will what i want to do work?

M

mattpower3000

New Member
Hi I have a BT voyager 205 broadband router, it has two ports a usb 2.0 and an ethernet. I plug my old P3 laptop which stays on my desk into the router using a fixed ethernet cable this is all well and good. Then i plug my new laptop into the usb 2.0 port, again this works fine and they both run together very well. However if i want to take my laptop into the bedroom i can't because the longest usb lead that i can find is 3m. This just takes me to my sofa. Now i had metres upon metres of cat5e cable, if i stick straight through netwrok plugs on each end of this cable and then attach usb converters onto the end of these ethernet plugs, will i now have a really long usb lead?

Regards,
mattpower
 
err, the BT voyager 205 broadband router only has 1 usb port and 1 ethernet, just conect one to the usb port, and connect another machine to the ethernet port using a normal long ethernet cable. Both computer should work fine.
 
i dont think so, usb 1.1 is slower but wont be the bottleneck. It definatly wont slow down the connection speed to the computer using the ethernet cable - which is the one that you are using most i assume
 
Yes, you can use USB -> ethernet converters at each end

USB 1.1 (this is your limiting factor on the old Dell machine) supports two speeds. A screened cable 18" or less will handle 12Mbits/s, any longer then you are down to 1Mbits/s

So, if your broadband connection is the usual 512kbits/s or 1Mbits/s you won't have a bottleneck .... although 2Mbit/s is getting more common now.

Where you will see an issue is when you want to copy large files between machines on the local network.

But, I have to ask, is the more elegant wireless solution out of the question ?
True you need an access point and a PCMCIA client card .. which .. er .. means spending money, but it saves trailing cables around the house :)
 
i bought a 10 foot usb extension cable from stables a while ago,you can just get 2 and hook them together if you want even more room (although you can only hook up to a certain length, but you should be able to get 20' fine, at least for getting internet.
 
USB 1.1 (this is your limiting factor on the old Dell machine) supports two speeds. A screened cable 18" or less will handle 12Mbits/s, any longer then you are down to 1Mbits/s

So, if your broadband connection is the usual 512kbits/s or 1Mbits/s you won't have a bottleneck .... although 2Mbit/s is getting more common now.
Click to expand...
true, but his old laptop (using usb 1.1) is static on his desk, and there fore will always be within a sort distance to the router.

i'm fairly sure that we should be helping mattpower3000 set up the laptop he is using to the router via ethernet cable option available on his router. You should not need a 5 meter cable. And again i stress that BT voyager 205 broadband router only has 1 usb port and 1 ethernet.

Plug one usb into you old laptop. I assume that you are not using this as much since its old.
Plug you new computer into the ethernet port. You will not lose internet speed on this cable by having the usb in the old 1.1 laptop.
It seems silly to buy a huge usb cable when you have a perfectly good network cable and port available.
If you dont belive me about the speed, then run bandwidth tests in both setups.
 
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