Network in house

[Captain]

I might put up a wireless router so my brother can access the internet from his laptop upstairs. I've got a 3Mb DSL. How much of a performance loss will I see in terms of download speeds and gaming pings if I split my bandwidth with a computer that will be used by him for surfing and MSN?

Also, after his Christmas vacation here is over, my dad will want to use the router capabilities on his desktop. He uses it to surf and stream videos and he's on a computer that is pretty much prone to viruses from every chip and orifice. He uses SP1 on XP Home without any anti-virus or firewall support and I'm not too crazy about losing my bandwidth to the malware on his computer.

[horton]

then scan his PC, remove all the shit.
put some anti virus/spyware software on there.

[Tormentius]

then scan his PC, remove all the shit.
put some anti virus/spyware software on there.

:icon14:

Onecare with Windows Defender is pretty idiot-proof.

[SOAPboy]

You wont lose tons assuming he/you keep his machine clean.

[+JuggerNaut+]

I might put up a wireless router so my brother can access the internet from his laptop upstairs. I've got a 3Mb DSL. How much of a performance loss will I see in terms of download speeds and gaming pings if I split my bandwidth with a computer that will be used by him for surfing and MSN?

Also, after his Christmas vacation here is over, my dad will want to use the router capabilities on his desktop. He uses it to surf and stream videos and he's on a computer that is pretty much prone to viruses from every chip and orifice. He uses SP1 on XP Home without any anti-virus or firewall support and I'm not too crazy about losing my bandwidth to the malware on his computer.

you'll see no difference unless you're moving lots of gigs wirelessly. and, which was already sort of pointed out, clean up your dad's rig for him and be HAPPY to do it since he's paying for your bandwidth.

[Captain]

Thanks for the replies, I need him to backup his own programs so I can format his comp and install SP2.

[zolborg]

Why are you formatting his computer to install sp2? Unless his computer is in dire need of formatting, why bother. Just install sp2, a good antivirus, and defender.

[AmIdYfReAk]

Actually, Zolburg, i have had a few cases that installing SP2 on a machine that has had its run in with virii as well as Spy/malware..

yea, it installs.. but it dosent ever run right.
There is nothing like a clean install

[+JuggerNaut+]

Actually, Zolburg, i have had a few cases that installing SP2 on a machine that has had its run in with virii as well as Spy/malware..

very rare.

[AmIdYfReAk]

Fair enough, i am saying that i have had it happen, not that its a sure thing.

[Captain]

Why are you formatting his computer to install sp2? Unless his computer is in dire need of formatting, why bother. Just install sp2, a good antivirus, and defender.

Because he tried it once and it ended up seriously messing things up. With the amount of junk he's got filled up on his gigantic HDD, it's better to play it safe and reformat. You should reformat every 6 months anyways and it's been way over a year for him.

[Tormentius]

You should reformat every 6 months anyways and it's been way over a year for him.

Thats not necessarily true. If a system doesn't have a ton of software installed or removed or hasn't been compromised by a virus or malware then a reinstall isn't needed every 6 months. In the case of your dad's machine a reinstall seems best because of the malware and viruses, but not some magical timeline.

[Captain]

Well it holds true if you do a lot of installing/uninstalling of heavy programs. Sometimes defragmenting doesn't do enough and system registries need to be cleaned.

[+JuggerNaut+]

then that shouldn't be your main box.