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road runner
I'm thinking about living in an apartment complex next year that doesn't have Internet access. They have cable TV and said that I could get Road Runner.
I don't want to pay for someone to come install it for me. I've heard that it's pretty simple to do it yourself and this diagram makes perfect sense to me. [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
I just don't understand what the first step would involve with the coaxial cable being split outside.
Would it be easy for me to hook it up myself? How do I do it? An answer from someone that has done it before would be wonderful.
If I do choose to have a technician install it, how much would it cost? The website doesn't say.
Thanks!
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Maybe give some free advice about: Internet & Web Design?
Use a splitter, although it's easier if you let them come out and dedicate a wall jack to internet, run that to the modem. Once you've done that, you'll want to use what's called a router, wireless, wired, that's your choice. Fact: A switch is not a router, the only similarity is that they both have one port dedicated to the outgoing internet connection. A switch is usually used to create network segments.
A basic router will cost 40-60 dollars. If you have a choice on manufacturer, go with Linksys, it's a division of Cisco and Cisco has credibility...a lot of it.
If you want to use a wireless network to keep from having ethernet cables renning all over the floor, you'll need some sort of wireless network interface device for you desktops as most of them will not come with one. You can grab a USB wireless adapter which simply plugs into a USB port on your computer, or go with the more permanent solution and buy an internal wireless NIC that will fit into one of your expansion slots. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. will carry what your looking for.
Once you set up the wireless network you'll want to secure it. To keep from having your neighbors using up all of your tasty bandwidth you should disable SSID broadcasting, enable MAC filtering to allow only and put in the MAC addresses of your NIC's. If you're going to be paying any bills online or doing anything private, you should using some sort of encryption, i'm going to recommend WPA-PSK over WEP simply because it's better. Most network devices supports this, warning: anything with 'speedbooster' doesn't support WPA-PSK and you'll have to go with the weaker WEP.
Good luck setting it up and i'll be glad to answer any more questions.
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I'm sure the road runner tech support would be better equipped to answer your questions, and more than happy to do so.
-to split a cable you get a little splitter connector, the main cable goes in one end and two come out the other. The main cable looks the same as the one hooked to your tv, and it's probably in your basement. You can probably buy it an an electronics store or home depot. You can only split a cable 4-5 times before the quality starts to degrade, though.
-you could probably hook it up yourself, though if the cable isn't already split and running into where the computer is, you'll have to run the cable up through the floor or wall. You can just have it sticking out of the floor, but if you need it looking neat you'll need to put in a cable outlet thing in the wall.
-technician fees are usually $50-70
-your best bet to split the connection is a router or a switch(which is a cheap router that doesn't work as good); if you have a wireless router, that'll work. If you are going to connect it using wires, be sure to buy an extra rj-45/cat-5 cable, it won't usually come with it
-If you mean the USB connection on the modem diagram, I would think you could not use them at the same time, though I'm not sure.
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