What internet connection would be best for 25 comps and 3 Xbox systems?
599308
anything above dsl will be fine. 3mbps would be best.
192557
This can be done if you use what is called a Crossover cable.  What you're calling a LAN line has a technical term of "Cat5".  That is short for Category 5 Cable.  Cat5 cable has 4 pairs of wires (That makes 8 wires).  Cat5 cable is not only used for computers and was designed with the idea of expanding and multipurpose.  Computers and LAN equipment (Ethernet) use wires 1, 2, 3, and 6.  The rest of the wires are unused.  Wires 1 and 2 are for transmitting data and wires 3 and 6 are for receiving data.\n\nWhen you connect two computers with a regular Cat5 cable (Which is what most stores sell), you are connecting the transmit on one computer to the transmit on another computer.  A Cat5 Crossover cable takes the transmits on one of the cable and reverses them on the other end of the cable so that the transmits are now receives and the receives are now transmits.  This allows two-way communication.\n\nAfter you have the two way communication set up you can do basic communication.  Netbios is a good example or if you know enough of IP you can set the two up to communicate by setting the IP of one to 192.168.1.1, subnet 255.255.255.0, Gateway 192.168.1.2 and the IP of the other one to 192.168.1.2, subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway to 192.168.1.1.  It all depends on what you're trying to do from there.  Most games will be able to communicate from there if you're trying to play that type of game.\n\nIn short.. buy yourself a cross-over cable and the two computers can communicate in the most basic of ways.\n\n-OODaven
389870
well cox media is good my freind used it. im a gamer myself tell all your freinds to tell everyone else and so on and so forth that should work.
13872
It depends what kind of connection you want. According to CNET, here are the ISP's with the fastest connections (circa November 2005): \n\nFor Dial-up: Sympatico\nFor DSL: Microsoft Network, MSN\nFor Cable: Shaw\nFor Broadband: Shaw\nMost popular ISP: Comcast\n\nYou can see the full charts at the link below. Hope this helps!
446728
If you have firewire, use that - it's fast.  I think if you use an ethernet cable, that should work also.  You just have to use the Windows Networking Wizard thing and it should be fine.
35406
1.) If you have a NIC in each PC, you can use a crossover cable.\n2.) If you have a NIC in each PC, you can use a switch (D-Link Dss+5 cost around $20). Use 2 cat5e cables and you are set. If you have later more PCs, you can hook them up as well.\n3.) LapLink or something like it works with a USB cable or a (Null Modem) parallel cable.
768818
As many connections you have.  A router would allocate the connection request anyway.  How many do you want to add, 100?  I would add no more than 5.
19800
Cheapest way would be to turn off dhcp then manually setup the IP configs of each machine only putting in DNS on the 3 you want to hit the net. Surely you have a brother in law or local geek that can do that for ya.\n\nNext cheapest depending on physical location you could also add cards and new cable just to the machines you want on the internet.  You'd use the local lan for local ip traffic and the Internet lan for internet traffic. You may already have the ability to do this via wireless and not have to add cables depending on the router at the internet connection.\n\nIf you have a programmable router at the internet connection there may be a way to give permissions to just 3 machines.  If you don't you could put one in between the internet connection and your switch.   Each switch is different so I can't give you specific instructions.  You'll need help from your geek friend to pick one out and set it up.\n\nThe Cyber cafe's idea will work but might be expensive in cost / time as it's overkill for what you need. I've left a link in my sources to the cybercafes reviewed by tucows and a link to a interesting piece of software for 20 bucks that does exactly what you asked for.  I can't comment on whether it works well or not but it's shareware so you can try before you buy.  Note: Software solutions are sub-optimal to the hardware type solutions I mentioned.
334876
Definitely go with inter.net (ca.inter.net)\n\nThey give you 3mb DSL for $25 (which is $20 less than Rogers or Bell) and have 24 hour customer service for free!
541527
Cheapest: Buy a crossover cable and plug it into both PC's.\n\nBest: Buy a switch and two Cat5 cables. Connect each PC to the switch.
780859
To use a wired and wireless network connection you should use only one router that has the capability of both wired and wireless like the Linksys WRT54G available from Wal-Mart for under $50.00.  This comes with a built in 4 port switch for the wired network connections, as well as the wireless antenna system for your game system, laptop, etc.  Hope this helps
686451
faster internet connection ie. DSL\nmore RAM
1037729
1. Yes, 3mbps is enough!\n2. Try it and you'll see\n3. Go for FCI
261425
You seem to be decently knowledgable about computers, and as a result, I can't help but suggest you might upgrade some components of that computer. Even for "googling", a computer with those specs can have trouble running the newest versions of Internet Explorer (rather it can, but if you try doing 2 or 3 things at once, it's going to slow down drastically). For $25-$50 you can get a significantly faster processor, and if necessary, for another $50 you can get a newer motherboard to put it on. You'll likely be able to keep every other component of the computer, yet you'll have a significantly more useable computer.\n\nOn that note, I would recommend staying away from Windows XP and ME. I would personally suggest sticking with Windows 98 SE. The reason is that as we've gotten new operating systems, the hardware requirements have went up. I upkeep 50+ computers that are about 6 years old and are running Windows 2000. The OS isn't my choice, though it's probably the best for my situation. But I've seen how much troule the computers have on the internet because they're pretty close to the minimum requirements for the OS. Stick with an older OS and you'll have faster speeds as a result.
142703
Configure the network adapters on both the PCs in Half Duplex mode and verify if this resolves the issue. This can be done as follows: -\nStep 1: Go to Start> Control Panel > and select Network connections.\n\nStep 2: Right click on your network card (for 2000 and XP only)and select Properties.\n\nStep 3: Select the Configure button.\n\nStep 4: Under the Advanced tab you will see two boxes; Property and Value. \n\nNote: Depending on the type of Ethernet card you are using the headings in the Property box will be slightly different.\n\nStep 5: Select each heading in the Properties box until the Value box displays the speed of your Ethernet card (it will look like this: Auto-Negotiation, 10Mb Full, 100 MB Half, etc..). You want to select 10mb Full Duplex.\n\nStep 6: Keep clicking OK until you get to the desktop. Your computer may ask you to reboot depending on the version of Windows you are running.
491761
You do not need a router. What you need is a switch. If you are setting up a LAN (local area network) party, that implies that everyone will be relatively local (ie. same building). You will only need up to as many ports as you have Xboxs. There should be no lag because of the network if you use a switch with 100Mbps full duplex ports. Any lag will be because they are made by Microsoft.
758692
An 11Mbps Ethernet bridge is enough.  That is quite fast :).