we live in a student house and there are 3 of us wanting broadband in our rooms but they will only fit 1 and told us to get someone to reroute,i actually have no idea what this means but if anybody can help it would be much appreciated

You need a router and a network card in all 3 pcs, and a load of cat5 cable. Network the lot together, plug the broadband modem into the router and off you go.

Best way, spend £30 ish on a proper cable modem, then network the PCs together.

That way the connection comes in to a seperate box, anyone can go online at any time.

If you know a friendly Linux geek, get a smoothwall or IPCop firewall box out of any old PC too, & you've got a proper network!

Or you could even go wireless...

what you've just said actually means nothing to me i picked up a couple of words but the rest went straight over my head am afraid

louloulashes, get yourself down to Maplin Electronics in town. Explain to them what you've got, what you've been told and what you want... I have no doubt they will be able to tell you what you need, how to do it and how much it will cost...

Failing that look in the Yellow Pages and go to your local PC shop. Good luck! :thumbsup:

I would not use Maplin personally, they are expensive.

I should try a calling few specialist pc shops.

I like to use Direct Computers on London Road.

Or Tinternet.

Computer fair even ?

Setting up a wireless network would probably cause the least fuss. That's what we've done in our house.

right. what you need is: 1 of these http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=51436 your broadband line plugs straight into this. And 1 of these for each computer http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45622 this allows any computer to go on the net, at anytime without having to wire them all together. oh and maybe 1 of these to set it up http://www.wildsamoan.com/pic-lib/geek.gif
have fun.

what's said in the post above would be correct provided the current modem's output is not USB and is ethernet... else you'd need to get a slightly more expensive model that has an inbuilt modem... they're around the £60/£70 mark

and I resent that picture of a geek! I look nothing like that! I wear contacts now, not glasses! :P

yeah i assumed it'd be an ethernet modem. sorry my mistake...... geek :-P

Originally posted by louloulashes
what you've just said actually means nothing to me i picked up a couple of words but the rest went straight over my head am afraid

If you don't even understand the basic terminology, (routers, networks, modems, cat5 cable etc.) :confused: it's very unlikely that you'll be able to set this up yourself, even with help, so your best option would be to go to a computer hardware shop, tell them what you want to do, and let them set it up for you. It'll cost more, I know. :gag:

Haven't you got a mate who knows a bit about computers, who could do this for you?

I'm only a poor student didn't think it would be so expensive, The bloke at telewest told us we would need some cable and someone in the know so i thought it would be pretty simple, if anyone on here knows what they are doing then we might be willing to pay a reasonable rate for some assistance???

Originally posted by louloulashes
I'm only a poor student didn't think it would be so expensive, The bloke at telewest told us we would need some cable and someone in the know so i thought it would be pretty simple, if anyone on here knows what they are doing then we might be willing to pay a reasonable rate for some assistance???

It will involve drilling holes through walls and running telephone style cables around the house, so permission might be a good idea 1st.

I will try and simplify things for you.

The best option is to have a wireless system, this does exactly what it says on the tin, there are no wires. Each computer can talk to each other, without wires.

Now to use broadband you need a piece of equipment to talk to the phoneline and the computer, this is called a modem. Now alongside that you need a box which can transmit that information to each computer. This is callled a combined 'Wireless Modem/Router'

We have now sorted out the box that talks to the computer and broadband. However 'each' computer needs a card to be able to talk back, this is called a Wireless PCI Network Card'

Do not use MAPLIN, there are expensive, best of ordering from ebuyer following instructions from people on here on what to buy as it is cheaper in the long run.

Its not complicated to set up, you just require confidence, and be able to read instructions comprehensively.

All the equipment should set you back about £140

is it going to matter that one of our three computers is a mac?

Makes no different for a Mac.

You can have 2 PC and 1 Mac no problem.

I believe the network card is already included as standard with all Macs.