PC networking question.

[Daz1969]

Hi, I have an old desktop pc in the obsy which looks after telescope control/guiding etc..and was wanting to network it to the main house pc.

Can i do this wireless by adding some sort of card to it?

If so ,would i also be able to use my house broadband(Which is wireless)to connect to the net in the obsy?

Any help greatly appreciated as usual.

Cheers

Daz

[arad85]

Yes, assuming the obsy PC has a spare PCI slot and the wireless router is close enough to the obsy computer. Speeds may not be wonderful though.

An alternative (and probably faster and more reliable, but more expensive) may be ethernet over mains.

[jgs001]

Daz, The answer to both those questions is yes. However, there are limits to what you can get away with wirelessly and this might be pushing it. It depends on how far, how many walls and how much metal work is between the two devices. It would be worth checking out Powerline networking, you plug two adapters in, one by the router, and one by the computer, then use normal network cable to connect the computer to the adapter and the router to the adapter. This uses the house mains wiring to carry the network traffic. I'm getting some 50Mb/s on mine, crossing the fuse box and running one of the adapters from a four way (both of which are supposed to be no-no's...

[Daz1969]

Ah!!! Many thanks guys. I was hopeing to hear that

Main reason is that i can get onto SGL whilst in my obsy- Ive always got a question and am about to start messing with guding and imaging so iam sure there will be a glut of new questions when iam up and running.

Cheers again

Daz

[Psychobilly]

its worth checkign out ebay... I piucked up a pair of 85Mbps "Hispeed" ones for half the price that they were on offer in PCworld...

Lot of technophiles are upgrading to the 200Mbps ones and selling on their "slow" 85Mbps ones...

Since gettign mine I now run the Obs remotely from the house using Teamview4

Don't plug them into filtered mains sockets though or your speed will suffer...

Peter...

[jgs001]

Novatech do a starter kit which is quite reasonable

NOVATECH 85MBPS POWERLINE TWIN Novatech 85Mbps PowerLine Adapter, Twin Pack, Turns Any Electrical Outlet into a Home Network Connection : novatech.co.uk

[Takahashi]

Hi, I have an old desktop pc in the obsy which looks after telescope control/guiding etc..and was wanting to network it to the main house pc.

Daz, you don't mention how old this PC is... if it's Win98, Win2000, or God forbid, WinME, then you'll have problems with wireless. Indeed, even getting wireless drivers compatible with any of those OS'es is nearly impossible. XP, Vista, Win7, or some flavour of Linux would be required. What the others have suggested, the mains-networking, is surely your best bet, unless you have any way of laying an ethernet cable between the obsy & house.

[Daz1969]

Wow ,thanks for the advice everyone:) i didnt even know those things existed. The pc is running XP (so not that old)

Them novatech thingamy bobs look just the ticket!

So am i correct in thinking that i can control the obsy pc(which controls everything) via my main house pc which most importantly is in a nice warm dinning room?

Cheers again

Daz:icon_salut:

[Daz1969]

Since gettign mine I now run the Obs remotely from the house using Teamview4

Peter, what is teamview4? what does it do and does it cost?

Cheers

Daz

[RobH]

I went down the adapter/mains cable route, but it didn't work at all well.

I now use a Cat 5 cable from the obs to the house....over 100ft for under £40 from ebay.

The 2 laptops in the obs plug directly into a wired switch ( like a router but simpler). This is connected to the cat 5 to the house, which then plugs into the wireless router in the house and means I can operate the obs from anywhere I can get wireless.

Or I can plug the house computer directly into the cat 5 cable and miss out the wireless router of course.

Works perfectly.

Cheers

Rob

[Daz1969]

Interesting Rob. My obsy and house pc are only about 25ft apart so maybe just running a cat5 cable would be cheaper and more reliabe?

I already have one of those switch thingys from a previous wired home network thats not used anymore.

Probably a stupid question Rob but if i can control obsy pc from the house can i access the net from my obsy pc?

Cheers

Daz:icon_salut:

[jgs001]

If you're able to hard wire the network connection with Cat5, that's the best option. I presume you'll be using existing trunking, so it'll have power in it ? If so, consider getting STP (Shielded Twisted Pair), the induction from the power will interfere with the network. If your home PC can access the net and remote control the Obsy PC, then your Obsy PC will be able to access the net.

[beamish]

I'd've thought ethernet over mains is your best and easiest option.

[Daz1969]

Cheers John:) I was just wondering about running cat5 and mains together,You have answered my question.

Think i will go down the hard wired route and fit some more trunking.Just looked at ebay and the cable seems cheap enough.

Thanks again

Daz

[Daz1969]

OOOOOOOhhh now i dont know again!

Them plug in ethernet over mains do look tempting and simple

[jgs001]

Oh, they're very simple indeed. Plug em in and your done. You can have up to 8 on one ring (it's not supposed to run through the fuse board, but it does). Means you don't have to mess about with running new cabling in either.

I don't know if there is anyone in your area that has a set to try. I've helped out a couple of friends with the decision by taking mine along. I'm afraid I'm a bit too far south though...

[Daz1969]

Thanks anyway John i appreciate the sentiment.

I think your'e right - doesnt get much easier than plugging something in i guess.

MMmm. Gonna ask the wife for some pocket money i think

Cheers for your help

Daz:)

[red dwalf]

if you`ve got a wireless n hub in the house, why don`t you use a usb wifi adapter, you can pick up 125mbs n deaft units for around £20 and n drafts have a long range

[Jarndyce]

The Powerline ethernet-over-mains adaptors, are great if they work. However, emphasis on if...

Like Rob, they simply don't work in my house. The transfer speeds are so slow they are unusable. They seem to be upset by surge filters, other computers, RCDs etc.

My recommendation is to get some from a retailer where it's easy to return it if there are issues. If you're lucky, it's a great solution.

[Daz1969]

MMmm,We are just about to go wireless with a new net provider and that was my origonal train of thought,Never thought of the other ways mentioned.

As the pc's are only 25-30 foot away i did wonder if this would work well enough.Not having any experience of wifi i dont know what to expect.So maybe the wifi route after all - So many different options to choose from - Now iam realy confused

Cheers all

Daz

[RobH]

The more gizmos in the way, the more likely it is that something won't work right.

If you're only 25 ft away, run a cable.

If you don't want to, I have a couple of plug-in ethernet adapters for sale

As said, if they work, they're great, but using the earth can bring up all sorts of noise problems, and the earthing of anything often isn't as simple as it should be in theory when it comes to practice.

Rob

[red dwalf]

you can also buy 2 pci network cards and a great length of network cable for less than £15 now, belkin used to sell a kit which i`m using now, dead easy to setup, two pci cards into back of both computers, the computers reconise them, run the cables and plug in very easy but you are tied to one spot, i.e. desktop, if you using a laptop you can use it anywhere with an usb wifi adapter, just make sure that it`s an n draft wifi system your getting and same on the adapter, then you will get the fastest speed and the greatest range, will easy cover that distance.