How good is my Broadband?

[oliver010]

Hi,
I have a dell pc and i am on ntl:home (now virgin media) and i have had it for 5 years or so. I have just done a speed test and could you tell me if my broadband is any good?........



Plus, my son is getting a new vista dell computer (he will mostly be using it to play games on the internet e.g. counter strike on STEAM), however we are planing to wire to two computers up using this ethernet crossover cable
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Cat5e...&s=electronics
Please can you tell me if it will work, is our internet good for him to play games on and how do we set the ethernet crossover cable up for him to go on to the internet?

Thanks

[danielf]

Assuming you're on 2Meg BB, that speed test looks fine. The cross-over cable will work, but has the disadvantage that the main machine will have to be on for the secondary machine to connect to the web. In my opinion, you're better off buying a router.

I think your connection should be good enough for gaming, but since I don't game, I can't comment really.

Oh, to the site

[Richy99]

if you are on the 2meg service then you havea good connection for the speed test

that is justa stanard patch cable not a cross over cable by the looks of it, you would be better off buyiong a router and sharing the connection as otherwise the main machine with the modem conencted woudl need to be on for the other computer to access the internet

[chickendippers]

2MB is fine, remember we all used to game on 512K internet

[oliver010]

Thanks for the advice. Would this router and cable be ok to connect my sons pc and my pc to the internet and how do I set up / install the two computers to the internet?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Broad...2178491&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1001Cables-m...2178541&sr=1-7

also will the router work with Vista and XP.

Thanks

[zovat]

Originally Posted by oliver010

Thanks for the advice. Would this router and cable be ok to connect my sons pc and my pc to the internet and how do I set up / install the two computers to the internet?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Broad...2178491&sr=8-5

Yes - this will work fine

Originally Posted by oliver010

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1001Cables-m...2178541&sr=1-7

no - you do not want a crossover cable - just a normal (straight through) cable if you are using a router

Originally Posted by oliver010

also will the router work with Vista and XP.

Thanks

Yes - the router should work regardless of operating system.


HTH Zovat

[AFisher]

i'm not sure on vm's policy with regards to ntl customers etc, i was originally on virgin.net adsl, they called me up recently to offer me a new broadband bundle, bundle one (iirc) was the package that was virtually exactly as what i was getting for £25 a month from virgin (up to 8mb/"unlimited") and they informed me that by switching to the new package for a minimum 12 month contract, i had the option of choosing a free wireless router or a free virgin set top box.

so depending how long you've been on your particular current contract, why not switch plan and just get a the router free, all you'll need to pick up then are some standard Cat5 cable (amazon/ebuyer/maplins, etc all stock this)