I really dont know where to start. But here goes. Right I have 2 desktops( 1 desk top is 3 years old and low specs ) and a notebook and 1 modem / router ( thomson speedtouch 510 ) and a wireless router/4port switch (linksys WRT54G ) and I pinnacle PCTV ( pci card ) and a graphics card with TV out ( Gforce mx440 ). What I would like to do is, move 1 desktop downstairs next to the tv and connect to the tv with video card, install PCTV and be able to record tv through the pc. The other desktop is used upstairs for internet activities and other work. I would like to install a wireless pci card on the tv PC and be able to connect to the other PCs on my network and play some movies and songs through my tv/stereo from the other PC's. I would appreciate any tips/suggestions for setting up a secure network for this project and of course tips on how to set it all up. Cheers, joey.
It sounds like you already have the hard part figured out, how you want it configured. Now you just need to hook it together. You need to hook your cable or antenna or satellite etc, up to your TV card, then svideo or dvi out to your tv depending on what kind of inputs it has. You'll need some PVR software, either the one that came with your pinnacle card or download one. GBPVR is free and works great. not positive if it works with the pinnacle card or not. You can use that to timeshift your tv shows. Sending songs across wireless shouldn't be a problem, but you will probably get stuttering sending video across the wireless network. To make your wireless secure you'll first need to make your pc's secure. turn on windows firewall and put passwords on all logins including the administrator accounts. Then you can turn on WEP on your wireless router and add the key to your pc's. This will be in your Thomson manual. This will slow your network down further though. What I do is just enable the MAC addressing, and I don't use WEP. This keeps anyone that is not one of the approved PC's from connecting to your network. However information sent across the network is not encrypted and if someone was sniffing they could collect info. I live in the country and don't have to worry about it. If you have other wireless networks within range you'll want to use WEP. Does that help?
Yeah matey that helps, when I think about it maybe I could have put this on a netwotk thread, but!! I am thinking that the media boffins here will have the edge. What is the easiest way for my media pc to connect to my other pc's. This is a scenario. Download a movie to pc ( that is the pc upstairs that I use for most things) then when I would like to watch that movie downstairs on the tv, then I would like to copy that movie from the upstairs pc to the media/downstairs pc and then watch it on tv. I cannot figure out how to copy files from 1 pc to another accross a network. I did hope to be able to play movies accross my network directly to the tv, but you were saying that it would not be practical. So what about copying the files to the media pc? How do I master that? Please help.
Assuming you have Windows XP, make a folder called "movies", right click on it and choose sharing and give it a name. Then on your other computers you can browse to that computer by typing \\computername\movies in "my computer". Map a drive to it in tools, and use it just like the local hard drive. It's different depending on if you have xp home or xp pro. There's plenty of tutorials out there though. If you have trouble, PM me and I can give you more details or point you in the right direction. Every OS, and wireless router are different so it can get complicated.
Man that was a bit fast for me, can you slow down and explain that in laymans/noob/beginner/dummie? no not quite but a bit more detail. I have a thomson speedtouch 510 and a linksys WRT54G and OS is xp pro. This is my first time with more than 1 pc so its all very new to me. Cheers matey for all your help but please be a little patient we all have to start somewhere. If you want to pm me a tut then that is also good, though maybe someone else can read this thread and learn what you have taught me. Thanks joey.
Instead of reinventing the wheel I found a beginner's guide to home networking. http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1427 If you have trouble getting the HTPC part working afterwards let me know.
