Home Network

try www.linksys.com

this is the equipment i prefer. self configuring and litterally as simple as installing the software and then rebooting as per the instructions supplied.

They also have extensive info on how networks work in simple terms that are easy to understand

Here's something important to remember. I only know this because I have a related question here, because my customer bought a SWITCH. Do yourself a favor. Buy something that will allow an INTERNAL network and act as a gateway, and NOT just a hub/switch.

Both Linksys and SMC make inexpensive wired routers. I have installed many of both and they are relatively straightforward. SMC's have an advantage of including a built in print server. This is very valuable and is preferable than using Windows' own device sharing. I have also worked with the wireless cable/DSL routers and they are pretty easy to although you should make sure that the channels match for all the devices. The wireless usually have wired ports as well so you can do a combo wireless/wired network which offers a balance of price and flexibility.

The best tip that I can give you is to get all your network settings from your system before you switch to a router from a direct connection to your modem. For example, many cable providers simply ask you to use "MAIL" or "POP" as your POP server or ?SMTP" as your SMTP server and then resolve it to the proper server name. From experience I have found that you will need to know the actual name of that server because they will no longer resolve once your computer connects through the gateway (not the case with all routers, but don?t expect it to work). You can get that by pinging those servers while still connected directly to your modem before you switch over. Or calling your service provider although in the my experience just the mention of a gateway puts you in the class of people who do not deserve any support.

If you use the router as a DHCP server that is the simplest way to go, otherwise if you have a reason for wanting to assign fixed IP addresses to the computers on your network it is a little more complicated.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I currently use a 4- port D-link cable router that I got from Best Buy, $30 after rebates, and it works great. Just take out of the box hook up cables and folllow the easy setup and enable DHCP. Remeber to have TCP/IP installed on all computers and set to accept DHCP.

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