Digital BW, The Print

hi tyler...

if you're not interested in giving them all direct internet access, then
you can go with a hub or a switch.  i'd suggest a 'switch.'  with hubs,
all of your connections share the bandwidth.  with switches each machine
gets most of the full bandwidth available.   this is all
oversimplification, but for the price difference go with a switch.
netgear and linksys are commonly available.  i use linksys and have good
luck with them.  buy more ports than you need right now because you'll
use them at some point.

if you want all of your machines to access the internet directly and you
have dsl or a cable modem setup, then i'd suggest a firewall router.  i
have a linksys in my office that works great and is a snap to setup.
with it, you wouldn't need a hub or switch since the router (depending
on brand/model) can provide that function for several machines (mine
offers 8 ports).

i'm the guy out in granite falls.  email me off list if you need more
info or want to talk about it on the phone.

kenb


____________________
Ken Brookner
kenb@...


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tyler Boley [mailto:tyler@...] 
> Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 4:05 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] networking all these boxes
> 
> 
> Things are getting a bit complex here with multiple machines 
> doing different tasks. So for the first time I need to 
> connect more than two computers all together on a network. At 
> this point it'll be 3 Macs and 1 PC, could grow. Not being 
> one with networking experience, the info looks like Martian 
> to me. I'm being advised that a router is preferable to a 
> simple hub, can anyone comment? Any brand recommendations? 
> Thanks, Tyler