Splitting an Ethernet Connection

[josh]

Here is my situartion:

I have a LAN in my home so that multiple PC's can access y rogers internet connection. For about a year I was using a wireless card in my PC but it kept cutting out becuase I was at the edge of the routers range in my room. So me father and me spent the time to drill a few holes through walls and the garage ceiling in order to run an ethernet wire up to my room. It was a pain the the but becuase as u know an ethernet wire has a fairly wide plug.

So now that I have Xbox Live I have to kep switiching the wire beteween my Xbox and PC. I called microsoft before and I got them to give me to a high level help person becuase the person I started with was an incompentent bimbo. THe smart guy told me that if I used a HUB the Xbox Live would not work and if I put a secnond router in my room It would just slow the connection down.

What I want to know is if there is a device that acts like a switch (like the kind that lets u switch between speakers and headphones) so that i do not have to keep moving the wire. I don't care that I wouldn't be able to use the net on the pc and Xbox at the same time, I just don't want to have to keep moving the wire.

thanx
-rhysticlight

p.s. sorry for the long post I just wanted to fully explain my situation.

[Tony]

not that I know of. It's really cheap to just buy another network card ($10) and just share your connection. Xbox might be bitchy about it, but here is a solution to network it with a Mac. Though if you have a PC, it should be the same.

But if you absolutly must have a Y split with a switch, you'd probably have to do it yourself. It's not hard, cat5 cables are really simple.

[josh]

ya, I was looking at a switch but I don't know tone about networkng and wasn't qute sure what it did or how it worked.

I would do the network card but the guy told me that using ICS s even worse than doing a second router.

[Blade]

i'm not too sure about this solution, or if it will work... but i know that if you wanted to hook a 2nd pc (in your case an xbox) up to your network in your room, you could hve 2 network cards in the main pc and use the bringing feature that comes with windows xp...

as i said i'm not sure if it will work (but i dont see any reason it wont) its just an idea off the top of my head..

[josh]

yeah, that is what ICS does (internet conection sharing) but like I said the xbox live guy told me it would cause a major drop in performance.

[SuperGenius]

what about a "wireless range expandes, such as this one:

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=629

[Tony]

well cat5 wiring is simple


just 8 wires, colourcoded and run parallel to each other.

You would need to mod the switch so that at a flip it would make 8 connections instead of 1. You can use one of the cable's ends that you would cut off (to expose the connections) as the switch end that will make the connections.. I don't know.

The whole idea seems farfetched. Flawed connections will defenatly screw you over more than a slower connection.

Perhaps if you just wire together a Y split and ensure that the other machine does not attempt to connect and mess over the sygnals.

[Martin]

Just get a wireless router, and all of your problems will go away.

[josh]

as I mentioned above I have a wireless/wired router but the signal strength is two low by the time it reaches me room, and for about a year when I was using the wireless for my PC I sometimes went through whole days were I could not get a signal.

I was thinking of a wireless range exteneder but I wanted to see if there was a less expensive alternative first,

I guess I could use 8 switches (but would I ned like a three way kind becuase there will be the input and two outputss)???

[Andy]

its not all that expensive to get an atenna.. 50-60 bux i think

[josh]

alright I will look into it more becuase the only ones that I have seen so far are closer to 80 - 100 and I would like to try and avoid that if possible, but if not I will just do it.

[Mazer]

I'd say that's pretty expensive. Wasn't there a way to make your own out of coffee cans or something?

[rdrake]

Coutsos wrote:

Wasn't there a way to make your own out of coffee cans or something?

There's the Cantenna.

[Paul]

lol, I moved my router and modem to a location where its easiest to reach from all rooms, just drill a few holes, it isn't THAT hard.

[josh]

well If I am gunna drill holes n e way then I may as well drill a second set of holes and run a wire up. I will ecperiment with moving the rouer around a bit, but for I know i guess I will be looking at a range extender.

I am surprised there isn't something like an A B switch for ethernet lines.