networking?

[pixi]

hope it's ok to post this question in this forum, thought we have so many well-versed people here that SOMEONE would be able to help!
ok i am probably waaaaay behind the times here, but we have 3 computers in our home (of varying ages), are still using dial-up (hubby refuses to "pay more" for dsl or cable) and I would like to know the easiest/cheapest way to network these so that we can all be online at the same time if we so desire (would that work?).... AND we do have a radio shack Catch-A-Call attached to MY computer so that we don't miss incoming calls, would that work on the network?
Anyone who can give me advice on this? I would prefer not having wires running through my rooms, but don't want to spend an arm & a leg either.
Also, I don't know what I need to check on the computers to see if they are "network ready" - if that's even a correct term. Mine is a compaq presario 5900T which i've had for a long time, my son has a dell dimension 4300 which he's had for a few years... and my daughter has a laptop which was pre-owned (actually leased for a year) by a businessman when we bought it for her for christmas last year.
So if that info helps anyone- or if there is something I just need to add to my computer, - let me know
Maybe I'm making it more complicated than it is- but if someone could tell me-
1-what to look for to make sure I can even network them
2-the best way (financially, time & aesthetic-wise)- or give me some choices
3-how to do it (speaking to a 2 year old mentality when it comes to networking- step by step)
Thanks!
Rhonda

[WillCAD]

Networking is easy these days. There are two ways: WIRED and WIRELESS. Wireless means you won't have to run wires through the house; each computer would have a network card with a radio transceiver in it that sends the signals back and forth, and a central hub would manage the signals. Wired works the same way, but you have to connect the computers with network cables, which are about twice the size of a round phone cord.

Three computers sharing a dial-up internet connection is kinda like three houses sharing a garden hose for all their water needs. One person could use it, but as soon as another got online, it would slow to such a painful crawl that loading Tagrel's home page would take 5 minutes. It would be better to simply set each of the three computers to dial up on it's own. With only one phone line, you could only have one computer online at a time, but you could also get a second phone line in the house so that two computers could be online at once.

Using a network to share a cable or dsl account, however, works wonderfully. And if you look at the price difference between the average dialup ($20-$25 a month) and the average cable or DSL connection ($45 per month) it's really not that much of a hike, when you consider that:
A. All three computers could be online at once with no noticeable drop in speed
B. You can talk on the phone while all three of you are surfing the net.
C. The cable router that you would need (about $60) to let all three computers share the internet connection also happens to be the very best protection against the newest crop of trojans and viruses that have been spreading lately. All of my friends with dialup accounts have been infected with viruses in the past month, but I haven't and neither have my parents; I have a cable modem with router linking my PC and laptop, and my parents have a cable modem and router linking 3 PCs in their house.

Wired networking is the easiest to do, because it's possible that your computers might already have network cards built in. To check for this, look on the back panels of the PCs for a jack that looks just like a phone jack but is twice as wide. That's an RJ-45 network jack. Your DDs laptop might have one somewhere, too, usually on the side or on the back. Any of the computers that has one of these jacks is ready for wired networking; all you need is a set of cables and a router.

If you want to go wireless, you will pay more for the router, and you will need to buy wireless networking cards for each PC. Wireless is great, though, if you have real difficulty in running the wires from room to room.

Once you convince DH to go for broadband internet, I can give you more details about how to share the connection!

[Tagrel]

Great points willCAD. And don't forget - if you do have two phone lines then you can drop the second one when you switch to DSL or Cable, saving that cost.

I've had a cable modem for YEARS now, and there is no other way to go than broadband. Dialup is slow with one computer, spread across 3 would be unusable.

I also go the router route, and have 3 or 4 computers connected to the internet all the time. And even with 3 running, the connection is still faster than one computer on dialup.

My router is also wireless, so my laptop can travel anywhere in the house or out on the deck. Very convenient.

Sorry, no help with the dialup problem, but another big push for broadband! :)

[cshore]

It's amazing what a computer illiterate like myself can learn by reading through these threads. Thanks for all the great info guys!

[pixi]

thanks guys, but asking my husband for broadband OR another phone line is like asking Disney if we can move into the castle- it ain't gonna happen! LOL
guess I'll stick with things the way they are for the time being until I can figure something out.
Thanks!