Will a Cat5e splitter work with a cable modem to send info to two computers?

Question

I have two computers in the same room. One cable modem and connection. I occasionally need to use the internet on the computer that is not set up with the service that I use. I bought an extra Cat5e cable last night. If I buy the splitter and connect it to the Modem---then connect each Cat5e to the computers---will I be able to get the signal O.K. on the 2nd computer? Is there a certain type of splitter that I need to get? I really don't want the cable company to come back out plus have to pay extra for something I rarely will use.
Thank you.

Pfo
I haven't found info on my modem yet, but I am guessing you are correct in the part that it won't hand out multiple ip addresses.
The first modem I had worked on the second computer, but it quit working and they exchanged it......Thank you for your help....

Answer 1

Ugh. I hate when people give overly complicated answers that say nothing at all. Don't bother with the splitter because there's no such thing as a Cat5 splitter. ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) is a joke and more of a pain in the @$$ to set up than it's worth. Cable modems will not hand out more than one IP address unless you pay a double fee per month, so a hub/switch will not work.

You need a router. Go to CompUSA or Best Buy and pick up a Linksys BEFSR41 for $40. (If you even THINK you will be getting a laptop any time soon, just get a Linksys WRT54G instead -- It's the same router but with wireless, and costs about $60) You should have a router anyway, even if you only have one computer, since a router will help to stop hackers from breaking into your computer.

All you have to do is:

1. Unplug power to your cable modem.
2. Take 1 Cat5 cable and plug it from the port on your cable modem to the WAN or Internet port on the router.
3. Plug a Cat5 cable from each computer to ports 1 and 2 on the router.
4. Plug in power to the Cable modem and wait for the ONLINE light to come on.
5. Plug in the router and wait for the power light to stop flashing.
6. Boot both computers.

Thats it. You're done. The only other thing you need to do is set up the router's security. If you get the BEFSR41 (wired) router, all that means is changing the password. Open your browser, and type 192.168.1.1 . Leave the username blank and type admin for the password. Go to the Administration tab, and click Password. Enter something hard to guess (letters/numbers/symbols -- no dictionary words). Click save, then you're done.

If you get the wireless router, you will need to set up WiFi security, which is just as easy, but I won't go into it now.

Got it?

Good luck

Answer 2

I'm not sure if there is a splitter for CAT5 cable, but if there is it might work. The real catch is going to be if your cable modem can hand out multiple IPs to different PCs. If it can, then you should be golden. If not, then this will never work. Your modem documentation should tell you if it does, if you don't have it you can find it online. Splitting might work because even though there are 8 wires in each CAT cable, only 4 of them are used, and I have seen someone craft a custom CAT5 cable that could go to two PCs.

If this is not going to work, some other alternatives include getting a router. Another thing you could do is put two network cards in one PC (the one that's connected to the cable modem) and daisy chain your network (enable internet connection sharing on the cable modem network connection).

Answer 3

You can't split the signal on a cat5 cable usefully... yes, you could hand-make a cable to connect them both together but it would not work because the signal paths would be wrong.

What you want is a hub or a switch (cost you around £10 / $10 I expect) to sit between the router and the PCs... cable from router to hub / switch and then cable from hub / switch to each PC with separate cat5 cables. A hub distributes the signals from one port to all ports, a switch is more selective (it only copies the signal where it needs to go)... but for your use either would do fine.

If your router is designed to talk to only a single PC then your best bet is to use ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) which would allow the PC connected to the router to share its internet connection to other PCs... so for that you'd have to connect one PC to the router as it is with a cat5 cable, then put in another LAN card into that PC and connect this port to the other PC via a cross over cat5 cable... or a hub / switch and 2 cat 5 cables.

cat5... cat5e ... same basic idea, just different specifications. Both should support 100Mb.

Answer 4

I think by Ethernet splitter, you would mean an Ethernet switch. Technically, yes this is possible however most ISPs have a policy of assigning only 1 IP address per subscriber. If this is the case, the 2nd PC that will plug into the switch will not be given an IP by the ISP, hence no browsing. You will need a router instead for the 2 PCs to share the cable Internet connection. This is possible due to the router's Network Address Translation functionality.

Answer 5

The splitter may work if you only use one computer at a time, but each computer needs a unique IP address if they will be operating at the same time. The splitter would not work under that scenario. I would buy a cheap router. The router also comes with some security advantages in that it reduces your computer's exposure to the internet. In fact, I would buy a router even if you didn't have a 2nd computer for that reason alone.

Answer 6

ok what you need is a router, or a hub. If you get the hub then you'll be in the old school world where if both computers transmit at the same time they will intrupt each other and then stop transmitting wait a few seconds and then try again. What happens is it looks like your connection keeps going in and out. It is so much fun so buy a router and avoid the problem.

Answer 7

It will be better for you to use hub or a costly option Switcher. also use RJ 45 connectors.