharing and video sharing, you would need a semi-decent rig. I used an older 4-year old pc with a single core athlon 2200, threw in 1GB of RAM, and then bought 4 250GB hard drives, and set them up in a RAID 10. That gives me redundancy and good performance.

  3. Verizon's DSL is pretty straight forward, but since you have FiOS, their router has way more built into it like you said. It's probably best just leave that alone. You'll need their device to act as a modem anyway, so you can't get rid of it.

    If the cat 5 goes from the basement up to the router, you'll have to run another cable back down from the modem/router to your "pc-acting-as-a-server" to get that device connected to your network.

  4. i have 2 Smart-UPS 1500 rackmount units synced together as they back up 3 servers. Using APC's network management card AP9617, I can have either UPS shutdown an unlimited # of clients. This is good 2 fold:

    1. should 1 UPS fail, the whole load doesn't drop because each server has a redundant powersupply.

    2. I actually get extended runtime in the case of a power outage because there are 2 batteries holding up the load instead of 1

    It's a more expensive route than the powerchute business edition, but there's a lot more you can do and monitor with the network card as opposed to the business edition software.

  5. I honestly don't know why these motherboard manufacturers are putting 2 nics on a consumer/enthusiast boards. You could technically bridge the network connections and that would "double" your throughput, but unless that computer will be a server, you will never soak a single gigabit nic enough to warrant a second. You're more likely to be limited by the hard drive in the device than the network it's connected to.

    Most times dual nics are for redundancy, i.e. 1 nic goes to 1 switch, the other goes to a 2nd switch. That way if 1 switch goes down, the server's network connection doesn't go down with it.

  6. windows already can do this, but it's kinda half-functional.

    You would have to setup internet connection sharing through XP Pro (home doesn't have that functionality). QoS does exist in XP pro, but not like you think. Based on what I've read on MS's site, the QoS built in doesn't really support what you're trying to do. Technically it does, but in the opposite direction. QoS packet scheduling in XP must be supported by the program. That program must request a higher bandwidth priority. So if Xbox Live or your games don't support packet scheduling, they can't request a higher bandwidth priority.

    If you bought a router, their QoS is more like what you want. You want to set bittorrent traffic low by default with all other traffic at a normal (or elevated) level if you so desire, so that instead of your programs requesting higher priority,

  7. do you have one PC act as a "server" and the others have specific limits to that "server"? What kind of limits are you talking about? File/folder limits, running program limits?

    If it's file/folder limits, you should be able to accomplish that, but it sounds like you've tried and failed. Do you have simple file sharing on? Go to Tools | Folder Options | View (tab) | Use simple file sharing?

    If it's on, disable it, and see if it's working then.

  8. I guess it's crazy some people will pay for ease of use and interoperability with their pre-existing components :) j/k

    LOL

    Well, like I said, WHS is great if you'll use the extra features it gives you. But, if all your looking for is something to backup your files to and possibly stream media to another COMPUTER in your house, or your looking to set up a way for you to access your files from work or something, WHS is not needed.

    Any version of Linux can do all of that, easily.

    Now, if you want to stream to an XBOX(360), then its probably a must have for you.

    If you have no use for the M$ specific functionality, then at least try the free alternative. If it don't work or you don't like it, you have justification for spending $(UNKNOWN) dollars on your server.

    Just my $.02

    I was looking at WHS for the fact that you didn't need to know anything about RAID to set up file redundancy. The selective redundancy is really slick. I can make backups of my photos, but if I don't want to backup DVDs I've ripped to it, I don't need to. It increases the available storage because I don't really care if a HD goes down and I lose some DVD rips, but I do care if I lose a bunch of family photos.

    I haven't seen selective RAID in any other product.

  9. I hate it. I'm glad it's only an eval kit. I had so much hope for this, and I'm sorely disapointed.

    Install went OK. It didn't have drivers for my NIC (realtek gigabit onboard NIC located on a Asus K8N-E motherboard), and a couple other devices, but I could deal with that.

    I wanted to set up the server as "Guest" only because I have a headless MCE box that's connected to my TV. The home server stores digital photos, home movies, and DVDs I've ripped to it for easy archival. For some reason, the home server connector software can't find my home server on either of the 2 PCs I've tried it on even though I can get to it through My Network Places, and no matter what I do, it needs me to provide a user/pass combo to access the shares. That's no good when I just want to turn on the MCE box and access the files.

    I wanted to avoid a RAID solution for ease of expansion, but it looks like that may be inevitable.

    Anyone else have some easy suggestions? I thought about FreeNAS, but haven't known anyone who uses it.

    Thanks

  10. wow, that is a lot of air. Without knowing the application, it's tough to say whether the additional 12CFM is worth the rise of 8 dB. 40dB isn't as loud as you might think. Once you start going into 50 and above, then it is quite audible.

