Setting up a 24 station computer lab in older church.Using CAble modem
access to Internet. What do I need to know?  Hellp !

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 03 May 2004 20:03 PDT

For best results you need to know a network tech. There is far to much
to discuss here for a project like that; plus in the end you will
invariably need a real-life troubleshooter.

Do you want me to see if I can find one in your area?

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by fayewilma-ga on 04 May 2004 19:16 PDT

Our Pastor thinks of this as a very simple project, to hook up 24
computers, with a newtwork laser printer to Charter Cable Internet
modem ( in the church already) -- and we are ready to go.  The
computers are there ready to go.
IBM, Pentium 2-300's with Viewsonic 17 inch monitors.  The Pastor knows we
wi;; need cable modem internet cards.  We are getting  some bids now
from electricians. Help !

Frank Clarke

I never did one, but I think you need a wide band amplifier 15 or 20
db gain, Connect the output of the roadruner/cable box to the input of
the amplifier.  Connect a 5 way spliter to the amp output. Connect 4
five way splitters to each of the splitter jacks, A 4 way spliter to
the one left over. That gets you an independent cable input to each
station. If you need to send data/commands from the computers to the
roadrunner box, and/or from one computer to other computers in your
network, you need a lot of ABC switches or you need a computer
geek/network technician as tut suggested.   Neil

Hi...I am a Cisco networking technician, so I feel as though I can
help with this.....it is not a difficult project.  However, there are
MANY ways in which to do it.  I will outline the cheapest, and almost
simpelest way.  (the simplest way would be a wireless network,b ut it
would be significantly more expensive)  So, I suggest using ethernet
wiring for everything, because it is the stadard for networking in
this sort of setup and thus devices are much cheaper to get.

You will not need any ABC switches, nor any amplifiers as
suggested...the cable modem should have both a coaxial jack as well as
an ethernet jack, we will use the ethernet one.

You will need:
1) an ethernet network card for each computer (you said you are
getting those, generally they are 10/100 megabit speed)
2)an ethernet splitter or a small ethernet hub (3-5 ports) fornear the
cable modem.  as it is already set up, the modem has an ethernet port
on it.  You will need to connect a hub to that to split that line into
one side that can go to the rest of the church that is connected right
now, and the other half to the new 24 computers. You need to haev one
computer immediately following this splitter that will be the host
computer.  You should set up a NAT server on this computer, and it
will require two network cards.
3) a long ethernet cable running from this first hub to the area of
the 24 computers.
4) a 24-port ethernet hub, or 2 12-port hubs.  If you use two, you
need to conncet them together using the "uplink" port on the hubs.
5) 24 ethernet cables that are long enough to reach each of the
computers.  Plug one end of each into the hub, and the other into each
computer's network card.
6) Plug another cable into the hub and run it to the printer.  You
will need to get an ethernet print server device (a small box with an
ethernet input and either USB or paralell port output).  Plug the
cable into that device, and plug the printer's data cable (probably
parallell port, but possibly USB) into the device as well.  This
device will manage any print jobs coming from the 24 computers and
"sort" them into the printer.
7) that is it for the hardware setup.  you will need to do a lot of
configurations for the computers, however, as well as the NAT setup. 
Perhaps someone else wants to outline those things?  Just trying to
get you and your church a little jump...

Another thing- "electricians" don't do this sort of thing.  Network
technicians do.....someone with an IT background, not
electricianship...which I'm not even sure is a word.  What I mean, is
that if you're looking in the yellowpages for help, look under
"networking" or "computers", not "electricians".