Question about multiple computers on single connection

[fstroupe]

I'm pretty ignorant about networks...along with most other computer topics...lol...anyway last night at work I was thinking about something.

Say you have several computers networked, on a single broadband connection, that's not all that great. I have cable and want to do connection intensive stuff on more than one rig at a time, like online gaming. My cable rated speed is 256 kB/s download, and 128 kB/s upload.

Is there a way to set things up to make this practical? In language an idiot can understand, please.

[jester]

If you only had say 3 machines, you could just use ICS(internet connection sharing) but with more than that I would look for a 8 port router. The router would be able to handle NAT and since you have cable, you dont have to worry about setting up either your router or modem for the login like us DSL users have to. Now if you only had 4 machines totall you could just spend a few hundred $'s on a cheap mobo, cpu and memory and set that pc up to act as a router using smoothwall( http://smoothwall.org ).

Some advice, I would check with your cable co. cause with cable you SHOULD be getting a heck of a lot better bandwidth than that. When I had cable I was paying $40/month for 2mbps down and 256mbps upload and their lowest package was 1mbps down.

[undergroundtech]

I use a Proxy for my other computers to access the net.

[fstroupe]

I didn't go into detail, I have two machines on a 4 port router. Actually, now that I think about it, I think my speeds are 512 and 256 instead of 256 and 128. Its their rated speed, I never get that.

When both machines are online, one playing BFV, and the other on an RPG, I get a fair amount of lag on BFV.

Actually, using the other rig for a router after my next build is a serious consideration...and smoothwall sounds like an awesome idea...Linux for morons. :lol:

[fstroupe]

Is a PC used as a router more efficient than a cheap hardware router?

[jester]

I dont think your router would have anything to do with lag playin online, that might be just a slow internet connection. Might want to get more bandwidth, more specifically a better upload speed. If your geting an actually 128kbps up, that would translate into something like 15kB/sec which isnt much. Do you get any lag with just 1 machine playin online?


I havnt used smoothwall yet but a buddy of mine says that its a lot more configurable than using a router and you dont need a fast pc for it, just enough pci slots for the nic's and from my understanding smoothwall also has a firewall. He would rather setup a smoothwall pc than use a router.

I dont have the need for that yet as theres only 2 machines on my lan.

[fstroupe]

upload must be capped at 256 kbps, just checked it and it was 232kbps. Download was 1508kbps.

What I have is the only broadband available in this area. :cry:

[SAMSAMHA]

THE lag is probably due to the internet speed, like it's previous said. If you want smooth gaming, you may need to have a faster connector. Also, what about your system? is it good enough to run these online game? Many online game need more resource than just playing on your computer.

[KryoNexus]

upload must be capped at 256 kbps, just checked it and it was 232kbps. Download was 1508kbps.

What I have is the only broadband available in this area. :cry:

sorry bud, you are probably not going to be able to game on more than one box at a time. you just don't have the bandwidth :-(