Hello, I'm very new to networking and was hoping you could give me a few pointers. I tried researching this on the net, but kept pulling up my mobo and that's all. I have an Asus A7N8x Deluxe with dual LAN. It has: 2 Ports MCP integrated NVIDIAR MAC + RealtekR 8201BL PHY MCP integrated 3ComR MAC + BroadcomR AC101L PHY Could you explain each of these to me in further detail. With this info what type of routers would I need? I'd like to share files, internet dial-up, but maybe dsl, and share a local printer. Things such as that. I'm sorry for such a broad topic. I really appreciate your time. Thank you. Nevin

Well, the make and model of NIC (to include onboard ethernet interfaces) doesn't really matter as much as the standard it uses. The most common is Fast Ethernet. You can use any brand of router you want, though I'd personally recommend Linksys as I have a lot of experience using Linksys products and can attest to their performance and user friendliness. The easy way to set up file and print sharing (depending on what OS you have) is to physically connect the computers to the router and run the Home Networking Wizard. If you have Windows XP and Windows 9x on the same network you'll have to enable NetBIOS on the XP machine in order for the computers to see each other. Ensure that all computers are on the same "Workgroup" (MSHOME by default I think) and that each has it's own unique name on the network. You'll have to install printer drivers on each computer you want to print from and the computer that is physically connected to the printer will need to be on in order for any other computer to print. To share files, just right click on any folder and select "Sharing and Security..." from the menu and enable sharing. It's really mostly pretty simple and self explanitory. Good luck. PS - It's a good idea not to share the root directory (C:\) as it creates a security issue. You can safely share the contents of the My Documents folder though.

How can I find out the standard it uses? Would it be b, g, or super g? These are the types of things I'd need to know in order to get the right router. Thank you for all the help so far. It's been very informative. Nevin

they're a wired LAN, so b g or super g has nothing to do with it the realtek is 10/100 and the broadcom is 10/100/1000. for what you need, a simple router with 10/100 ports will be plenty