Router advice needed please

Soldato
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I'm currently in a student flat and I access the internet through a network socket in my room connected to the network port on my motherboard. My flatmate and I want to setup a network so we can play some multiplayers.

I already have a Wireless gateway, its a Linksys WAG54G. I can't get this to work; I think it is because it also functions as a modem. I think this modem feature is not needed for my student flat because we don't dial-up a broadband connection as such we just plug the network cable in, load up our browser and sign in to our broadband as you would sign into Hotmail.

Can anyone tell me if this deduction about the modem feature is correct? I bought this gateway for home originally but brought it up to Uni to setup my own network here.

I reckon I need to leave the WAG54G at home where the modem feature is needed to access the Internet and get a router that doesn't function as a modem for my flat so that it just loads up the login page without wanting to dial-up a connection. Is this correct?

I've looked at OcUK's networking section and we've narrowed it down to this page, and in particular the first two Netgear products. Would these work?

If anyone bothers to read this and reply, but needs more info please ask. I probably haven't explained this very well so apologies.

I've checked out the stickies at the top of the page but I couldn't find anything to corroborate my thoughts so again apologies if the answer is in there somewhere.
 
Soldato
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VeNT said:
are you the only one who uses the net where you are? if not then chances are that its already setup for you.
No, every flat in the block can use the Internet and my two flatmates definitely do.

We just tried the gateway this afternoon and the page that we need to load up to login to just wouldn't load. I think this is because the gateway has a modem built in and wants to "dial" something up whereas in reality we don't do that here.

We can't use the network to game because the Uni have prevented that from happening so my flatmate and I want to set up our own network to share files and play games. I've got the gateway in my room and he has a wireless card in his PC. I suspect our problems are because of the modem feature interfering and I'm pretty sure we need a router or gateway that doesn't have a modem.

As I said to my flatmate we don't need a modem anywhere because the physical setup for broadband in our rooms is very similar to an office network; no modems but network points.
 
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Soldato
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you're getting confused here
the box you have will work as a hub/switch if you attached both PCs to it, BUT from what I understand you've got both your PCs attached to the house network yes?
have you checked your firewall settings?
what about your network names/IP addresses?


ok, after reading your edit, its NOT the router, if the routers wireless works then it works, its not going to be effected by trying to connect to the internet, you may find its cheaper/easyer to make an ad-hoc network using just the cards rather than the gateway even.
how far apart are your rooms?
 
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Soldato
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VeNT said:
you're getting confused here
YEP!

VeNT said:
the box you have will work as a hub/switch if you attached both PCs to it, BUT from what I understand you've got both your PCs attached to the house network yes?
have you checked your firewall settings?
what about your network names/IP addresses?
My PC is connected to the box which in turn is connected to the network point. My flatmate's PC is connected to the box wirelessly. We checked our network names and IP addresses. My box had an IP of 192.168.1.1, my PC 192.168.1.100 and my flatemate 192.168.1.101.

What I would like to achieve is the two of us able to network privately but also me being able to access the Internet at the same time. I don't want to have to plug my PC into the box to network with my flatmate and then unplug the box and plug back into the network socket to go online.

Does this massively complicate matters? Can I not achieve those two concurrently?
 
Soldato
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ok, you've got the two networks messed up there,
you need a router without a modem built in to be able to use the net at the same time.
 
Soldato
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VeNT said:
ok, you've got the two networks messed up there,
you need a router without a modem built in to be able to use the net at the same time.
Cheers that is what I needed to be sure of. I thought that but wanted someone else to confirm my thoughts (and to blame if/when it all goes wrong;))

So apart from the Belkin one and the £145-ish Netgear offering here am I right in saying that one of the D-Link, Linsys or the two cheaper Netgear boxes would be what I need? Which would you recommend? I perceive Netgear as having quite a good reputation, better than D-Link and Linksys. Would you agree with that?

If you agree that I need one of those boxes then I'll get one for my flat and leave the WAG54G with its modem at home so I can set up a wireless network for my Mum to use my laptop somewhere other than my room.

After our experiments today I thought I'd have to have two boxes, one in my student flat and one at home because the way they connect to the Internet is so different.
 
Soldato
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I'm not sure about what one from the overclockers site,
Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router/4-Port Switch (NW-000-LS)
may be ok, some of the routers are in the cable modem bit,
I've used the DI-624+ from D Link before now and its been fine.

I think any of them will work, so I'd go with the cheapest.

that page you linked to was for acsess points, you need routers
 
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I've just realised that those don't have firewalls on them. I'd quite like something with a firewall on it for added security but also so I can try my PC without ZoneAlarm. It'd be nice to not have a software firewall and see if I can save some resources on my PC.

Would this be OK? http://www.netgear.co.uk/rangemax_wirelessrouter_wpn824.php?type=h

I presume I can just plug it into the Ethernet socket in my room? It doesn't have a modem built-in so I presume I can.
 
Caporegime
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It isn't the lack of a firewall that's the problem, it's the lack of NAT. As suggested, the Linksys WRTs are decent devices (though you'd be well advised to look for a WRT54GL versus the high odds of getting a lobotomised WRT54G or GS).
That Netgear will work too. Same story, connect router's WAN interface to the network socket and off you go.

It might also be a good idea to make sure the folks providing your network allow you to connect routers and an undefined number of machines to it...
 
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tolien said:
It isn't the lack of a firewall that's the problem, it's the lack of NAT. As suggested, the Linksys WRTs are decent devices (though you'd be well advised to look for a WRT54GL versus the high odds of getting a lobotomised WRT54G or GS).
That Netgear will work too. Same story, connect router's WAN interface to the network socket and off you go.
Cheers tolien. Useful advice. That Netgear looks like it'll do what I need it to it also looks nice which is kind of important to me as well.

tolien said:
It might also be a good idea to make sure the folks providing your network allow you to connect routers and an undefined number of machines to it...
Someone else on my course says he used a switch or a router in his flat last year, it was in the same block as mine so that should be OK.

The ISD division do allow this; you do have to pay £10 as a one-off fee to connect an extra machine to the Internet through the network but I don't plan to do that. I want to connect to the Internet for myself but also run a private network for me and my flatmate to share files and multiplay games. He will still connect to the Internet through his own connection so it isn't as if he needs to use my connection.

I might be in a student house rather than a flat sometime during my course and it is likely I'll be the resident PC expert then so I would need a router for that kind of stuff now so it'd be good for me to get the stuff now when there is only 2 people to accomodate.

Thanks again. I will probably be getting that Netgear.
 
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