? posted by Orpheus

? posted by Gollum Damn you ReNo! Why can't I live in networked a house of gamers? I'm so bloody jealous. i am really poor, even by Arkansas standards, and i have my own network, didn't cost that much.. what is the price we are talking about where you live mike? i pay 26 dollars a month for my dsl i paid 100 dollars for my router most pc's have IPX cards standard, but even tho, they only cost 5 to 10 dollars the network wires, about 15 dollars a piece. all total, not that much, especially if divided by many. i did mine, all by myself...

I think he meant that we are all on a LAN as opposed to our forthcoming net connection. But to be honest the LAN doesn't get used as much as our many consoles Our lounge has the following setup...

Oh and that little green box is a scart box that the linked consoles plug into so we don't have to swap wires all the time. The PS2 is plugged into the RGB things though, hence the other connection.

Lep: Editing this post made the picture disappear for some reason :S

Correct. I can play online whenever I want, but somehow I'm just not that interested. It's not nearly as much fun as a LAN with friends.

And ReNo - I envy your console playing as well.

The Gamecube isn't mine actually, it is my flatmates, as well as the N64 and the Megadrive...and fothcoming snes. But I still like it - Mario Kart is one of the most friend-hatred inducing multiplayers I've ever played, which is always a good sign, and games such as Pikmin and Viewtiful Joe are really nice and original. I'd say it is my least favourite of the current consoles, possibly because it isn't my own, but that doesn't stop it being great fun.

Orph, the benefit of my situation is that I live in a flat with 4 other game loving mates - soon to be 5, each with powerful PCs that can play all the latest games. So basically, I don't need to go through the hassle of setting up PCs in seperate rooms and inviting around mates - the setup is in place 24/7, as well as the people to play them. Also, a hub is significantly less pricy than a router - we paid about ?50 for our 8 port hub, whereas you paid ?100 for your router which most likely doesn't have that many ports. Obviously a router has the benefit of internet switching or whatever though.

Actually on this topic there is a question I'd like you guys opinion on. We have all our PCs connected to a hub, and when we get our net connection, we want all of our PCs connected to it. We are thinking of simply connecting our hub to a router, as well as the consoles (perhaps just the Xbox but possibly the PS2 also), and trying to work it like that. Will it work, and if so will it run ok? Obviously if all are running at once the speed would be laughable, but how about if 3 PCs were on at once say?

The alternative is to get a many port router, but that costs a load of cash and means putting to waste our existing hub and wiring.