newtorking help

how is a router different from a hub? what makes you need another IP address if you use the hub instead?

Well, a hub is a.... hub. It's a way to connect the puters, not intelligent, just connects 'em. A router will actually provide some smarts... it will "route" the traffic, telling it which puter to go to. With a broadband router, it has some smarts built in for assigning i.p.'s to the puters (DHCP), the ability to clone the MAC address (the address of the ethernet card--my cable provider registers this) so you can make the router 'look' like your puter.

ok so a hub is just a connector, but a router actually acts almost like a host computer at a corporate network? just a smaller scale?

or am i way off?

also- (whew, lotsa stuff) if i DID do a router, would i be able to hook up a mac to the same cable modem? my sister will be home and would like to be able to hook into our little network with her laptop if its possible.

I'm not gonna commit to that one....

I'm not familiar with Mac networking. I believe they've been doing TCPIP on the desktop longer than Bill Gates, but I'm not sure what's involved in a mixed network. I'll let someone else jump in on that one.

alright

i just realized something that might have given me the answer..

at school, in the computer lab we have about 30 PCs and 1 mac (that the teacher uses)...im assuming the mac is on the network, wouldnt you think? also the entire school is on a network and there are macs in every room...so it has to be possible.

yes it IS possible to use a mac on the network whether you use a hub or a router. i know my friend has a PC and a mac and he uses a hub with 2 different IP addresses and both connect perfectly fine.

good God, I hope I'm not too late for this.

Buy a 2nd NIC card for the PC where the cable internet comes in.

Plug a Cat-5 Crossover (IMPORTANT) cable from the 2nd NIC into the other PC.

If you have Windows 2000 or Windows XP on the computer where the cable comes into, just open the properties of the 2nd NIC card, and check "SHARE THIS CONNECTION". Set an IP address on the 2nd machine, to say "192.168.1.2", and you're done.

If the machine with the cable modem is Windows 95 or 98, it's not AS easy, but still pretty simple.