Ethernet Splitter
 

My family's computer has a broadband connection through the cable line. The line goes into the modom, which is connected to the computer through an ethernet line.

I have my own computer in the next room, with an ethernet card I used while at college. I bought an ethernet splitter so I can run the internet to my computer too. I was wondering if this is the way to do it, or if I wasted 20 bucks on something that won't work.

hmm splitter, not sure about that.

you realy want a switch if the modem can supply multiple ips or has NAT, if not a router or a 2nd ethernet card in the first PC and just windows ICS (internet connection sharing)

You can try it--though I'm not sure exactly what you mean by an "ethernet splitter." I don't think it'll work, though. The only reliable way I know to split a broadband connection is to use a router/switch. You can get a cheap router without wireless capability for under $30.

I hard wired the house, and I use a speedtream router / switch. Works great.

oops, should be "Speedstream" and it is made by siemens

Sorry, its late

if youre talking about an rj45 splitter, i dunno if thatll work... a buddy and i have resorted to that a few times in the past, but we were lucky if it worked at all. if the modem is a hybrid modem/router, youll need either a switch or a hub. if its just a modem, youll probably want a router/switch, or seperate entities if you have any plans on increasing the number of computers on the network.

you can pick up an inexpensive cable/dsl router for $30 on sale. I recomend a netgear. Stay away from D-Link

Ethernet Splitter? I wasn't aware there was such an animal, given the nature of the beast.

Never heard of one, either. Either setup a NAT box and make a LAN, or put 2 nic's in one box and run a crossover cable to the other box and setup some NAT software (dunno what OS you're using)

i've seen those before...it really is a waste of money. A cat5 cable only uses 4 of the 8 wires that are available, so a splitter (at least the one's I've seen) will have a 2port pigtail that you plug into the cable and in essence have two computers running over the same cat5 line. The resaon this is so crappy is crosstalk and the fact that for the same $20-30 you could buy a 4-8 port switch/router that does the same thing without the crosstalk. It is just another gimmick.

http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...sp?T1=120+6510

I used to use Ethernet splitters (made by Hubbell at the time) when our switch was running low on ports. Due to the inherent "brow raising" it causes, we only used them in extreme cases. They worked well, however.

But with 4-port switches being cheap, I can't imagine a splitter being worth the $.

hmm...so I did waste $20.

Thanks everyone.

The upside to the splitter is that it is small and doesn't require power. Great for throwing into your laptop bag for those times there is only one jack available and you need to share it with another computer already using it.

I had a buddy who made his own "splitter" from a RJ45 (phone) coupler. It worked, although it was held together with duct tape. With hubs and switches so cheap these days, I agree that you should just buy one and get a extr cable.

would only work if you had 2 of them, one on each end of the cable run

You can find an old, cheap 10Mb hub. or, go to Best Buy and find yourself a 20$ router!

-SF