Thread: Basic Networking Questions

I'll try to answer your questions in order

1) Yes, you need another nic card. 10 or 100mbs will do, but your max speed will be limited by your original 10mbs card. oh and if you get a 100mbs card make sure its of the autosensing type so it knows what speed it has to run at. But i havent' yet seen a 100 card that isn't autosensing (which means that they probebly exist and are waiting to cost you money)

2)once your network settings on the computers are set up it will be hotswap. No rebooting. just plug and transfer.

3)You can mix and match brands of nic cards in a network. The cards do not have to be made all by the same company. (and 3com cards are usually expensive where i live anyway, so id buy a linksys or something cheaper). Make sure your connectors are all the same though. If its rj45 (big phone plug), don't buy a coax board (cable tv wire).

The only other advice i can think of right now is to make sure you buy a crossover cable, and not a regular cable. Crossover cables let you connect two nic cards directly together without a hub in the middle. Crossovers are nothing special... if you have a normal cable sitting around all you have to do is cut it in the middle and rewire the little wires inside. They're color coded, and its easy to do. But if you need to buy cable make sure its a crossover.

Or you could buy a hub and network your house ... etc.

So the brand really doesn't matter? Are there any that I should absolutely stay away from? I'm going to look for a cross over cable, but if anyone knows where I could buy some I would appreciate a link.
thanks for the help

You can hot swap a network ? explian

By hot swap I mean that you can just plug the second or third pc into the network and access files on the network. I did it. It works like a charm. It was incredibly easy.
I just bought another card $15 and a 10' crossover cable $15 and it's great. I'm not an expert but you can post back if you have any questions.