  11. who is your ISP? Many times they will lock the account to a specific MAC address, which is basically a license plate for a device. The WRT54G has a "Clone MAC" feature which will allow it to use the same MAC address as your PC. That should allow it to work.

    to find your MAC address, go back to the network connections folder, double click on the icon for your network connection, under the support tab click 'details'. The MAC address is named Physical Address in this window.

    write that address down.

    From your router's interface, find the setting MAC address clone. Type the MAC into the window, then click save. The router will reboot. Once it's rebooted, Unplug the power from your modem and your router. Wait 30 seconds, plug the modem back in, wait til the lights stop blinking (about 30-45s), then plug your router back in. If the MAC address was the cause of the problem, you should be back in business.

  12. first off, thanks for joining the msfn community :hello:

    second, from what you're writing, it sounds like at some point your router worked, and then it stopped. Do you know when it stopped working? Did anything happen around that time? Are you normally wirelessly connected to this router?

    The first thing i'd check would be to see if you're still getting an IP address when you plug into your router. Does this router have a brand (i.e. Linksys, D-Link), and does it have a model (i.e. WRT54G)? If so, letting us know might help.

    from the control panel go to Network Connections. You should see a "Local Area Connection" icon there. If it is lit up, double click the icon and go to the Support tab. If the address type says Automatic Private IP, try right-clicking the icon and choose "repair". If the same address comes up, I'd try to reset the router to its defaults. That usually involves holding in a reset button or something. Check your router's documentation.

    If on the other hand the address type is DHCP, I would type the default gateway into the address bar of your favorite browser and log in to your router's interface(again, check your router's documentation for the default login if you haven't changed it). Check your connection settings to make sure nothing has changed.

    Start there and let us know.

  13. ah, you're actually trying to set up Internet Connection Sharing... It's buggy, and you'll be really, really lucky if you ever get it to work. I'm guessing with the rise in popularity of consumer routers, they stopped development of ICS.

    Based on what you've explained, it sounds like you just have a modem. A router typically has a WAN (or internet) port by itself, and then a group of 4 ports together. That's a switch for connecting multiple PCs.

    That said, can you diagram your setup? For Example:

    ADSL modem

    |

    |_Router

    |

    |_your PC

    |_ girlfriend's PC

    You can try to fiddle with ICS and see if you can get it working, or you can go to your local electronics outlet get a wired (wireless?) router and make setup 100x easier

  14. short answer: yes you can.

    long answer: it takes some configuration, but it can be done. You have to configure your router to forward the correct ports, and contend with a couple items ISP's throw at you because they don't want a consumer grade web account running a webserver. You'd need to sign up with something like www.no-ip.com so it can work around the blocks imposed by your isp.

    Dynamic IP - unless your service provider gave you a static IP address, you are dynamic. That means your IP could change once the lease expires (it expires based on what the ISP's DHCP server tells it to). That could break your website as www.vicky47.com is pointing to 1.2.3.4, but your new IP is 1.2.3.5.

    most ISP's will block port 80 inbound for consumer-grade accounts. Port 80 is what you need for generic http to work off of. It's easy enough to change the port that IIS would work on (assuming you're using a Microsoft OS), but then you need to redirect all traffic to that different port number. Whichever dynamic dns service you go with should support that feature automatically.

    Once you get that working, you can run a webserver from your home PC. Be careful though... once you're on the web, you're there for somebody to try to hack in. That's why I'd recommend maybe setting up a seperate PC to act as your webserver. That way if that system gets hacked, the hackers don't control your main PC.

  15. First, there's no way we can tell you what the speed/time should be because there are too many variables in any network. My gigabit network might transfer files slower than your 100MBit (man, i hope not, but it's possible). That said, there a number of factors that will affect write speed. In fact, too many to list here I'm sure.

    Antivirus certainly can affect write speed because each file would have to be inspected. A server will generally have beefier components, so it makes sense that it would write quicker than the workstation. Bandwidth usage at the time of transfer, any other services running on the workstation (or server for that matter) that would suck CPU cylces or hard drive access time.

  16. what that message is saying is that your wireless connection is not secure. That means that anyone withing range of your wireless router can connect to your network, browse your shares and use your internet connection. It's like leaving a door to your house wide open so anyone can walk in.

    in your router's interface, there should be a section called wireless security, or something similar where you can add a level of security to your wireless access. I suggest WPA2 for the best level of security.

  17. Though it doesn't support OTA HD, I'd suggest taking a look at nVidia's Dual TV. I have it in my htpc (until I make the plunge for FiOS) http://www.nvidia.com/page/dualtvmce.html

    One of the great things is that it's a dual tuner in a single PCI slot (1 coax in with an internal splitter) which was a big thing for me. Picture quality seemed better than the ATi AIO 9800 Pro I had before, and it worked as advertised with XP MCE.

    hauppage is as others had described, a great lineup of cards

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