Re: [PLUG] Home Networking Question

[Kevin Brosius <kbrosius@kns.com>]

Steven Tomcavage wrote:
> 
> I will be moving into South Philadelphia at the end of April. Once I am
> moved in, I will be working from home. My work computer will be on the top
> floor in an office, and my home computer will most likely be in the
> basement level family room, two floors away and at the other end of the
> house. My question is, what are the best options for high speed access? I
> want to have both computers connected to the internet and possibly to a
> home network (but the home network is not essential).
> 
> I don't think that using a router and running wires to both computers will
> work for me. The house is in pristine condition and I don't want to get
> into the mess of putting cables inside the walls. Running cable along the
> floor down two staircases obviously won't work for me, either.
> 
> So, that leaves the option of a wireless router or multiple IPs. Do
> Comcast or Verizon even offer packages with multiple IPs? I priced
> Speakeasy and it came up $149.95/month as the cheapest, which is out of my
> league. Does anyone have experience using a wireless router between three
> stories?

$149 for Speakeasy seems rather high, unless you went with a business
rather than residential package?  Speakeasy generally runs $50/mo for a
base 784/128 ADSL line with either one or two static IP's (depends on
the package.)  1.5M/384 lines are usually in the $90-100/me range. 
Additonal IP's for an existing account are $2.95/mo each.

However, your wireless router or dsl gateway/router can handle multiple
address handling for you (MASQ'ing) so that you only need one IP address
externally.  Unless you need to expose multiple web servers or other
services to the world, you shouldn't need more than a single IP.  That's
how I presently run at home.

If you do sign up with Speakeasy, they offer bonuses to present members
for referals.  I'll split the bonus with you.  Have you checked out
http://www.broadbandreports.com ?  They have good reviews of ISPs.  I
had a rough time with my Speakeasy setup, but the service has been rock
solid ever since.

> 
> Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.
> 
> -Steven Tomcavage
> 

-- 
Kevin Brosius
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