toomanybytes
New Member
Current Situation:
We have broadband coming into our basement. A Linksys wireless G router is attached to that. We have an XP laptop that’s usually on the main floor (wireless G) that always gets excellent signal strength. We have an XP desktop upstairs with a USB wireless G thingy plugged into it (I use very technical terminology, don't I?). It used to only get good reception but we switched the port on the router and now it gets excellent reception. The laser and the color BJ are upstairs with the desktop. Neither has wireless capability. If we want to print off the laptop, we sneakernet it upstairs and connect it. As a test, we connected the shared drives of the two computers. Opening a photo stored on the other computer was painfully slow.
What we want:
1. Storage: Some sort of networked storage for our photos and music. We’re just starting to copy our large CD collection. We have digital photos scattered between the two computers and DVDs, and backup DVDs. We want to be able to access the files from any of our computers. Someone at a store mentioned network attached storage, although Best Buy was advertising multimedia servers that also do automatic back-ups for more $$$. Or is that overkill for what we need?
2. Speed: No point in having massive amounts of storage if it’s too painful to access it. I’ve heard (don’t know if it’s true) that Wireless N is as fast as a wired network. Could upgrade our G stuff if it would do the job. Otherwise, we’re considering the kind you plug into your electrical outlets. Those claim they’re as fast as a wired network as well. Of course that would mean the laptop would have to be plugged into a wall to access the stored multimedia.
3. Print server: We’ll leave the BJ as sneakernet, however I’d love to send print jobs to the laser from anywhere in the house. Store guy also mentioned a brand of print server with multiple ports so an external HD could be plugged into it as well and accessed without it being attached to a computer. I guess that would be cheaper than other NAS, assuming I need to buy a print server anyway.
4. New laptop: I don’t want to get into a Mac vs. PC argument but we are considering a Mac for our new laptop. Don’t know how many difficulties (if any) there would be integrating it into the type of network we’re thinking of setting up. If it’s too much of a PITA, we’ll just stick with a PC.
So…configuration recommendations? Brand names? Are we crazy for thinking of sticking a Mac in the mix?
Thanks for reading this loooong set of questions!
We have broadband coming into our basement. A Linksys wireless G router is attached to that. We have an XP laptop that’s usually on the main floor (wireless G) that always gets excellent signal strength. We have an XP desktop upstairs with a USB wireless G thingy plugged into it (I use very technical terminology, don't I?). It used to only get good reception but we switched the port on the router and now it gets excellent reception. The laser and the color BJ are upstairs with the desktop. Neither has wireless capability. If we want to print off the laptop, we sneakernet it upstairs and connect it. As a test, we connected the shared drives of the two computers. Opening a photo stored on the other computer was painfully slow.
What we want:
1. Storage: Some sort of networked storage for our photos and music. We’re just starting to copy our large CD collection. We have digital photos scattered between the two computers and DVDs, and backup DVDs. We want to be able to access the files from any of our computers. Someone at a store mentioned network attached storage, although Best Buy was advertising multimedia servers that also do automatic back-ups for more $$$. Or is that overkill for what we need?
2. Speed: No point in having massive amounts of storage if it’s too painful to access it. I’ve heard (don’t know if it’s true) that Wireless N is as fast as a wired network. Could upgrade our G stuff if it would do the job. Otherwise, we’re considering the kind you plug into your electrical outlets. Those claim they’re as fast as a wired network as well. Of course that would mean the laptop would have to be plugged into a wall to access the stored multimedia.
3. Print server: We’ll leave the BJ as sneakernet, however I’d love to send print jobs to the laser from anywhere in the house. Store guy also mentioned a brand of print server with multiple ports so an external HD could be plugged into it as well and accessed without it being attached to a computer. I guess that would be cheaper than other NAS, assuming I need to buy a print server anyway.
4. New laptop: I don’t want to get into a Mac vs. PC argument but we are considering a Mac for our new laptop. Don’t know how many difficulties (if any) there would be integrating it into the type of network we’re thinking of setting up. If it’s too much of a PITA, we’ll just stick with a PC.
So…configuration recommendations? Brand names? Are we crazy for thinking of sticking a Mac in the mix?
Thanks for reading this loooong set of questions!
