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Home networking help needed

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Joe, Jul 11, 2013.

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  1. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    I need a little guidance. Time Warner installed a new cable modem and now my desktop is LAN wired, rather than wifi. All the other computers and one printer in the house are wifi and working fine. But, I lost my home network connection to the other computers and can’t get them working. After install, my connection kept defaulting to the wifi. So I called TW and they said I need to disable the wifi connection on my desktop. Ok I did that and I didn't put the two together and have been chasing my tail for days now, because I lost my homegroup network and can’t access a remote printer.

    I discovered the Homegroup comes back if I turn my wifi receiver on my desktop back on. Now the problem is it can’t find the Lan connection and keeps defaulting to the wifi connection, which is slower than LAN. And it doesn't show the LAN as an option to switch to. Is there a way to have both running at the same time, but make the LAN, the default? If I disable the wifi, it immediately goes to the LAN. But, if I disable the wireless connection on my computer, I lose network access to the other computers and printer, but then it goes to the LAN connection.

    TW was no help. “we don’t support networks”. There has to be a way to have wifi and LAN at the same time on my desktop, isn’t there? Or a toggle between them and one set as default.

    At least I figured out a work-around for right now, but it is PIA! Oh, Win7 I've been through "network and sharing" menus too many times to count.
     
  2. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    no, you don't run both a wired and wireless connection to the same network simultaneously. I don't see why you don't just unplug the cable and use wireless all the time? it's still fast enough for your broadband and if all your other computers are wifi anyway, wiring one computer won't make anything any faster.
     
  3. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Well in theory a wired lan can produce 100mps, while a wireless is limited to ~54 mps. Now since this is my primary computer, I would like it to be as fast as possible.
     
  4. 44inarow

    44inarow VIP Whale

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    That's only going to be your internal bandwidth, though. Your Time Warner connection, and thus your connection to the internet, is limited by whatever connection speed you have from your broadband package, and that's usually around 30Mbps at most with their premium packages. So unless you've got a broadband package giving you more than 54Mbps, it doesn't really matter.

    ETA: There's sometimes justification for using a wired LAN as opposed to wireless when you're streaming internally. My media server and my desktop connect to my network via LAN, because I stream video from those to my TV and want to be able to do it with the best quality possible.

    If I'm understanding how you explained it, your network map looks something like this.

    Internet --30Mbps--> Modem --100Mbps--> Desktop --54Mbps--> Laptops

    So here, where everything besides your desktop is connected via wifi, having higher bandwidth just between your desktop and your modem isn't going to do anything for you.
     
  5. Someone

    Someone High-Roller

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    the reality is you will almost never be able to tell the difference between running on 54Mbps Vs 100Mbps unless you are running a really large network on that connection and downloading large files constantly

    and the other reality is both of those bandwidth capabilities are "up to" not guaranteed and you will probably never consistently get those "speeds" especially if you are downloading files constantly

    and that is even more true on a cable internet connection where the shared last mile is always going to be an issue

    it is not very clear what you are trying to do exactly, but you can't run two different internet connections (even wifi and wired) into one single home quality router and you have to have a default network that each device chooses to connect to and it will always default to one

    I think (if I understand what you are trying to do) is that you need to ditch the wifi, go with cable since that has the "speeds" you desire and get a wireless home router to run your home network on....(again that is if it is as it sounds that you have two separate internet services one wireless and now the cable service as well)

    if you just have a single internet service provider (the cable company) then you have an issue with your home network and you need to reconfigure your router
     
  6. 44inarow

    44inarow VIP Whale

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    Actually, it sounds to me like he's running a wired connection between his desktop and the modem, and then an ad-hoc wireless network that his other computers connect to. If this is the case, then by far the easiest thing to do is just drop $30 on a wireless router and plug your modem into that. Then you can configure a regular network and add remote printers, etc., to it.
     
  7. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    as others have said, you'll still be limited by the speed from Time Warner which is way less than 54Mbps and to your laptops which are on wifi and therefore already limited to 54Mbps. so the wired connection won't give you anymore usable speed. if you can just turn on the wifi and unplug the cable and everything works, you're all set.
     
  8. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Yes, I have a wired connection to my desktop. A second output from the same modem runs my wireless router that the rest of house uses.

    Now looking at the speed numbers you guys posted, I guess the limiting factor is the cable speed and I might just as well just dump the lam and go wireless again.

    I guess I just don't understand why when I'm on lan off of the same modem that feeds the rest of the house via the wireless router, the network is not seen.

    Thanks all!:thumbsup:

    EDIT: So I moved the modem output that was connected to my desktop and did a lan between the router and the desktop. All is good, thanks for putting up with my stupidly.
     
  9. 44inarow

    44inarow VIP Whale

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    Ah, okay; I didn't realize your modem had a built-in router (which it has to if you're running more than one output from it). Either way, as to why it's not working right, that just sounds like a network conflict issue. Without having enough info to really diagnose it, I can tell you that it's almost certainly more trouble than it's worth to fix, so your solution is probably the easiest and most effective thing.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2013
  10. saintpauljeff

    saintpauljeff VIP Whale

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    are you renting that cable modem from Time Warner? or do they just give you one to use as long as you have service?
     
  11. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Renting at $3.50 per month. I looked at purchasing one with DOCSIS 3.0 but they all look like $100+ and I'm not sure how long we will be in this house and on their service.

    Nomad genes are kicking in again. Nothing specific yet, but it would be our 14th house in 31 years and two we were in for 8 years each. Still looking for that perfect place. Never thought I would utter this, but even a condo is in the list of options.
     
  12. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    the reason it didn't work is because the wireless router is creating a separate sub-network. your desktop and the router were on one network and the computers connected via wifi were on a separate sub-network. that's why you couldn't see them. there is a way to do it that way and make your wireless router just an access point without creating a sub-network, but it's complicated and there's no reason to do that. now that you plugged your desktop into the wireless router instead of directly into the modem, you're good to go.
     
  13. saintpauljeff

    saintpauljeff VIP Whale

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    I'm running this Motorola ->http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-SB6120-SurfBoard-Comcast-Cable-Modem-DOCSIS-3-0-/161064078245?pt=PCC_Modems&hash=item25802acba5

    $3.50/month isn't too bad considering up here it will cost ppl $7/month with Comcast

    Even still, you buy the modem and use it, if it isn't compatible with the next service carrier you just sell on eBay, it beats paying the monthly ransom

    nothing wrong with a condo, been in one for 8 yrs but I'm living in a large city
     
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