We are trying to set up a wired Ethernet network of 3 PCs in our home.  All the PCs will be running XP pro.  Because we live in the sticks, we only have dial-up available (typically 40Kbps) . 
     We are complete newbies when it comes to networks, and would appreciate any guidance for setting things up and advice.  Of the many issues that come to mind there are two areas that have us concerned: 1. Ethernet wiring.  2. Managing Updates.

1. Ethernet wiring:
     When we built the house, 17 years ago, we wired each room  with 2 coax cables and 12 shielded twisted pairs.  Will we be able to use the shielded pairs with the conventional Ethernet cards on the PCs?  Are there Ethernet cards still available that use coax?

     (Our house has aluminum backed drywall, so RF probably wouldn’t work.  We’re living in a close approximation to a Faraday cage.  The advantage of the aluminum backed drywall is that it allowed us to glue the drywall to the studs, greatly improving the stregnth of the structure and eliminating popped nails and minimizing cracks.)


2. Managing Updates: 
     There must be a better way of updating software than getting on the Internet via dial-up on each PC individually and tying up our phone line for hours on end.  It seems most updates are done automatically these days, so this is the path of least resistance. 
     We’d like to be able to download updates on one PC and then install them on the other two.  The Updates of most concern to us are for Windows XP pro, Avira and Microsoft Defender, though updates are common now for most software.
     Although we will have a modem on only one PC, will it’s protection software protect the other PCs?  In any case,  I think we need protection software on each PC as our boys bring in a lot of files via memory sticks. 

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

MrMagoo wrote on May 12^th, 2009 at 12:38pm:

My first broadband connection (cable) .. thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Paradigm shift, like you say.

NightOwl wrote on May 13^th, 2009 at 12:51pm:

The design element that cancels out cross-talk is the twisting on the pairs.  The category rating on CAT5 is mostly a measure of how many twists per inch the cable has.  CAT3 has fewer twists, which means more cross-talk, which means it is rated for lower speeds.  CAT6 has more twists, less cross-talk, higher speed rating.

Since he has twisted pairs installed, I think it will be capable of carrying network signals.  I guess the quality of the wire might present challenges if the rooms are too far apart, tho.

And, of course, I think we all forgot to mention all of the alternative networking options.  We talked at length about them here:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1235979449