If you had a cable modem, and put it on your "home network", then every one of the other PC's on your home network would have direct access to the internet through the single cable modem (the cable modem normally connects the cable system to a UTP (10Base-T) ethernet network). Using UTP (unshielded twisted pair wire, similar to modular telephone wire but NOT the same, and not interchangeable) instead of coax requires that every computer be wired to a central "hub" instead of simply daisy chained as you do with coax ("thin" ethernet, 10Base-2). The hubs are cheap, however, a four to eight port hub is well under $100.
By the way, many people building new homes are wiring for a computer network in the house. One of the easier ways to do this is to use 4-pair (8 conductor) UTP network wire for the phone wiring. The phone takes two conductors, leaving three pairs, two pairs (4 conductors) for the network, and two spares for a 2nd phone line. The only thing you have to do is to have every jack run to a central point, instead of daisy-chaining the phone jacks as is often done. UTP network wiring is similar to phone wire anyway, as mentioned. You can't use phone wiring for a network, but you can use network wiring for phone service. |
