Making a network for myself
 

Currently i live in a double with my parents on one side me and my gf on the other. they have the internet feed over their house then theres a router and my pc is cat 5 to it and my laptop and wii are wireless to it.

i would like to make my own network with my 2 external hd and printer all which only have usb connectors. is there a way to relatively cheaply buy a router to connect to my parents router then run cat 5 to my wii, pc, and have some adapter to connect my hds and printer to the router so its similar to the pic i made below?

first off can i connect a router to a router? second is there a usb to cat 5 adapter that would work with my hds and printer without connecting directly to my pc so i dont have to leave it on?

i ultimately want it so that the hard drives act like a central file storage location and i can retrieve the files on my pc and laptop and also have a network printer. eventually i may make a home entertainment computer that would be hardwired to the network also but thats in the future.

am i completely asking for way more than is cheaply possible or is it feasable without spending like 500$ i have everything except the router so its too late to buy a printer or hard drive with a cat 5 connector.

thx guys

im copying this in BOTH and Comps for extra eyes

Re: Making a network for myself
 

First of all for what you want to do I would maybe try to run a cat 5 cable from the router to maybe your new router. Since your parent's side will be using just wired and no wireless invest in just a wired router (no wireless to save money) they should be pretty cheap. Wire up whatever your parents need. Im guessing just the computer for your parents. Now off of that router run a straight Cat 5 cable to your wireless router in your side of the house. I would suggest using those cool things you plug into an electrical outlet and then plug in a cat 5 and then another one in a room you want to pull the wire from, but assuming since its a double house the electric circuits are independent from each other. So a straight Cat 5 cable (out the window you can do some nice work) and to your internet in on your wireless router. One thing you might want to do tho with your wired router is make sure it forwards ALL ports to your other router so you dont get 2 routers conflicting. Here are some pieces of tech. you might need to pick up for your setup to work....fairly cheap that is. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16833124262
That product has a USB port on it you can plug your hard drive in. Not sure about 2 hard drives. You will need to get a Printer server. It is a little box that has a plug for a USB and a cat 5 cable coming out of it. This will allow you to hook your printer up to the router.

If you really want to set your system up hardcore minus all the buying of crap. Take your desktop (or even buy a cheap 400 dollar desktop) and install windows server on that. Then, plug your 2 hard drives and printer into that computer and set them up to be shared on your network. Then, anything wireless and wired onto your router can access the information on that computer. You can even set permissions of who can read/write and things like that on the windows server. I have my setup at home like this.

1 Desktop computer running Windows Server
2 hard drives in that computer (combined 300 gig)
1 external 500 gig hard drive
1 printer/scanner/copier
1 PS3
1 Laptop
1 Tivo/DirectTV
1 Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N router

I have the DSL going into the router (duh). The PS3 and laptops wireless connect to the router. The windows server desktop is wired with the printer and hard drives plugged in and shared over the network. I can print from my laptop anywhere i access the wireless signal. It is awesome. Just read up on windows server for more info. If you are looking for a free operatings system that does that....go with Ubuntu server. Its kick ass also.

Re: Making a network for myself
 

thx a lot man i think im gunna go for the hooking the printer and hds to the pc and do it that way. i was hoping to not have to leave the pc on but ill deal its not that much for electricity. i def dont wanna let my parents on my network due to the large porn amounts i have so thats why i need a seperate network. thanx again

Re: Making a network for myself
 

Linksys has routers with usb ports for lan storage. You should have no prob going from router to router with proper configuration.
I have been using this router a few months now, I like it...

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...d=4104733028B07

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16833124262