Dual boot XP with Win 7?

F5ing said:

Except I would get a router anyway, even with just a single machine. It greatly enhances security with minimal configuration. A hardware firewall that works in conjunction (seemlessly) with any of your machines and their software firewalls.

Yes I was aware of that (& it would be more convenient to have both computers connected) but I've not gotten to educating myself more on a router just yet. At a glance I see they have "data transfer" rates - I def don't want any loss of speed so will have to investigate that further.

piikea said:

F5ing said:

Except I would get a router anyway, even with just a single machine. It greatly enhances security with minimal configuration. A hardware firewall that works in conjunction (seemlessly) with any of your machines and their software firewalls.

Yes I was aware of that (& it would be more convenient to have both computers connected) but I've not gotten to educating myself more on a router just yet. At a glance I see they have "data transfer" rates - I def don't want any loss of speed so will have to investigate that further.

I don't think you'll ever notice much of a loss of speed or responsiveness. You're more likely going to hit your ISP limit rather than the router limit as far as down/uploads are concerned. A cheap consumer grade router would do. They don't even do the deep packet inspection that more expensive routers do, they basically just make sure no data gets into your network unless it's data that you've requested.

Oh, I forgot - I think I will also require installation of a NIC since my mobo only has 1 ethernet port. I think w/ a router it will need 2.

1 PC 1 Ethernet Port. You don`t need 2.
1 Ethernet cable to 1 PC.

The router you purchase will likely come with an ethernet cable included that you use to connect it to your modem. The ethernet cable from your PC will then connect to the router instead of the modem. Most routers can accomodate 4 wired devices/PC's, if it's a router that also includes wireless capabilities it can accomodate more devices/PC's in addition to the wired.

Any additional PC's will need their own ethernet cable to connect their NIC's to the router or be a equipped with a wireless card to connect (like most laptops).

Yes, I see that after looking at a diagram of such a setup so both of you are correct. That's better because I'd rather not tackle any hardware installs at the moment. The new mobo has gigabit ethernet but I read if all the computers (& components?) do not as well it won't reach those speeds. The old pc doesn't. I could get a router capable of such (if there is such a thing) for future use.

Thanks

The only hardware install that you have to do is the wiring/plugging that you do yourself, no OS hardware install. Routers typically don't care what devices/OS are connected. You manage/configure it via your browser by typing its IP address into the address bar.

I realize the desire for speed, but don't sacrifice the security benefits.

And I guess you shouldn't forget about the ever-coming IPv6 standard. I'm much less sure about that so it would be something I would research if I was in the market for a router.