Hello everyone

Could someone please offer some valuable advice?
Just started taking care of a customer's cafe.
24 port Dell switch
Lynsys 4 port router switch combo
At the moment only half of the big switch is operational as the alarm company did their yearly checkup of the system and dragged down the system mainly at the DSL modem which needed to be configured.

Simultaniously the adapter for the small lynksys died so there is just an economy router there untill I can ge teh new linksys router up again.

We also have a more modern modem available that will hopefully speed our connection up.

Before I was getting a signall across the majority of the router save a couple of ports but it was weak and the second half of the router would continually lose its signal( no internet)

Im wondering what setup would be the best for this system, it is a combo of win 2000 pro and xp home.

Also can a win 98 machine reliably connect to the network?

I only have the big switch and the small router available so I am looking for any advice you all may have.

Tnx again I have been to this site many times and found a host of valuable info. You are all very helpful

I will try to answer the the best i can.

I would advise getting a new 24 port switch that plugs into the small linksys. And then having the dsl go to the linksys. Also you shouldn't have any problem hooking up a Win 98 computer; other than a few settings.

Hi ibmrobert,

JonathanK is right. We have 6 machines running on a network connected to the internet via an 8 ports switch. 4 are Win XP, two are Win98 SE. The Internet server is an old P2 400 with two PCI lan cards, 128 MB RAM and 1.7 + 1.2 GB 13 years old HDs. All working fine, including when the old net server runs into blue screen, we remain connected 24x7.